At the age of 30, Shimano Gravel Alliance rider Saoirse Pottie has ‘found her people.’ The co-founder of UK-based Bikepacking Buds shares her story about how the power of community can change your life.
I thought I fell in love with gravel riding because it opened my eyes to places I never knew existed. But gravel riding has opened up far more than just new routes. It has opened my eyes to an entire community.
Last year, I put a call out on social media asking if anyone would be willing to join me on a bikepacking weekend in January. This was to be part of a challenge to camp out each month of the year. The response from the online community was overwhelming, with nearly 30 people turning up to camp out.
Around a campfire with newly-forged friendships, we reflected on how a simple act could help connect so many people. It was obvious that there was a massive interest in bikepacking, but a barrier for many was finding others to go with.
From these conversations, four of us (myself, Liv Rubene, Itzi Aldecoa Tamayo and Cat Green) decided to set up Bikepacking Buds, a community where people can share trips and connect. Our team of volunteers has since grown to 11 people!
A year on, more than 60 people gathered to celebrate the Bikepacking Buds community. We connected in person for a weekend filled with talks, workshops, mechanical sessions, and gravel rides in the beautiful New Forest in the south of England. The vibe was electric. There were so many people representing different communities from across the UK, and many others were excitedly learning about these communities for the first time.
Zara Bellos and Diane Mulholland ran Morning Mechanics Sessions. As well as teaching us how to index gears and empowering us with a new skill, they shared stories about the community projects they’re working with and explained why they were so passionate about sharing their knowledge.
Zara left a career in TV production to train as a bike mechanic because she wanted to enable more people to try cycling and experience the joy it had given her. She now works for The Bristol Bike Project, who, alongside their other projects, help repair and rehome secondhand bikes to marginalized people in the community.
Diane’s interest in bike mechanics began with a lockdown obsession to explore more gravel routes around London. As she traveled further, she wanted to learn more about fixing her bike and booked a course from Vicky Balfour, who runs women-only mechanic sessions.
The course gave Diane the confidence to adventure further and continue to learn about bike mechanics. This year, she set up Daisy Chain Mechanics, which aims to continue to grow that movement by sharing knowledge through online and in-person mechanical sessions.
We all sat telling stories around Friday’s campfire. Eilidh Ogden, Alice Baddeley and Ellie Reynolds talked about pushing boundaries, their adventures, and what they had learned from them. Eilidh told stories from her solo cycle from Cairo to Cape Town, including being chased by elephants, escorted by police, and experiencing the kindness of strangers.
Alice shared tales from her ‘Around the edge in 80 days’ adventure – cycling 7,767 km around the coastline of the UK and Ellie talked about her journey to reaching the Ironman World Championships and her plan to row across the Atlantic this year. Their stories were relatable, funny, and sincere. They made you believe that anything was possible and fueled conversations – suddenly, people began whispering their crazy, mad dreams out loud and it was wonderful!
Around a large communal meal, a second series of campfire chats took place on Saturday night. This time, the topic was about the power of communities, and the panel guests were David Charles from Thighs of Steel, Zara from The Bristol Bike Project (aforementioned) and Pat Wires from the New Forest Offroad Club.
David told us how Thighs of Steel had transformed from a simple aim that two women had to cycle and raise money, to an annual communal rally from Glasgow to Athens. Engaging a community helped enable action and spread a message, which has led to them raising an incredible £650,000 for grassroots refugee charities.
Pat talked about the creation of the New Forest Offroad Club and how riding with them had impacted their life. This was followed by several members of the audience mentioning other inclusive gravel clubs across the UK and sharing similar personal and heart-warming tales. Asked to summarize what made their community special, all the panel guests shared stories that unified on one point: a sense of belonging, understanding and empathy for one another.
The talks and workshops were sandwiched by pure joy and laughter as we pedaled through the New Forest on our bikes. We stopped to take pictures of the animals, sharing snacks, and even enjoying a refreshing mid-winter dip in the river. A ride around the New Forest would not have been complete without stopping by the Woods Cyclery to warm up over one of their legendary coffees!
I left the weekend absolutely exhausted but brimming with enthusiasm and inspiration.
Bikepacking Buds have achieved way more than I thought was possible. In less than a year, we’ve enabled 30 community bikepacking trips for more than 200 people. We’ve created a podcast to celebrate stories from within our community and we share knowledge and expertise through our monthly webinars and blogs.
None of this would have been possible to achieve alone – in fact, it takes a team of 11 incredibly dedicated and hard-working women who willingly sacrifice their free time to help. Dive deeper and there’s an entire army of people supporting us, telling their friends about us, offering advice, sharing expertise, lending kit, the list goes on. Helping to build a community is hard work but, in my experience, it’s been life changing.
I’ve witnessed people go from being nervous about their first-ever overnight experience to brimming with confidence, falling in love with bikepacking and getting excited to plan their own trips.
Throughout the weekend I was reminded of how incredible it is to share something that brings you a lot of joy and to witness others on that journey too. The gravel cycling community in the UK is very special. It’s developed alongside principles that do not divide people based on their background, bank account or body, rather advocating inclusivity, smiles over miles, reconnecting with nature and increasing accessibility.
At the age of 30, I feel like I’ve finally found my people and for that, I am very thankful.
Find out more about Bikepacking Buds here.
Words: Saoirse Pottie
Photos: Sarah Hewitt
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