Article on Bikebiz.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Uhm, can't really decide about this. It's interesting enough but there seems to be a real emphasis on 'road racing' for an article entitled 'The rise of the bikepackers' ... in fact, bilepackers as I know them seem to be dismissed as 'weekend warriors' which is a bit of a shame and may perhaps prove the article was written by a cockwomble fukwit with limited insight?

Anyway, if you can be arsed, maybe have a look. https://www.bikebiz.com/features/the-ri ... Eq6IDIaDq8

[RIP]

'bilepackers' - corking typo that one .

[RIP]

I was arsed to read it and made no connection whatsoever with the contents. But then I'm just a tramp so hardly qualified to comment. In a way I'm glad they didn't draw attention to the ditch-dwelling side of things, just leave us alone in our little backwater please. 'kit... I'd be thinking about waterproofing quite a lot' - DBS, man! I don't like being called a warrior (I rarely take my scimitar or tomahawk on a bivi outing) but on reflection I rather like being called ultra-tough hardcore though.

[whitestone]

Seemed very bland, passionless. I'm assuming the "Biz" part of the site title is short for "business" and not "biscuit" Probably explains the dismissive tone towards non-event based riding.

[fatbikephil]

Its really an article on ultrar****g rather than bikepacking. So we're safe.

[RIP]

Indeed, but they're taking our name in vain . Gotta uphold our brand .

[gairym]

Clearly written by someone from the new-skool of bikepacking and, most likely, of the road/competitive pursuasion (not an insult but just an observation).

His naming of the 'definitive events' and the lumping in of 'bikepacking' with 'adventure cycling' and 'ultra-distance riding' is a bit of a tell.

So it's all a bit 'on trend' with a focus on 'winning' and kit fetishism for its own sake (as opposed to for practical and common sense purposes).

But no real complaints here as it's all good that more folk are getting out on bikes and doing silly things.

[ScotRoutes]

Yeah - I skimmed the first couple of paragraphs, saw mention of "racing" and closed it

[jameso]

"ultra-distance"

Don't really know why that bugs me : ) but it does.

Was reading a bike mag today that featured the PBP when it was a race - 1200km, won in 1951 in 39 hours. Wasn't ultra-anything, just a long ride.
Maybe also that distance is only one part of the measure. It's valid on road but go off-road and it's not much of a guide.

[RIP]

Trouble is James, the world is apparently running out of superlatives. Or is just suffering from superlative inflation. In the old days the next update of some product or thing might be called 'new improved' or maybe 'extra' if they were feeling confident. Now we have to put up with mega, hyper, ultra, megahyper, megahyperultra, etc. What next, 'ziga' perhaps? If Marketing have let your product out the door without an automatically prepended superlative to its name you may as well just chuck it straight into the bargain bin. Perhaps we should ask for a reset to zero - something like 'Pers!l. It gets dirt off your clothes'?

Mind you, I do think that Stu's hyperstove (TM) is terribly well named, don't you?

[psling]

Well, I thought it was a fairly balanced article

There is a contribution from an ITT/long distance 'racing' participant and reference to pro-riders doing something a bit different from the constraints of their team but equally, other contributions refer to the getting-out-there-for-fun angle. BikeBiz is a trade site - the article is a bit thin on the why and more of a musing on where the 'genre' is heading within the bike and accessories business world imo.


edit: and yes, Reg. More words like "corking" and "splendid" should be resurrected rather than all this new-fangled marketing hyperwaffle!

[BigdummySteve]

I was arsed to read it and made no connection whatsoever with the contents. But then I'm just a tramp so hardly qualified to comment. In a way I'm glad they didn't draw attention to the ditch-dwelling side of things, just leave us alone in our little backwater please. 'kit... I'd be thinking about waterproofing quite a lot' - DBS, man! I don't like being called a warrior (I rarely take my scimitar or tomahawk on a bivi outing) but on reflection I rather like being called ultra-tough hardcore though.

I think I’ll just carry on riding around a bit.....in a decidedly un-ultra fashion, don’t let it worry you reg, they don’t mean us.

[Lazarus]

the reviews on here were better than the article and I lasted till they put in the paragraph straight from raphas marketing release

It was not very insightful and I cannot remember the last time I heard a bivvy referred to as a bivouac.

[RIP]

'un-ultra' - thanks for the reassurance Steve . An antonym for 'super' is 'inferior' so we need to invent some inferiorlatives to allow us tramps to counteract all these OTT words in the other direction. For example instead of ultra-racers we could be middling-idlers or mediocre-wanderers.

[Borderer]

'un-ultra' - thanks for the reassurance Steve . An antonym for 'super' is 'inferior' so we need to invent some inferiorlatives to allow us tramps to counteract all these OTT words in the other direction. For example instead of ultra-racers we could be middling-idlers or mediocre-wanderers.

Sub-standard spokespersons?
Actually that would make a good band name for a group of bikepackers 'Stu and the Sub-standard spokespersons'
God, I'm havering and I'm not even drunk.

[BigdummySteve]

'un-ultra' - thanks for the reassurance Steve . An antonym for 'super' is 'inferior' so we need to invent some inferiorlatives to allow us tramps to counteract all these OTT words in the other direction. For example instead of ultra-racers we could be middling-idlers or mediocre-wanderers.

Perhaps Ofkaob with an umlaut or two randomly inserted above any vowel for additional ‘hipness’
Old farts knobing about on bikes

[Alpinum]

Bilepacking.

I often type that one too. Perhaps we should stick with it.

Didn't read the article as to many words related to road make my bile reflux.

Which leads to what it actually is.

Roadbilepucking

I'll ask the presidents of the bikepacking world to make sub categories, so we don't have to be thrown into the same pot like everybody else.

My name is Gian. I'm an elitist mountainbikepacker and yet I'm just as much everybody else.

[jameso]

an umlaut or two randomly inserted above any vowel for additional ‘hipness’

I thought more umlauts were more Metal and that's always a good thing Motley Crue... Motorhead... in good(bad) company there

[Bearbonesnorm]

I think anyone referring to themselves as a 'boner' has largely cut all ties to the world of hip. Even the cleverest of marketeers is going to have a difficult time with that one

[pistonbroke]

Or even a Böner, then the lazy journos couldn't find the way to write it on their keyboards.

[ericrobo]

written by a cockwomble fukwit with limited insight....

And

many words related to road make my bile reflux.

Which leads to what it actually is.

Roadbilepucking

Brilliant

[Piemonster]

Only one photo.

Not enough shiny pictures for me to read that!

[JohnClimber]

With Stuart's "cockwomble fukwit" fresh in my mind It started to read it with an open mind.......

I started to loose interest at "a new ultra-tough hardcore has developed on the fringes"

I was starting to think like ScotRoutes

Yeah - I skimmed the first couple of paragraphs, saw mention of "racing" and closed it

Them came sentences like "here is a phenomenon on the fringes of the cycling world that is threatening to move into the mainstream in an unexpected way"

And words like "subgenre" and "enamoured"... who the feck uses the word enamoured?

So I signed out, did I miss anything further down?

[voodoo_simon]

The title didn’t match the article but apart from that, it just read as one persons prospective on the sport.

Perhaps if it was titled “what I did on my holidays...” the rest of the article would make for an easier read

[Alpinum]

Amazing, the amount of intolerance on here. Never fails to impress me, especially when some then say stuff like 'I don't think we're an intolerant bunch'.

Well we are.

Accept it. Admit it.

I'm off road riding. On my penny. The only thing that will keep me from being sick ontop of peoples cars.