My bike for the Seven Serpents bikepacking race

Hello there! So I’ve signed up for Seven Serpents 2023, in this post we’re going to look at my bike set up, and an overview of the event.

What is the Seven Serpents event? 

It’s an unsupported bikepacking adventure challenge. 850km with 16,000m of climbing. The pre-set route starts in Ljubljana (Slovenia), passes through Croatia, and ends in Trieste (Italy). 

The challenge starts on Sunday 14th May, and the official cutoff to complete the challenge is on Saturday 20th May 8pm. 

That means an average of around 120km and approximately 2,300m of climbing per day. 

That’s quite a lot. 

This is definitely going to be a big challenge for me. 

When I signed up for the race at the end of 2022, I envisioned a winter training program with many hours spent on zwift… well it didn’t quite work out like that.

But anyway, my challenge is to complete the whole course, even if it’s after the official cut off time. 

What bike am I going to be using for the event? 

I will be using my 8bar mitte v3. 

It’s a gravel bike with drop bars, designed to go fast, but also for these kinds of bikepacking events. 

I’ve used it for some touring (about 3 days so far), and I use it for all my outdoor riding - on roads and gravel and the occasional single track paths I find myself on. 

Here are some specifics, and some not so specifics (I might have lost some information along the way): 

Frame - 8 bar mitte v3. 

Wheels - DT Swiss G1800 spline. 

Tyres - Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M 45mm. Set up with tubes. 

Groupset - Shimano GRX 2x. 11speed 46-30 crankset. 12-34 cassette. 

Fork / handlebar / stem / seatpost - all from 8bar. 

I will be using the following bags to hold my kit:

Saddle bag - Topeak backloader (I think the size is 10litres)

Frame bag - 8bar, size small or medium

Front rack - Jack the bike rack (a kickstarter project, i’ll talk about it a bit more later). 

And the following other bits:

Garmin edge 830. 

Cycleafter front and back light. 

Specialized zee cages (for side loading bottles). 

Pedals - simano deore XT mtb.

I don’t have a detailed pack list or know 100% what kind of kit I will bring yet, so I'll leave that breakdown for another post.

Jack the bike rack

I have tried a few different options for storing some luggage on the front of the bike, and for now, this seems like a great solution. 

It was a kickstarter / crowdfunding project, and I saw some really good pre-reviews of the product. I thought it could work really well since it looks more stable and rigid than the normal handlebar rolls. (I had a problem fitting the topeak frontloader, since it hung too low and just seemed way too bulky and complicated for what it was). 

Whilst I was waiting for ‘Jack’ to arrive, I just settled for attaching a dry bag to the handlebars using a couple of hiking straps - and this also worked really well. But I only stored my tent there, since it doesn’t have quick access. Once it’s strapped, I like to leave it that way until the end of the day (so it didnt make sense for me to have a rain jacket or any layers in the front bag for example). 

But that issue is gone with ‘Jack’ I think. 

The pizza shelf and various strapping options means everything is as accessible as I need it to be. I expect I'll be strapping extra layers on there, as well as baguettes and other food. 

I’ve only just started using it though - so let’s see how it holds up, I'll be sure to let you know during / after the event. 

I think that’s all for the bike check - i’ll be sharing some other things like pre race thoughts and packing list soon. 

And, something that I’m super excited about - we will also be making a film about the event, and sharing live updates during it, so stay tuned for more. 

If I missed anything vital, or you have any questions, let me know @dowoowoo on instagram.