What is "bikepacking"?

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
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al_yrpal
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by al_yrpal »

Vorpals post - Thats what I suspected, same with Gravel Bike - US slightly inappropriate import used to sell more stuff. Whats next?

Al
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by PH »

Vorpal wrote: 30 May 2023, 8:21am I think of it as an American term for cycle touring. It's fairly logical, on that basis.
Except they have this same debate on various US forums.
Nearholmer
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by Nearholmer »

I suppose that we could try exporting a cycling-style to the USA for a change, maybe one of our UK specialities like “close-pass biking”, or “grumpy old bloke biking”.
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Nearholmer wrote: 29 May 2023, 10:25pm TBH, I have not the faintest idea which is more popular in the UK, and I strongly suspect that nobody else knows for sure either, which was the point I was trying to make.

And, given that “trad” and “bike-packing” overlap to some degree, I’m not sure how you’d ever find out. If a person fly-camps and sleeps in a bin bag they’re pretty surely a bike-packer, but beyond that it’s possibly down to self-identification.
Unless they're an audaxer...
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Nearholmer wrote: 29 May 2023, 6:54pm Although, unlike some here it would seem, I both believe that bikepacking exists distinct from trad touring, and that it has a groundswell of support (I.e. it’s a movement), I have always been deeply sceptical of sticking-out-the-back seat-post bags, which seem to me to defy engineering logic, and am watching with interest as racks and panniers stealthily re-establish themselves as the practical answer.

Already seat-post bags have evolved spines and stabilising legs, and now mini-panniers are being attached to those legs, and super-minimal racks costing ten times as much as not-minimal ones that could be made minimal given ten minutes with a hacksaw are coming onto the market from the US.

Give it another year, and racks and panniers (small ones, not the ones big enough to use as sleeping accommodation) will emerge triumphant in this Darwinian struggle between species of bike luggage.
And if you look at the specialist sites, you'll see plenty of photos of people using conventional racks and panniers. And transverse saddlebags.

Which isn't to say that frame-mounted luggage will die out. It still has a lot of uses. For instance, if your trip involves putting a bike on a train or bus, it's easier to do with frame bags – just leave them on the bike and they don't take any extra space. Or on trails where width is limited. Or, for some people, as a way of forcing themselves to take less stuff! Although of course some people use frame bags and panniers as a way of taking more stuff.
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by Nearholmer »

I hadn’t thought about mega-Audaxers.

Oh, no!

Another blob to add to the Venn diagram. This is going to really confuse people who like to put things in solid-walled pigeon-holes, with no overlaps.
mattheus
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by mattheus »

plancashire wrote: 29 May 2023, 10:07pm
Here in Germany I see lots of bikes with panniers and traditional luggage, almost never bikepackers, but then I don't cycle off road, although I do use gravel tracks.

I wonder if bikepacking is more popular in the UK because road cycling is so unpleasant compared with Germany?
It's simply because Germans have a better understanding of engineering and loads than us Brits.
scottg
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by scottg »

PH wrote: 30 May 2023, 8:38am Except they have this same debate on various US forums.
We just use a lot more pictures than you do....

https://theradavist.com/bike-touring-ve ... kepacking/
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Bmblbzzz
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by Bmblbzzz »

scottg wrote: 30 May 2023, 5:13pm
PH wrote: 30 May 2023, 8:38am Except they have this same debate on various US forums.
We just use a lot more pictures than you do....

https://theradavist.com/bike-touring-ve ... kepacking/
I enjoyed reading that. And the pictures!

But to return to the topic – if we accept his premise on touring v packing, then the whole of this thread is irrelevant!

Although the whole ultraracing scene also blurs that distinction.
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Traction_man
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by Traction_man »

the first Cicerone UK bikepacking book is on the horizon

https://www.cicerone.co.uk/bikepacking- ... rict-first
mattheus
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by mattheus »

scottg wrote: 30 May 2023, 5:13pm
PH wrote: 30 May 2023, 8:38am Except they have this same debate on various US forums.
We just use a lot more pictures than you do....

https://theradavist.com/bike-touring-ve ... kepacking/
That is great, thankyou.

(You see chaps, I TOLD you we should let US riders register here!)
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by Vorpal »

scottg wrote: 30 May 2023, 5:13pm
PH wrote: 30 May 2023, 8:38am Except they have this same debate on various US forums.
We just use a lot more pictures than you do....

https://theradavist.com/bike-touring-ve ... kepacking/
The history is interesting, and explains why I hadn't heard the term until relatively recently. Though I think people in the US mostly described it as 'long distance biking' or 'bike camping' when I first started, I could see the logic of calling it bikepacking & heard that term in the US to mean cycle touring. Also folks have infrequently used it on this forum to mean that, going back at least 10 years or so.

IIRC, back in the 80s, the guy in my local bike shop (Midwest) called it 'bicycle touring', and I adopted that as being the term that the cool cats used. 8)
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scottg
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by scottg »

mattheus wrote: 31 May 2023, 9:21am[snip]

(You see chaps, I TOLD you we should let US riders register here!)
I do have a Claud era Claud Butler and a couple Ellis Briggs,
so the Board of Governors let me in. :)
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Ayseven
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by Ayseven »

It's simply bike touring, with less crap. Camping may or may not be implied. Hammock for cool factor, but I prefer hotels.
Bmblbzzz
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Re: What is "bikepacking"?

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Bikepacking in 1978. And it's not even American.
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/ ... CAAJ?hl=en
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