I wonder who wrote this ..

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Mon Nov 23, 2015 11:27 pm

http://bikepackersmagazine.com/the-stat ... kepacking/

Moder-dye · Post by **Moder-dye** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 8:48 am

Solo · Post by **Solo** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 9:27 am

Absolutely brilliant piece. Really enjoyed that.

summittoppler · Post by **summittoppler** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 10:21 am

UK bike packing in a nutshell, enjoyed that. Cheers

psling · Post by **psling** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:41 pm

Well written and a good read

!

adjustablewench · Post by **adjustablewench** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:53 am

Very good - this bit tickled me

"a lot of the imagery generated in other parts of the world appears to show bikepacking with an inspirational tint. Snow capped mountain vistas, flowery meadows and near perfect conditions – but here, you’re more likely to see pictures of people dragging their bikes through knee deep bogs or some such. Maybe it’s the self-effacing nature of the British population?"

. . . . Or maybe it because the rest of the world doesn't have Stu setting routes and proffering grid references. . . .

Bearbonesnorm · Post by **Bearbonesnorm** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 10:22 am

Very good - this bit tickled me

"a lot of the imagery generated in other parts of the world appears to show bikepacking with an inspirational tint. Snow capped mountain vistas, flowery meadows and near perfect conditions – but here, you’re more likely to see pictures of people dragging their bikes through knee deep bogs or some such. Maybe it’s the self-effacing nature of the British population?"

. . . . Or maybe it because the rest of the world doesn't have Stu setting routes and proffering grid references. . . .

Maybe I should set-up on a world-wide freelance basis?

It could be a bit like Coca-Cola but rather than teaching the world to sing, it'd be swear.

benp1 · Post by **benp1** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:18 pm

Stuart - congrats. That is a very well written, informative and nicely balanced article. Really enjoyed that

I like to think of Bikepacking as the intersection of a number of different venn diagram circles. Each circle captures some people, but not a huge number. The intersection therefore captures particularly few people!

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:15 pm

Regarding numbers, there's just under 900 registered users of this forum. Some will be just dipping their toes in the water while others are swimming off-shore (some are only known from a rigid outstretched hand sticking out of one of Stu's BB200 bog sections

) but unlike say climbing where there are several forums (fora?) this seems to be the only UK forum dedicated to bikepacking.

I really have no idea of the percentage of UK bikepackers registered here but let's go with 50% which gives a UK total of 1800.

I think the ITT numbers are much, much lower - you don't see too many different names when looking at the group start lists.

Bearbonesnorm · Post by **Bearbonesnorm** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:35 pm

Regarding numbers, there's just under 900 registered users of this forum. Some will be just dipping their toes in the water while others are swimming off-shore (some are only known from a rigid outstretched hand sticking out of one of Stu's BB200 bog sections ) but unlike say climbing where there are several forums (fora?) this seems to be the only UK forum dedicated to bikepacking.

I really have no idea of the percentage of UK bikepackers registered here but let's go with 50% which gives a UK total of 1800.

I can't help but wonder if there's actually more but it's obviously very hard to know. The Bike and Bivi FB page has over 1600 members and I'm sure there's a lot who are unaware of this place or really of the 'bikepacking scene' that exists. That could just be that it's easy to join and requires minimal effort, so appeals to those with only a passing / mild interest?

The stats on the BB reviews/blog average out at 18,000 hits a month and the newsletter goes out to 1100 folk.

All the above probably means nothing at all or does it mean that, there's plenty of interest but not that much participation?

I think the ITT numbers are much, much lower - you don't see too many different names when looking at the group start lists.

That's true, only a small percentage of riders take part but the interest they generate goes well beyond the general bikepacking community.

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:00 pm

Put "bikepacking uk" in to a well known search engine and this site is the first hit but that does presuppose that you know that the activity is referred to as "bikepacking", searching for "MTB touring" or "off-road bike touring" and the first page of hits is mainly CTC links or to companies that do supported trips. (as an aside - I first came across the term "bikepacking" about three years ago on a blog written by an English guy living in Finland who was giving it a go)

ITTs? I suppose a lot of people from outside the scene as it were view them as races so attract attention from that perspective. The group starts and similar are probably the only time that more than a couple of bikepackers are seen together - do you lot really exist or is this a variant on The Truman Show?

It's actually quite easy to disappear in to the countryside and you only have to be a short distance away from another rider for you not to know they are there. I don't think we've seen another bikepacker when we've been out in the Dales for example, though it's rare that we even see another MTB rider so bikepacking's a minority of a very small number.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:29 pm

It's actually quite easy to disappear in to the countryside and you only have to be a short distance away from another rider for you not to know they are there.

Is this not why we do it in the first place?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:41 pm

It's actually quite easy to disappear in to the countryside and you only have to be a short distance away from another rider for you not to know they are there.

That's not Bikepacking, that's stalking, it's different.

If you're doing it on a bike though you may have invented Bikestalking

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:46 pm

Ian wrote:
It's actually quite easy to disappear in to the countryside and you only have to be a short distance away from another rider for you not to know they are there.
Is this not why we do it in the first place?

Indeed

I was meaning to demonstrate that even on the ground it's hard to get a feeling for the numbers as it's unlikely that two parties will leave from the same point at the same time so know that the other was bikepacking.

Zippy · Post by **Zippy** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:53 pm

Bearbonesnorm wrote: I'm sure there's a lot who are unaware of this place or really of the 'bikepacking scene' that exists. .

I only came across this place because I happened to bump into Taylor and co. at a Bothy when the BB200 2012 was going on. The rest is history - but I do wonder if I would have found out otherwise...

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:56 pm

There must be many that simply aren't accomplished keyboard warriors and have no desire to be here.

They'll be the ones out riding their bikes....

And thus the error of my ways is revealed...

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:58 pm

Zippy wrote:
Bearbonesnorm wrote: I'm sure there's a lot who are unaware of this place or really of the 'bikepacking scene' that exists. .
I only came across this place because I happened to bump into Taylor and co. at a Bothy when the BB200 2012 was going on. The rest is history - but I do wonder if I would have found out otherwise...

I came across this site when a friend did the Cairngorms Loop and I looked that up on the web and there's a link to here.

Ian: it's currently a distraction from debugging some QML!

Ray Young · Post by **Ray Young** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 4:12 pm

I came across bikepacking by accident after seeing a picture of a loaded bike. Previously I had been off road touring.
On the Capital Trail I rode with a few different people who bikepacked regularly and although they were aware of the bearbones site none of them used it.

Bearbonesnorm · Post by **Bearbonesnorm** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 4:30 pm

On the Capital Trail I rode with a few different people who bikepacked regularly and although they were aware of the bearbones site none of them used it.

I hope you dished out some bollockings Ray

Ray Young · Post by **Ray Young** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:18 pm

Bearbonesnorm wrote:
On the Capital Trail I rode with a few different people who bikepacked regularly and although they were aware of the bearbones site none of them used it.
I hope you dished out some bollockings Ray

I think I overheard someone mention "hard route setting, reputation and going before them" or some such nonsense

.

whitestone · Post by **whitestone** » Wed Nov 25, 2015 8:09 pm

This popped up on my Twitter feed - http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/artic ... ips-45791/ (warning! it does mention the "m" word)

ianfitz · Post by **ianfitz** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 11:10 pm

I'd done a lot of bivying. Some with a bike and decided to do one per month as wasn't physically well enough to do anything proper about it.

Posted it on STW and was spotted by Stuart! That's how I found this place.

And that people were already doing that...

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