And other such terms for groups of animals and birds, you know "a gaggle/skein of geese"; "a parliament of owls". Usually these are known as collective nouns.

So what would or should be the collective noun for a group of bikepackers? Should there be a different term depending on whether they are on the bike. at a cafe, milling around, in the same way that "gaggle" is used for geese on the ground and "skein" for them in the air?

A whiff of bikepackers. A group of bikepackers at a cafe and being avoided by other customers.
A natter of bikepackers - a group standing around chatting
???

A shower

No need to speculate it's

Faff

faff
/fæf/
verb
1.
(Brit, informal) ( intransitive) often foll by about. to dither or fuss
2.
A group or collection of bikepackers

A stench?

Hmm, "a faff of bikepackers" is ideal for a group standing around. "Stench" is a good one, even if it has a hint of nastiness, for the cafe. "A dither of bikepackers" for the group on the move?

An anomalous.

A deviation of bikepackers.

When everyone who is going to has had an input can we have a vote please?

A fashion of...

A r@ph@ of ........

edit oops forgot about the swear filter. I though that to show that satire isn't dead turning the 'r' word to its antithesis using would work but it doesn't.

So re post as a stealth of bikepackers.

Troop. Although chimps are probably better organised!

Where do these groups exist, apart from cafe/pub stops on ‘event’ rides?

a waft

ZeroDarkBivi wrote:Troop. Although chimps are probably better organised!

Where do these groups exist, apart from cafe/pub stops on ‘event’ rides?

I know of a couple of small towns that see ad hoc groups of bikepackers in the summer. Fort William, Fort Augustus and Aviemore would be three examples off the top of my head. A couple of years ago I might stop for a chat and work out whether I knew (of) them on t'internet. Now they're so common I rarely do.

What sort of bikepackers? The dipped in glue and rolled around millets kind, or the TLS ascetic kind? Assuming the latter...

I like deviation as a term (and lifestyle), but nice alternatives might be

a discrepancy of.....

or even

A hereticism of...... which fits nicely with the overtones of ascetisism.

A Disaster of bikepackers or a Pennant of bikepackers?

A conviviality of bikepackers

The dipped in glue and rolled around millets kind,

....

A "bimble" of bikepackers?

Scud wrote:A "bimble" of bikepackers?

^^ ^^

I'm going against the grain here:

A race of bikepackers

A boner of bikepackers

An adventure of bikepackers

Or maybe we don't need a name, the smell says it all?

Just to annoy Stu - A microcosm of (micro-adventuring) bikepackers.

The boringly obvious pack of packers.

Bearing in mind that bikepackers are often solitary creatures, an isolation of bikepackers.

And in our case, being bearboners, a sleuth of bearbones bikepackers.

I bought Beth one of these t-shirts. You’d be amazed how many people don’t get it