If I’m carrying my gear on my bike, and riding mostly off-road, but staying in hostels/pubs/travelogues etc, is it still bikepacking?
If not, then what is the name for it?
Cycle touring
Isn’t that road based?
Kayak - would pedants not define cycle touring as mostly on road?
Kramer - I’ve always assumed bikepacking was back packing with a bike. Plenty of people backpack using hostels.
im not sure why you need a name for “riding your bike for a few days”
Bikepacking mandates the use of frame bags, a big seat pack and things strapped to your forks and handlebar. It also requires you to use a tarp and bivi, even though a tent could be just as light, because you 'like sleeping in the open'. If you use panniers you are touring, which could be on or off road. Touring does not require camping. You can, but it must be in a campsite, where you can congregate with other tourers who are probably from somewhere else in Europe.
wot moley says plus offroad touring you can wild camp. But yes its touring - rough stuff style if you want 🙂
but staying in hostels/pubs/travelogues etc
So its all imaginary?
if you have weighed all your kit, it's bikepacking
otherwise, it's just going for a big long bike ride
I think a travelogue is a written account of a journey, so definitely has happened.
But yes, autocorrect has been my downfall again. Travelodge.
🙂
im not sure why you need a name for “riding your bike for a few days”
Got to keep those marketing teams in a job
Just do what you want. I suggest that wildcamping using a tarp in a midge infested swamp might not be the greatest thing in the world.
However if the gods look favourably on you and you wake up camped somewhere scenic with no flying vampires it might just be perfect
Mountain bike touring?
@molgrips so will an Aeroe Spider with dry bags strapped to it qualify me as a cool (on fleek) bikepacker, whereas @TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR be a fuddy duddy cycle tourer because he’s using an Aeroe Spider with panniers?
What would happen if we were both riding the same route together? Would we have to be careful not to touch lest we annihilate each other?
Just have fun!
Isn’t that road based?
Cycle touring isn't defined by terrain imho. Not traditionally anyway. Ian Hibell, Dervla Murphy and the Cranes rode tracks and whatever paths they could, not MTB terrain as we know it now but certainly off-road. In Nepal or places like that a 'road' is just something you can get a truck or jeep along most of the time.
Bikepacking and touring are the same thing in my book. Using different types of bags or travelling as light as poss isn't new thinking. Camping out seems to be the thing that defines bikepacking yet Tour Divide racers use lodges all the time (edit to add, the bikepacking term is quite old but got popularised by off-road lightweight bivi-biking after Revelate/Epic started making frame bags and seatpacks).
I think of it all as touring of some sort and you can go all in on the dirtbag or luxury sides of it, I've enjoyed both on different trips and mixed them up on other trips. The whole point of whatever it is, whatever you call it, is freedom.
so will an Aeroe Spider with dry bags strapped to it qualify me as a cool
Sorry, no. It's a rack, and racks mean touring I'm afraid.
Is this bike packing?
No way. You're clearly a tourer.
racks mean touring I’m afraid.
Tailfin stuff is pretty popular with TCR, TransAm and TDR racers.
(unless you're just on the wind-up and I've missed the subtlety!)
(unless you’re just on the wind-up and I’ve missed the subtlety!)<br />
As the OP I think it’s fair to say that the whole thread is somewhat tongue in cheek.
#ultradistance is where it's at
..while old audaxers who don't use IG ride the same distances in the same times on 531 Raleighs, mostly without aerobars
@kramer yeah I'd assumed you weren't serious or too concerned about it (unless it was just checking what hashtags to use, that's important stuff)
Traditionally its 'Mechanised Tramping'
This guy used to live across the road from my workshop (EDIT - ha just realised the camera slowly pans past my workshop in what was the old miners rows). Bill's youth hostel philosophy is marvellous
unless you’re just on the wind-up and I’ve missed the subtlety!
I am 100% taking the piss 🙂
: )
I have considered a rack with a top bag as a good aero solution, but as per discussions on here I would be worried about durability. I wonder if they make racks with a bit of flex or some kind of suspension for off-road use?
I don't think I ride fast enough off-road to get the aero benefit. I've used that configuration on a tourer though (not that I ride very fast on-road either).
If I have my hiking boots on, I'm walking.
If I am on my bike, I'm riding.
Simples!
What if you're riding in your hiking boots?
I’ve done quite a lot of off road with a rack back in the day. It seemed fine. I don’t believe a tailfin or strap to the saddle would be more durable
Old days
More recent
I used a rucksack last time I went overnight, so I'm probably shunned by both bike-packers and tourers alike
Posh bike packing.
We did the same in July - just a two dayer, but stayed in a pub night before, rode 8 hours off road next day, stayed in another pub, then rode 8 hours again to home ! Blooming hard work but at least we got lots of beer and food, and a comfy bed.
What if you’re riding in your hiking boots?
I have only done that a couple of times, I guess you would call it 'Hike a Bike'? 🙂
Is this bike packing? rode plenty of singletrack that trip.
Suspension fork so not really.
Strictly speaking one can only bikepack fully rigid.
Strictly speaking one can only bikepack fully rigid.
Sorry, but I've got to pick you up on that, by definition, if you're riding a fully rigid bike on a multi-day trip, then you're a "beardy tourer".
End of. 😉
Cycle touring
Isn’t that road based?
Not necessarily. That's probably what the Rough Stuff Fellowship called it.
If you strap all your gear to a rigid bike and then ride all day before camping, but stay on proper campsites rather than wildcamp, is that touring or bikepacking????
If you strap all your gear to a rigid bike and then ride all day before camping, but stay on proper campsites rather than wildcamp, is that touring or bikepacking????
Beard or no beard?
