The Ultimate Guide to E-bikepacking

Updated for summer 2026.

The lanes around our workshop in Little Dartmouth are dry, the gates are open, and the bridleway out the back is calling. If you have ever thought about loading up a bike and disappearing for a day, a weekend or a week, this is the time of year to do it. The e-bike makes it easier in ways that change what is realistic.

This is a working guide. We have written it for the rider who has a Riese & Müller or a Moustache sitting in the garage, or is thinking about one, and wants to know how to turn it into a touring machine without making a project of it. Plan, pack, ride, eat, sleep, repeat.

It does not matter how long you have

The phrase that unlocks bikepacking for most people is "microadventure". The idea comes from the writer Alastair Humphreys, and the line of his that has stuck in our heads is that a microadventure is "short, simple, local, cheap, yet still fun, exciting, challenging, refreshing and rewarding". Microadventures are about the 5-9 rather than the 9-5: the evening hours when you are normally cooking dinner and answering email. You do not need a sabbatical. You need an evening, a sleeping bag and somewhere quiet to lie down.

A microadventure on an e-bike could be a few hours away for a picnic by a lake, or an overnight stay under the stars before heading back to your desk for a 9am call. The point is the contrast, not the duration. You will sleep differently the night you spend out, and you will think differently about the next week.

If you have more time, longer touring loops are perfect for the e-bike. King Alfred's Way is a 350km loop across the south of England that takes most riders three to five days, and you do not have to choose between fitness and finishing because the motor levels the climbs out for you. Our customer Rufus and his dog Alba completed this loop on a Riese & Müller Load 60 a few years back; the video is below. The Camel Trail, the South Downs Way, the West Country Way, the North Coast 500 in Scotland: pick a loop, pick a week, see what happens.

It is all in the planning

You can wing a microadventure. You probably cannot wing a four-day loop. The questions worth answering before you go are simple and they save you trouble on day two.

Route. Walk Wheel Cycle Trust (formerly Sustrans), Cycling UK and Komoot all publish curated route ideas at different lengths and difficulty levels. Komoot in particular plays nicely with the Bosch Smart System: you can plan a route on your phone and push it to the bike's Kiox display or the eBike Flow app, then follow the turn prompts on the bars without having to look at your phone every junction. That alone is worth the subscription.

Distance. A sensible bikepacking day on an e-bike is 20-25 miles if you want time to look at things, stop for lunch, swim in a river. 30 miles of heavy off-road riding will use most of an 800 Wh PowerTube battery on a Bosch Performance Line CX motor. 50-60 miles on tarmac is realistic for a longer day. With the Bosch Performance Upgrade 2.0 released on 1 May 2026, Touring and Rohloff variants now deliver 120 Nm of torque, which makes the climbs at the end of a long day feel like the climbs at the start.

Battery strategy. Most Riese & Müller touring bikes (the Charger5, the Delite5, the Homage5, the Nevo5) ship with a single 800 Wh PowerTube as standard. That is a long day for most riders, especially on the Touring and Rohloff variants now running 120 Nm. The Superdelite5 takes things further: it is the only DualBattery bike in the current R&M range, with a 400 Wh CompactTube paired with an 800 Wh PowerTube for 1,200 Wh total, designed specifically for the long-haul tourer. On any of these bikes, the Bosch PowerMore 250 range extender bolts to the water bottle mount and adds another 250 Wh on top.

Overnight points. Plan where you will stop, then plan where you will charge. Most pub landlords will let you plug in if you are eating; B&Bs almost always will if you ask politely on booking. An 800 Wh PowerTube takes around six hours to charge from empty on the standard 4A charger. With the Bosch 12A fast charger launching at the end of 2026, that drops to about two hours.

Drivetrain for touring. The drivetrain you choose changes how the bike feels on a loaded multi-day ride. Bosch Touring (Shimano Cues 11-speed derailleur) is the lightest and cheapest option and the easiest to service if anything goes wrong on the road. Rohloff E-14 is the bombproof internally-geared hub that touring purists swear by: 14 evenly-spaced gears, all sealed inside the hub, almost nothing to break and nothing to adjust on a loop. Pinion MGU goes a step further by integrating the gearbox and the motor in one sealed unit, run by a Gates carbon belt drive instead of a chain. Both Rohloff and Pinion variants are pricier; both pay back on a serious touring loop. We have written this up in more detail in Which gears should I choose for my Riese & Müller e-bike if you want to dig in.

Tyres and terrain. For canal-path and mostly-road loops, almost any R&M will do. For heavier off-road like King Alfred's Way, you want something with proper tread and volume: a Charger5 GT, a Nevo5, or one of the full-suspension models (Homage5, Superdelite5, Delite5 GT). The new Moustache Clutch SUV and the Xroad are designed for exactly this kind of mixed-terrain riding. If you are not sure whether your bike is right for the loop you have in mind, drop us a line.

Carrying the kit

This is where the e-bike beats a normal touring bike outright. You can simply carry more, and the motor stops you noticing the weight as soon as you are off the start line.

Most Riese & Müllers leave the workshop with a pannier rack already fitted. The pair we have used and would recommend is the Ortlieb Back Roller 2 x 20ltr, available in an aray of colour options: properly waterproof, mounts and dismounts in seconds, large enough for two days of bikepacking kit, big enough to absorb a laptop bag when the office calls and you cannot escape. They come in several colours and have outlasted everything else we have tested.

The Charger5, Delite5, Superdelite5, Homage5 and Nevo5 also take an optional front carrier mounted to the frame (not the handlebars). Rated to 5kg, it is the sweet spot for a lightweight tent, a sleeping bag and a roll mat. Frame-mounted means the bike steers like a bike instead of a wheelbarrow.

Beyond bags, the rest of the kit list depends on you. British summer means waterproofs always: a packable jacket and a small set of overshoes will save you on the day the forecast changes mid-ride.

Where you will rest your head

This part is half the fun. Four broad options:

Camping. Cheap, flexible, full immersion. The weight of a tent, a sleeping bag and a small stove all add up, but a one-person bikepacking tent now lives under 1.5kg. Alpkit, Vaude and Vango all make sensible kits. The frame-mounted front rack is the natural home for the tent roll.

Wild camping. Legal in most of Scotland under the Land Reform Act. In England, Dartmoor is the one place with a long-standing right to wild camp without explicit landowner permission, though the legal position has been contested in recent years; check the Dartmoor National Park guidance before you go. The rest of England and all of Wales still require landowner permission. Do your research, be respectful, take everything out with you, leave nothing behind.

B&Bs and pubs. Often cheaper than you would expect off-season, especially mid-week. The big advantage is a hot shower, a dry roof and a plug socket for the battery. Most landlords are curious about the bike.

Bothies and youth hostels. The Mountain Bothies Association maintains around 100 simple shelters across upland Britain, free to use, basic but dry. Youth hostels (YHA) are now decent and often have secure bike storage. Both work well as middle-of-the-loop stops.

Food and water

You will burn through more calories than you expect, even with motor assistance, because your body is working all day in the open air.

Snacks and pockets. Cereal bars, nuts, dried fruit, chocolate, biscuits. Pack more than you think. Eat before you get hungry and drink before you get thirsty: both rules halve the chance of a bad afternoon.

Hot food. Camping shops sell freeze-dried meals (Firepot, Real Turmat, Expedition Foods) that need only boiling water; a small Jetboil-style stove will heat water for a cup of tea or a meal in three or four minutes. Or you can plan the day's ride around a proper pub lunch and not bother with the stove. Bikepacking does not have to be character-building.

Water. Refill at taps, churches (many have outside taps), petrol stations and pubs. In remote areas, a folding water filter (Sawyer, Katadyn) lets you draw from streams safely. The two-bottle setup gives you about 1.5L on the bike at any time, which is enough between refills on a sensibly planned route.

Ready to ride this summer

If this is the year you give bikepacking a proper go and you do not yet have a bike that will take you there, we have a small handful of Riese & Müller and Moustache models built and ready in the workshop right now. Charger5 Rohloff, Delite5 GT Pinion, Superdelite5 Moss, Homage5 Rohloff, Nevo5 Pinion, the Moustache Clutch SUV, the Xroad: all ready to go out the door this week, either to the showroom for a test ride or by free expert delivery across the South West and the rest of England and Wales.

The buying decision is its own thing. If you are still working out what fits you, three pieces are worth half an hour of your time:

Or grab the buyer's guide and have a proper read.

Either way, the lanes are dry and the long evenings are here. If you want to feel the difference before you commit, the showroom is open Tuesday to Friday 9-5 and Saturday 9-1 by appointment. Plan the loop, pack the bags, go.

Dan