2025: Best Bikepacking Gear I've Used This Season

I led a lot of tours in 2025 (25 to be exact), which has taken hundreds of people thousands of miles. One of my favorite parts of this job is being exposed to so many types of gear that folks bring on tour. Here is a list of the 5 best items I've used on Tour in 2025 (with a handy Affiliate Link to pick these up for yourself and help 718 in the process).

As an aside, this isn't gibberish written by AI. This is me, for better or worse, hunting and pecking with my 1-finger typing technique. Am I a great typist...no. Could my spelling use work...yes! However, these are actual feelings about actual things that I have used.

Big Agnes Copper Spur Bikepacking 1 Person Tent

I've been using this tent since they came out withe the bikepacking version (maybe 2018, maybe 2019?). Needless to say, hundreds of nights in all kinds of weather. Easy to set up (I like to say you can set it up under duress) and packs away small.

There is a 2-person version of this tent, which has (obviously) more space and vestibules on both sides (and is slightly pricier and heavier). I find, since I don't really bring anything inside my tent besides by glasses and phone, that I don't need the extra space.

Arkel Dolphin 32's Panniers

I really don't know how long I have been running these bags (a simple photo search of our tour archives might help), but it's been awhile. That's because these bags are the best panniers in the world, and never disappoint. The 2 biggest selling points for me have always been them being waterproof, as well as having real hardware as the attachment point to the rack. Many other top bag manufactures use plastic hardware (not mentioning names), and I have been around numerous bag failures for this reason.

These bags come in 2 sizes 16 Liter and 24 Liters (each bag...32 L and 48 L across the pair). I've always used the smaller 16's, as I feel I don't have the need to the larger bags. Another nice thing about the 16's is that they can also be used as front panniers (unlike the bigger bags). Lifetime guarantee, made in Canada.

I have a great deal with Arkel, that gives all 718 customers 10% off.

Silky Pocketboy Curved 130 mm Folding Saw

In 2025, this classic Japanese-made saw actually saw (no pun intended) more action cutting limbs from trees blocking paths than for preparing firewood. The primarily reason I carry this year after year is its sturdiness and durability. It's main function is to break wood down into more useful pieces of firewood.

Shokz OpenRun Mini Headphones

For the extremely brief moments when I find myself alone on a tour, these headphones are great to listen to some music or podcasts (I have a "special" Spotify playlist to get me up hills). More importantly, I love these as it allows me to hear notifications on my phone that may be coming in from other riders.

Since these are "Open Ear" headphones, the user can still hear what's going on around them and have conversations with people while using. I am not a fan of "In Ear" headphones while riding, as it gets the user "lost" in the sound and is paying attention to the road less (this is my opinion). Other plusses of these headphones are their battery life (2-3 days at least) and their weatherproof-ness.

Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Travel Day Pack

One things bike tourers don't ever pack is extra space. Human nature dictates that we fill our panniers and bags to the capacity. Bringing along extra storage capacity is great for that late day stop at a supermarket before camp for dinner supplies, as well as other weird stuff you pick up along the way.

I love this bag as packs down smaller than your fist, and is sturdy enough to use as a bear bag.

Well, thanks for reading my little review post. For any of you that have travelled with me, you have seen me use this stuff. I hope that my recommendations can help you make sense of some great gear, without being bombarded with AI articles and fake reviews.

Note: For better or worse, I do not use AI to create my posts. This is all me, with my misspelling, poor grammar and tangential thoughts. I didn't get into this line of work to hand over my thoughts, expertise and experience to AI to spit out blog posts.

718 Gear: