Bikepacking exploring Louvain and Malines

Preparing for a bikepacking trip is a crucial part that shouldn't be overlooked. Choosing the right bike, route, gear, and supplies, etc. We detail each step of our bike trip to Belgium below.

Actually, any bike that you can equip to carry a few belongings will be sufficient. Whether it's a city bike, an e-bike, or a mountain bike, the important thing is that you feel comfortable on it.

For our part, we made this 3-day bike trip with gravel bikes. They allowed us to be comfortable on the road but also on forest dirt tracks or across fields. In addition to getting almost everywhere, they are lightweight bikes (± 10kg), which is a real asset to compensate for the weight of our belongings and equipment on the luggage carrier. 😉

There are many bags, panniers, mounts, etc. to carry all sorts of things on a bike, it all depends on the type of bike trip you plan to do.

For our bike trip between Brussels, Louvain and Mechelen, we opted for two 25L panniers which allowed us to take 17 kg of equipment and clothes. We chose to stay in hotels, which allowed us not to have to carry accommodation on our bike. Without photo and video equipment, you can obviously travel much lighter for 3 days.

To prepare our itineraries, we use the application Komoot which allows you to easily trace and plan routes for free. Komoot also offers the possibility to export the route in GPX, however, you will need to subscribe to a Komoot Maps account.

Once on the bike, it is already possible with a simple smartphone mount to follow your route on the Komoot application or any other GPS application. For short distances, we use the Handlebar/Stem Mount from Quad Lock with the matching Quad Lock case. The only downside of this solution is the phone's battery life, which will quickly limit the duration of the trip without having to recharge the device.

For our part, we use the GPS computer Garmin Edge® 530 which, in addition to having a claimed battery life of 20 hours, provides a lot of information about the route.

Again, you're not obligated to buy specific clothing. But for the comfort of your behind 🍑, we advise you to invest in a good cycling shorts (especially if you cycle regularly). We often think about changing our saddles to protect our bottoms, but cycling shorts play a crucial role here. And a small extra piece of information: cycling shorts are designed to be worn without underwear (this prevents the seams from bothering or irritating us).  
For our part, we invested in good cycling shorts a few months ago and we are very happy with them. You will find the references of these below.

For the upper body, here are the essentials we advise you to have with you: a breathable t-shirt, a long-sleeved top if the temperatures are cooler, a windbreaker and/or a waterproof jacket.

By bike, everything is possible: camping, hostels, hotels, etc. It all depends on the type of bike trip you want to take and the amount of equipment you can bring with you. For this first cycling trip, we chose to stay in hotels to limit the equipment we had to bring but also to make it more comfortable. 😉

There are labels (like Bienvenue Vélo in Wallonia) that list accommodations that have facilities for bicycles. Unfortunately, these are not always well documented. The easiest thing to do is to contact the establishment directly to find out if they have a bicycle parking area.

For our first cycling trip, we designed a small loop of 120 km starting from Brussels, passing through the cities of Leuven and Mechelen. We chose to make fairly short stages (between 35 and 50 km) so that we could ride at our own pace, enjoy the scenery and the remaining time once we arrived at our destination to visit the city.

For us, the most important thing when leaving Brussels was to avoid major roads as much as possible and reach the ravels and nature as quickly as possible to ride as calmly as possible.

Departing from the Cinquantenaire, we head towards Evere, passing through the small streets of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert. Once in Evere, we take the ravel that crosses the woods and fields behind the former NATO buildings to reach Zaventem and Steenokkerzeel, where we will stop for a few minutes to watch the planes land.

From there, the rest of the journey will be only small streets, ravels and paths through the fields to the outskirts of Leuven.

After a first stage of 39 km, we arrive in the early afternoon in the city of Leuven. The pedestrian city center forces us to put our feet down and we take the opportunity to find a small address where we can have a meal.

The city is full of nice little restaurants and we decide to stop at Lettuce Leuven where we will eat in a natural atmosphere.

Back on our bikes, we head to the hotel where we will spend the night to change and leave the bikes to be able to visit the city on foot.

By the way, we share our must-sees and all the information to know in our article ‘Visiting Leuven in a day’.

The stage between Louvain and Mechelen is the longest, but not the hardest of the journey. Once out of the city of Louvain, we will follow the nodal points towards Mechelen, the route takes us through the Dyle valley before joining the Louvain-Mechelen canal for the final stretch to Mechelen.

We enter the city from the North and after cycling through the small alleys, we arrive at Malines' Grand Place and its imposing St-Rombaut Cathedral.

After enjoying an ice cream at Pascale Gauthier's near the Grand Place, we head towards the Martin’s Patershof. It's a 4-star hotel housed in a former church that includes an underground car park where our bikes were safely stored overnight!

The city of Malines is full of unexpected corners and truly deserves a visit! You'll find all the practical information and our must-sees in our article ‘Visiting Malines in a Day’.

Returning to Brussels from Mechelen is the shortest leg, 30km that will take us through Grimbergen before entering Brussels from the north of the city. The route to Brussels is quite pleasant, not many dedicated cycle paths but plenty of quiet, less trafficked streets.

Once back in Brussels, we'll have to contend with the traffic again, but we tried to create a route that avoids the major roads to reach the Cinquantenaire, our starting point, so the journey remains enjoyable.

A little word to conclude this first cycling adventure? We loved the experience! The distances between each stage were really easy, carrying your belongings for 3 days isn't demanding and it's pleasant to stroll through the cities of Leuven and Mechelen after cycling several tens of kilometers. We can only advise you to mount your bike and go on an adventure near you!

Besides, is this something that tempts you? Don't hesitate to leave us a comment if you have any other questions about our cycling experience, we will gladly answer them. 😉