A motley posse of friends, colleagues, peers and two-wheeled compatriots shared trail and tarmac with a collective goal of just being together. Making space to slowly pootle in good company and dotwatch in real life, away from laptop screens and office chairs. A weekend of high spirits and low temperatures, they’d traverse their own route at their own pace, intersecting racers of the delightfully rugged, boggy, gritty and often very damp Dales Divide. 

More than two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. Our cells too are composed of about two thirds water. It’s all around us – the reason life itself exists. WOSSA is a brand new bikepacking adventure exploring the vital, life defining journeys taken by water in its various formats across the Alps.

Sometimes all it takes is to ride a bike somewhere and talk to someone new to realise that we’re not so different and often, we want the same things. So, in a society where binary politics and geographies are cut through by anger, fear, and motorways, Middle Ground is a series of artist residencies based on a cargo bike, with the intention to connect and reclaim.

If iconic climbs and secluded gravel roads are your thing, the Torino–Nice Rally has to be one of the best bikepacking journeys imaginable. 2022 marked the sixth and so far, its last official edition of the rally. Below Ray shares some of the moments that stick with him a few years down the line with a selection of images he shot along the way on the sixth edition of the TNR.

In January 2023, Joe set out on what would be an incredible journey south following the spine of the Andes through South America. Combining his two passions – dirt touring and speciality coffee – he started off in Colombia, with an extended tour of Efe Cafetero, the internationally famous Coffee Axis.

Tough, beautiful, and deeply familiar, the days they’d spend riding 250km of mud, wind, and wild Atlantic coastline on these home trails would provide a new perspective of exactly what home that means.

Did you know in the past 15 years there have been more than 1,500 instances of birds of prey persecution in the UK? From hen harriers to white-tailed eagles, peregrines to goshawks, golden eagles to red kites. These amazing birds are being trapped, shot, and poisoned in big numbers, despite being protected under UK laws. 

A conversation with Jon Dennis, co-founder of Pedal Collective, Bristol’s bike courier co-operative making city centre deliveries by cargo bike.

Stood nervously at the most northern tip of Europe, the start line of what was to be the biggest journey of his life, Jacob was contemplating what was likely to be several months spent largely alone as he navigated the European Divide Trail. Then he met Anna.

In the North East of England, between vast swathes of exposed moorland and the storm-battered cliffs of the North Sea. In the thick of one of the wettest winters of recent years, Chris rides the brand new YC adventure route, from Scarborough to Whitby and back again.

Following father and son Rich and James Rothwell, The Outdoor Life documents the years spent exploring some of the UK’s wildest landscapes together by bike. The film sees James’ sharp curve into adventure bikepacking, from becoming the youngest-ever rider to complete Scotland’s iconic Highland Trail 550.

The Unionsleden is a brand new 350km cycle route connecting Moss in Norway to Karlstad in Sweden, designed to celebrate the fromer union between the two nations. Chris joins the route’s designer to explore the forests, lakes and endless gravel roads in the province of Dasland in the west of Sweden.

The Zillertal Alps are characterised by its deep gorges, icy rivers, glaciated peaks. Following the creation of a brand new bikepacking route, I headed out for three days of gravel tracks, fast, technical descents and plenty of hike-a-bike on the Zillertal Trail along with the route’s designers.

Every now and again we get to visit somewhere truly special, one of those places and experiences that you come back to over and over. This is a love letter to one such place. A remote refuge deep in the Italian Alps.

The Cheviot Hills are home to the Coquet and the Breamish rivers, two of England’s cleanest waterways, but like every other river in the UK, their health is at risk. We use our bikes to find out more.

From English Channel to North Sea lies the remains of Britain’s oldest road. We pieced together the most rideable sections to create The Old Chalk Way, our long-distance bikepacking route across Southern England.

From the Trossachs to the Outer Hebrides, the Western Highlands to the rugged North Coast, we squeeze together a spontaneous bikepacking trip across as much of Scotland as we have time for.