Luxury winter bikepacking with the Tern Orox e-cargo bike

Here at GCN, we love bikepacking. It is one of the purest forms of adventure. With everything you need carried by bike or rider the possibilities for where you can take yourself are endless. Typically with bikepacking trips, packing as light as you can is the name of the game. Every extra item you pack is another thing to haul around for the duration of your adventure. With the recent release of the Tern Orox adventure e-cargo bike Simon Richardson and James Lowsley-Willams decided to flip this mentality on its head.

Instead of taking a minimalist approach to packing, the boys set about making the most of the 270 litres of storage they had at their disposal. Packing everything they could think of to make a UK winter bike packing trip ‘comfortable’ they even took a table and chairs on the adventure.

• Read more: Carry up to 210kg of luggage with Tern's new adventure-focussed e-bike

They headed to the Peak District in the north of England where the route started out from the industrial city of Sheffield. After departing the ‘Steel City’ the terrain quickly became more rugged and testing with steep climbs and loose rocky trails indicative of this corner of Britain. Part of the reason for loading the bikes up to the max was to see just what they were capable of. With a certified load capacity of 180kg for off-road riding and with four-inch wide tyres the two-day trip is exactly what the Orox was designed for.

© GCN

The old A625 at Mam Tor was the perfect proving ground for the Orox

Part of the challenge for this ride is to make it from their start point to the campsite in Edale and back again without needing to charge the bikes. With two batteries housed inside the front triangle of the bike, Tern has claimed that the Orox has a potential range of 300km depending on the terrain and conditions.

The route selected takes Si and Hank to the climb of Bamford Clough which has its hat in the ring as one of the steepest climbs in the world. With more than 30kg of kit on each bike and with the gradient pushing 35% getting to the top of the climb will test the bikes and riders to their limits.

• Read more: How to set up your road bike for adventure riding and bikepacking

En route to the morning cafe stop was the ever-so-slight obstacle of the broken road of Mam Tor that once was the A625. Due to land subsidence, the road was abandoned in the 1970s with sections falling foul to the landscape around it. In what can only be described as mountain biking Si and Hank decide that tackling the remains of the road will be another perfect way to test the adventure credentials of the Orox.

For more on the full adventure make sure to check out the video linked at the top of this page and let us know if you have any bikepacking trips planned for the year ahead in the comments below.