I’ve had the Attack of the Buns bikepacking route on my to do list for the longest time, and earlier this year I finally got around to giving it a crack. With a long weekend up our sleeves, and a few mates coming down from Sydney, we planned to complete the 300km+ route over three days.
To make an early start on the first day, and to complete the logistics of train travel from Sydney and Canberra, we stayed at the Royal Hotel in Bungendore the night before. This is a great little hotel, with clean, comfy rooms and a great pub downstairs. The chicken schnitzel is excellent, as you’d expect from a country pub.
Below is a list of the gear that I packed and the bike setup I chose to ride the Attack of the Buns, bearing in mind that we were planning to camp for two nights along the route.
Attack of the Buns: camping gear
Tent: Mont HyperMid
Sleeping Bag: Mont Zero Ultralight 6-12degrees
Mat: Sea to Summit Ether light XR
Pillow: Nemo Fillo Elite
Attack of the Buns: bike setup
I decided to tackle the Attack of the Buns on my gravel bike as that was the bike of choice for the group I was riding with and I knew they’d want to put the hammer down on the smooth sections of the trail. If I’d been going solo or with another group, I think I would prefer to ride my mountain bike as this would have been more comfortable over the rockier sections and has a higher climbing gear than my gravel bike. That being said, my gravel bike has 2.1” mtb tyres on it, so it’s not too dissimilar to many mountain bikes out there.
You can find the ridewithGPS route for the Attack of the Buns here: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/25525997