Forum menu
I did a multi day ride in the Lakes where we stayed in nice hotels, carried all our stuff with us in backpacks and rode big full suspension bikes. Was that bike packing or touring or something else that a marketing person needs to make up a name for?
It’s marketing to make people think doing what their grandparents did seem youthful and trendy.
Gravel, bikepacking etc is marketing .. then 'Mountain Biking' would be marketing too. Something evolves into a niche and when the niche gets popular it gets a name and the marketers step in to sell to that market. But sure as wheels go round the activity came before the name in every case. I think marketers would be very pleased if people thought they controlled things to that extent but only a foolish marketer would actually believe it.
Now that is an absolute truism. I ride mainly road these days and getting the nice bikes out in the next few weeks is a joy to behold. I know aero is currently king but at the speeds I ride, whizzing along on a sub 7kg plastic fantastic after the winter grind is one of my cycling year's greatest pleasures.
Hmmm...
...Something evolves into a niche and when the niche gets popular it gets a name and the marketers step in to sell to that market...
Well I'm going to propose we get ahead of this one and suggest "Aero-bike-packing" as the next big niche, shortly to be followed by "Aero-Touring" the main differentiators being luggage capacity and CDA of course...
It's not going to be enough to count the grams, we NEED to know how draggy your Bivvy bag is when packed.
"Aero-bike-packing"
Aeropacking.. the 'ultra' participant's unsettling-looking combo of an XC hardtail with drops and tri bars plus a Tailfin rear rack?
It may be fast but I'm definately not in : )
I’m going to claim sure airpacking as my genre contribution
Much like touring except that you take a full dive cylinder with you
Well i thought i knew the difference, bikepacking means carrying a tent / camping and touring means staying hotels or bnbs.
How nieve of me. I now have no idea.
Aeropacking.. the 'ultra' participant's unsettling-looking combo of an XC hardtail with drops and tri bars plus a Tailfin rear rack?
It may be fast but I'm definately not in : )
Google did push me towards an article the other day announcing that Ironman (the only people with more questionable aesthetic fashion sense than ultra-racers) were banning the proliferation of water bottles on tri-bars and limiting it to 2l (and no more loading them down the jersey).
Which got me thinking, bar bags look very un-aero, but do they perhaps just block the wind from hitting the even less aero area around the crotch?
Which got me thinking, bar bags look very un-aero, but do they perhaps just block the wind from hitting the even less aero area around the crotch?
My crotch is highly aero, like an action man. This allows me to obtain uplift and reduce tyre drag.
According to the pros, a shopping basket is the must have bike packing luggage holder.
My crotch is missing, like an action man. This allows me to obtain uplift and reduce tyre drag.
Which got me thinking, bar bags look very un-aero, but do they perhaps just block the wind from hitting the even less aero area around the crotch?
think I recall someone (Probably Jan Heine) doing some not-hugely-scientific-but-still-a-good-attempt tests showing that bag on the front was the best aero place for it - assuming you need a bag, thats the place to go.
It becomes a very, very rough approximation of a front fairing.
Trailer is very areo. Noticably better than panniers
Surely like most things the difference is journalists looking for something new to justify their pointless existence? Might I point people to the book "Bikepacking" by Robin Adshead from the 80's or earlier. (Too lazy to walk upstairs to check inside the cover)
All bikepacking is touring. Not all touring is bikepacking.
And then there's Audax, on which everyone is in agreement that it isn't cool, but is clearly more hardcore than either because your only options are either don't sleep at all, or get so fit you can sleep without missing the time cut-offs.
Audax is where people go if they want to race while pretending not to.
Sportives are where people go if they want to pretend to race while not actually doing so.
Audax is so uncool that it is actually cool in a reverse psychology fashion. Like when a film is so bad it's good.