When it comes to bikepacking one of the best upgrades you can make is changing your gearing. It can be challenging to understand what to do when people say that. Gearing is all about the ratios, and spending a little bit of time learning about how they work can take your bikepacking gearing to the next level.

The benefits of having good gearing for bikepacking go such a long way, and it can be the difference between getting to the top of a hill with a smile on your face and crying! In this article, I am going to be telling you everything you need to know by discussing:

• My Experience With Bikepacking Gearing
• Why Does Having The Right Bikepacking Gearing Matter?
• Understanding Gearing
• How To Make My Bikepacking Gearing Better

My Experience With Bikepacking Gearing

I made a huge amount of mistakes when I first started bikepacking, especially when it came to gearing. I remember going up an alpine climb with time trial gearing and it was just another level of awful.

I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time working in a bike shop and as an ambassador for one of the biggest gearing brands, Shimano. I am also a bike fitter, and gearing comes into that, too. 

Not only did I learn the benefits, but I also understand just how much of a difference it makes. One of the first things I change on a new bike is the gear ratios. This is so I can get more out of the bike and enjoy better adventures. 

Why Does Having The Right Bikepacking Gearing Matter?

There are so many reasons why having the right bikepacking gearing matters. Essentially, it’s going to make the work easier and better for the body. Here’s why:

Easier Climbing

When it comes to bikepacking, the bigger the gear ratios, the better. This will help you become a much better climber because you have more options to use different cadences. 

Fatigue Reduction

With the right gearing, you can reduce the amount of fatigue your body takes from a climb. The phrase spinning is winning goes a very long way on an adventure.

Improved Traction

The right bikepacking gear can really help with off-road riding and keeping traction on technical trails. 

Improved Ability To Carry Loads

Having the right gearing also makes it much easier to carry a lot of gear. The lower the ratios, the less you will struggle at lower speeds.

Helps You Use Smaller Cranks

The benefits of smaller cranks are huge when it comes to bikepacking. Having the right gearing means you can use less leverage on the pedals, saving your hips and knees from hurting on smaller cranks while training and racing.

Understanding Gearing

When it comes to understanding bikepacking gearing, there are a few different things we will need to explain because gearing comes in many different forms on bikes. Here’s what you need to know. 

1X 2X 3X

The first thing to mention is 1X, 2X, and 3X groupsets. This refers to the number of chainrings on the front of the bike between the pedals. The more you have, the more combinations you get, giving you more speeds to work with. 

A 1X chainset could have 10 speeds, giving you 10 different ratio options. A 2X chainset could have 20 speeds, giving you 20 gear ratio options. A 3X chainset could give you 27 speeds and 27 options for different ratios.

This is because you times the number of options on the rear cassette by the number of chainrings on the front. It’s important to understand that this gives you more options but not always more gears. The picture below explains.

So, as you can see, options don’t always mean you have a wider range of gears. It just means you have more options to choose from. 1X and 2X are very common on adventure bikes. On classic mountain bikes and touring bikes, 3X was very common but seen much less these days. 

High And Low Gearing

The industry sees high and low gearing in different ways. High gears create high speeds for me, while low gears create low speeds. When it comes to bikepacking, high gearing for fast descents really doesn’t matter. Low gearing for climbing is what you need! To give yourself lower gears, you have two options to choose from. 

The first place is the rear cassette. The larger the rear cassette, the more ability you will have to get up a hill and work with higher cadences. This is why mountain bikes and adventure bikes often have huge rear cassettes.

On the front, it’s the opposite. To achieve lower gearing, you need smaller chainrings. On a 2X system, you will see a small ring for climbing and a large ring for higher speeds and descending. 

Getting The Right Ratios

Now, hopefully, you’re still with me. Next, we need to discuss how to work out ratios. When it comes to bikepacking, you want lots of teeth on the rear cassette and minimal teeth on the smallest chainring at the front. 

In my opinion, a minimum is 1/1. So if the largest cog on your rear cassette is a 40-tooth cog, then the smallest chainring should have at least 40 teeth. This is the bare minimum I personally use, but I am a strong rider.

For anyone new to bikepacking, I recommend a cassette on the rear with 40 teeth and a chainring as small as 34 teeth on the front, on a gravel bike to say. I know a lot of very experienced riders with a 52 teeth cassette on the rear and a 30 on the front, giving all the low gears you will ever need. Here’s a gearing ratio calculator!

How To Make My Bikepacking Gearing Better

Now you know a little bit more about gearing, you can see if yours on your bike is adequate. If you find yourself often when riding wishing you had an extra gear to help you get up a hill, here’s a few recommendations.

Bigger Rear Cassette	Providing your derailleur can work with it, put a larger cassette on the back. It needs to be the same amount of speeds but an extra few teeth can completely change how you get up a hill.
Smaller Chainrings	Another option which will make a lot of difference is to change your chainrings. On 2X systems I have seen a lot of people use Cyclocross chainrings as they are much better for climbing.
New Groupset	The last option if you want to get lower gearing is to change your groupset all together. You could go for something more suited to climbing or even go from a gravel groupset to a mountain bike groupset.

A Final Note: Bikepacking Gearing

Gearing can be difficult to understand and even difficult to explain in some ways. I hope this article has told you a little more about gearing, and now, when it comes to bikepacking and getting up hills easier, you know what you need to do. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. If you enjoyed this, you would like Where To Invest Money Bikepacking, 13 Ways To increase Bikepacking Comfort, and Off Road Bikepacking Tips!