If there was a BB App ...

[macinblack]

About a week after starting it will have been corrupted into inviting you to meet local women in your area. Handy on any future BB200 if you want to meet Wendy, (2km from Abergwesyn,) to see if she's amenable to letting you bivvy in her back garden.

[fatbikephil]

When you turn it on it says "Stop being soft" then switches off.

[Escape Goat]

Loving some comments.

Reminds you to stop being soft then turns off

I like the would I get to the Spar geo notification

[redefined_cycles]

Maybe it could give you a virtual bikepacking experience, or be somewhere to link to routes.

But quite honestly, being someone who wants to get away from screens, I can't think of a use for an app

I've just installed the screen time, erm, app. Tells me to get off the screen. I'm working on it...

I'd not want another app like Steve

[benconnolli]

In a rogue move back on topic...
There are two scenarios that I feel a bikepacking app could be useful, pre ride prep and during ride info.

Pre ride prep a snazzy feature could be to look at the weather forecast and tell you what stuff to pack for a trip. I feel this would require lots of user input which could be clanky and extremely niche use. Only serves if you have different kit for different weather. Probably way too personal for an app to be much help, but an idea I have had for developing an app for my personal use. I do think some sort of database to manage kit could be useful. Data could include, temp ranges, use category, bike location, need to be kept dry, weight, approximate volume. Then build a kit list that does the pretty fundamental check of insulation, shelter, bike tools, food, water, TLS. This could link with images/icons of the bikes and where everything lives but this is all possibly too much effort for the benefits over excel.

The other side of prep is route, which many solutions exist without calling them bikepacking.

During app you have needs for; navigation(solved elsewhere), weather, resupply with opening times, SOS location, tarp tips(knots, picking a spot, different setups which could link to forecast?), recipe ideas, bike maintenance(difficult to solve with an app, prone to user error, ignores bikepacking bodge wizardry), basic first aid(solved elsewhere, but sort of needs to be known in advance), taking notes/photos, bird/tree/foraging id(solved elsewhere and not strictly bikepacking), motivation, communicating with loved ones(solved elsewhere).

From this list the only feature I really see is the tarp tips. Now this is almost certainly way out of spec, but you gotta dream sometimes, could have a physics engine with changing wind forces and rain levels that lets you play with different tarp setups and guy rope lengths. I definitely think there is a point in my tarp/denbuilding journey where a more basic version of this could have been beneficial and it may help others convert from the tent. There are obviously lots of environmental factors impossible for an app to consider like not totally flat ground, trees, walls. May very well still be too niche, but this is bikepacking we are talking about.

Both of these concepts are making your life easier and taking something away from the experience, but is that not modern life and apps?

[Dave Barter]

How about a snore-distance-ometer

This would help you pace out your tent/tarp/bivy/bothy spot in certain situations that many of us have been in

[RIP]

How about a snore-distance-ometer

This would help you pace out your tent/tarp/bivy/bothy spot in certain situations that many of us have been in

. I have a number of people lined up for the testing phase of development. They don't know yet.

[Alec]

How about one where you upload your route then it calculates the amount of streams to swim, tussock to battle across and its overall type 2 exposure rating. Then just tells you to stop being soft and get on with it

[JohnClimber]

Rate my tussock route?
Ankle deep
Knee deep
Balls deep

[jameso]

An editable pack list assistant? Kit Grid Manager. Instagrammers love kit grids eh?

You take pictures of your own kit item by item and it aids sorting and listing for the best packing result. It could use AR and the camera plus a filing system and a simple checklist to make sure you don't forget things or learn to pack better.
Main screen is a packed bike image. Has most essentials grouped ie sleeping / cooking / bike fix / looking after myself kit as suggested starting group (essentially folders to hold images and info).
Under those groups you take a pic of your individual items eg stove, meths bottle, mugs and lighter. And windshield, I forget that too often.
Then you attach that group of images into a folder of sorts and allocate it to the bag or area you usually pack it, like a folder location on a computer but it's displayed on your bike. Item can be listed in a few places and the app understands duplication, could ask/suggest where was better (eg stove kit, dense, 250g, pack in frame bag not bar bag if you list both areas as possibilities)
You can create summer and winter pack list folders and edit the contents. You can create folders by bag - ie my Ortlieb bar pocket is great for XYZ, my bar harness usually holds ZYX. ETC.
I get the app, have a bit of fun or procrastination from other jobs in photographing all my kit and allocating it to bags and locations. Next time I ride I hit 'check' and it goes through the folders so I get a visual reminder of all the stuff I usually take for that time of year / bike / type of ride.
Hit 'TLS' to get suggestions or hints of what you might leave out, or you could add weight of each item and it could tot up your pack weight per trip and suggest effective ways to shed a few 100gs.

[lune ranger]

... it would have a long-range weather forecast to make sure I only go bikepacking during a named storm. Annoyingly I occasionally go when the Wray is good.

[RIP]

Out of all of the 'sensible' (*) suggestions I like James's Kit Packing Optimiser best. The only improvement to it would be an application-controlled robotic arm to actually do the packing .

(*) er

[jameso]

Out of all of the 'sensible' (*) suggestions I like James's Kit Packing Optimiser best. The only improvement to it would be an application-controlled robotic arm to actually do the packing .

(*) er

And an e-bike to do the pedalling?
Maybe an e-bike on Peleton X Zwift's new collaboration 'Alpe d'Tussock' where you have to get off and push both the e-bike and the Peleton unit around the room while the Peleton motivator guy shouts encouraging abuse/banter at you for being soft, slow, a faffer, etc.

[Mariner]

Or how about something similar to the bird song identifier but for use in the dark so you know what is creeping round your bivvy at night?
Should include Fox, Badger, Deer, Axe Murderer.
Hedgehogs are the worst though.

[RIP]

Or how about something similar to the bird song identifier but for use in the dark so you know what is creeping round your bivvy at night?
Should include Fox, Badger, Deer, Axe Murderer.
Hedgehogs are the worst though.

Slug identifier?

Just expanding a bit more on James's idea. The Optimiser & Packer would have selectable options: number of times to pointlessly unpack and repack (0 to 10); built-in total faff delay time (0 seconds to five days); number of randomly-chosen items of kit to leave out by mistake (1 (*) to 'all of it'). (*) quite obviously all of us always forget at least one item so this range starts at 1.

[RIP]

PS. Had enough yet Stu?

[boxelder]

It would tell you:
a) where 'that thing' is that you need to find and pack just as time starts to run out and stress levels render you a gibbering wreck.
b) which bike to ride, so you don't waste half your available time prevaricating.
c) have a Napalm Strike feature to deal with Scottish midges

Upgrade: An ability to cast horrific hologram style images and spine chilling sounds, to ensure you get that nice bothy to yourself.

[jameso]

The Optimiser & Packer would have selectable options:

I'd like a signature feature that is a spin wheel gamble function, you select how interesting/adventurous/in the sh1t you want to be and it selects an item to leave out of the selection pile and encourages you to forget with flashy graphics and instagram plug-in distractions for the easily distracted.
*Big film trailer voice*
"When your local rides are not epic enough -
When you need real adventure -
Spin the wheel of life and death and OptiPack will leave you exposed and fending for yourself, touching a void of our own making.
In the rain without a jacket, sleeping in the cold with no lighter for your stove or lost without that cable to recharge your GPS.
Will YOU cope?
Guaranteed EPIC and fully hash-taggable.
#OptiPackinspiredmyfkup"

[ScotRoutes]

It should have a Virtual BB200 feature, a là Match the Miles. It would record your journey then analyse speed, ascent, tussockness and sheepshit aroma, plotting your virtual progress.

It could start with the route of an easy year and you could work your way up to a real stinker. At the completion of each Level your virtual pack weight would decrease through earning Power-Ups like a lighter stove, DCF tarp, carbon pole etc.

[BigdummySteve]

Or how about something similar to the bird song identifier

Nooo Reg still doesn’t know that the loud birds which woke him up on the WRT were from my phone, I like it to remain that way.

[Rob S]

It would let me take a photo of my loaded bike, whereupon the screen would flash "TLS" at me.

[ootini]

My take on this:
Generally a BB app, other than being a proxy for a Web browser and just being another interface to this forum, wouldn't really appeal to me. As others have said, bikepacking is my way of getting away from technology.
However, during events, BB200, WRT etc it may have uses , both social and for safety, however we all know the challenges in utilising battery powered devices and obtaining connectivity in remote locations and the risks in relying on such for safety purposes.
The only event where I think it would work, is BearStock, assuming this will happen again, as it could provide an up to date itinerary, social networking functions, news updates etc.

[RIP]

loud birds

I thought they were those nice people we met in that boozer!

[MuddyPete]

And an e-bike to do the pedalling?
Maybe an e-bike on Peleton X Zwift's new collaboration 'Alpe d'Tussock' where you have to get off and push both the e-bike and the Peleton unit around the room while the Peleton motivator guy shouts encouraging abuse/banter at you for being soft, slow, a faffer, etc.

"Peleton"? Is that a plan to introduce world-class Brazilian football-dribbling skillz into virtual tussock-stomping, too? (Mind the telly.... ).

Perhaps add a treadmill next to the e-bike Peloton setup to avoid the inherent risks that come with wandering around the living room.

[tobasco]

A BB app should have one numerical input, which when entered renders the phone dead for that number of hours.