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?
As long as you use a Leatherman it's fine.
To summarise:
- A fully rigid bike means that you're touring unless you are clean shaven and wild camping.
- Dry bags strapped to the bike means that you're bikepacking unless you're using some form of rack to stablise them.
- Anyone with a rack is touring even if they're sleeping rough in bin bags under a tarpaulin and foraging for food.
- A suspension fork means that you're bikepacking. Or touring.
- Sleeping in proper beds and eating meals cooked by someone else means that you're touring, unless you're riding mostly off road.
Well, I'm glad we've cleared that up.
Does it make a difference if I post it on Instagram or Facebook?
What about if I blog it? I mean there's clearly a difference between a route on Bikepacking.com and crazyguyonabike....
When I was actively blogging my trips I never really considered if I was touring or bikepacking. Thank heavens I never thought to categorise them
How did you know which hashtags to use?
I mean there’s clearly a difference between a route on Bikepacking.com and crazyguyonabike….
On BP.com a ride becomes a route, created and named (ideally with a roundel style logo) to be shared with the community. When you've ridden these routes you can add them to your Instagram bio.
On CGOAB rides are recorded for anyone who cares to read about them, like slow strava with a diary, and no-one follows them because they're doing their own thing anyway, thanks very much.
I don't believe bike packing actually exists. Its a hallucination brought on by excessive craft beer and beard oil.
Facebook posts linking to your Youtube videos are mandatory
Facebook posts linking to your Youtube videos are mandatory
If someone bikepacks but doesn't vlog about it, have they even bikepacked?
it's usually called Credit Card Packing when your cycling between digs with kit on bike
Facebook? Maybe that's it.
Facebook = over 50 = tourer
Instagam = under 40 = bikepacker
40-50 years old = uncertainty about what life means in general, ride a bike from A to B and sleep wherever, time to think about it all, whatever it's called.
Glampacking.
it’s usually called Credit Card Packing when your cycling between digs with kit on bike
It was Credit Card Touring when I first did it on an unequipped road bike, minimal kit in a light rucsac, so I'm properly confused now : )
It was Credit Card Touring when I first did it on an unequipped road bike, minimal kit in a light rucsac, so I’m properly confused now : )
I always thought that Credit Card Touring meant you only carried a credit card and a travel toothbrush with you, ie nothing that you couldn't fit in the pockets of your lycra?
Oh. Then I'm lost. I was on that trip too, it was great.
uncertainty about what life means in general, ride a bike from A to B and sleep wherever, time to think about it all
Don't forget to ponder about whatever it all means to your GoPro from time to time. You know, for your edit.
It’s only bikepacking if you don’t take a change of socks, but you do take fresh ground artisan coffee and a v60 filter.
What do I use to filter my coffee if I've only got one pair of socks? 😱
If I ride around with a load of fudge in a frame bag what's that called?
@singlespeedstu depends on whether you're going uphill or downhill?
How long must stubble be before a man with a plaid shirt can claim he has a beard?
How long can the flipped up peak of your cap be before you transition from "graveller" to "80's thrash metal" ?
You know, for your edit.
"I went looking for a ride experience yet I found so much more..."
“I went looking for a ride experience yet I found so much more…”
Don't forget the mandatory emotional catharsis, "Today's been really hard..." followed by redemption the following day when the weather turns for the better.
40-50 years old = uncertainty about what life means in general, ride a bike from A to B and sleep wherever, time to think about it all, whatever it’s called.
Dammit. I resemble that comment.
How long must stubble be before a man with a plaid shirt can claim he has a beard?
Is that the opening line of a Travis song?
Dammit. I resemble that comment.
Ha.. it came too easily to mind when I thought 'what about the 40-50yr olds like me..'
'Don't run away from your problems. Pedalling is much faster'