OP
OP
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
May I congratulate you on the colour coordination!
Touring...or 'bikepacking'?
- Thread starter Cathryn
- Start date
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May I congratulate you on the colour coordination!
Ah, that’s not little old me...that’s Josh Ibbett the Transcontinental winner amongst other things and Mason sponsored cyclist
mudsticks
Obviously an Aubergine
Ah that's OK,
Speed isn't everything
I'm highly inconsistent on the speed front anyway, some days it matters, others not so much.
One reason why I'm probs best suited to going alone -
That and the singing
iandg
Legendary Member
- Location
- Dumfries and Galloway
Ah that's OK,
Speed isn't everything
I'm highly inconsistent on the speed front anyway, some days it matters, others not so much.
One reason why I'm probs best suited to going alone -
That and the singing
Recent Topics
mudsticks
Obviously an Aubergine
Well they're probs all a bit busy out having adventures, aren't they.
I was only going to follow their IG account anyhow, not planning on trying to infiltrate 'the gang'
- Location
- Inside my skull
I take it that’s a cycle track. We need more like that are joined up and go places
- Location
- Inside my skull
I first heard bike packing in the way others have described it, back in the 80s.
Take back packing, as in carrying your home in a pack on your back on foot. Then instead of walking, use your bike and carry the pack on that. It was up in Scotland where bikes were being used to cut down the long walk on tracks from the road.
This was back in the 80s. Even without the packing bit, you’d often ride the bike along the land rover tracks. Hide the bike in some forestry somewhere or park it at a bothy. Go climb a mountain / hill on foot then return to your bike and ride back out or stop in the bothy overnight.
The use of bike packing to describe touring on road being a lot more recent.
Plus as the Rough Stuff Fellowship shows. People have been strapping stuff to their bikes for over 100 years and going on wild adventures. I remember reading the Rough Stuff Fellowship magazines at YHA back in the 80s as well.
What’s new is all the dedicated gear you can now get. But someone will probably point out that some of the stuff in the early 1900s was specially made!
Take back packing, as in carrying your home in a pack on your back on foot. Then instead of walking, use your bike and carry the pack on that. It was up in Scotland where bikes were being used to cut down the long walk on tracks from the road.
This was back in the 80s. Even without the packing bit, you’d often ride the bike along the land rover tracks. Hide the bike in some forestry somewhere or park it at a bothy. Go climb a mountain / hill on foot then return to your bike and ride back out or stop in the bothy overnight.
The use of bike packing to describe touring on road being a lot more recent.
Plus as the Rough Stuff Fellowship shows. People have been strapping stuff to their bikes for over 100 years and going on wild adventures. I remember reading the Rough Stuff Fellowship magazines at YHA back in the 80s as well.
What’s new is all the dedicated gear you can now get. But someone will probably point out that some of the stuff in the early 1900s was specially made!
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mudsticks
Obviously an Aubergine
Ah yes, that's the sort of thing I do..
Stash the bike and then go and do a hill, away from the bike sometimes.
My alpkit 40 litre backpack is my tent bag on the rack in transit. But can hold enough for an overnight walking trip too.
And then there's the hike n bike nutters, who instead of just leaving the bike hidden somewhere, will sling it over their shoulder and cart it up all sorts.
I'd hasten to add - some of those 'nutters' are good freinds of mine
- Location
- Inside my skull
Ah yes, that's the sort of thing I do..
Stash the bike and then go and do a hill, away from the bike sometimes.
My alpkit 40 litre backpack is my tent bag on the rack in transit. But can hold enough for an overnight walking trip too.
And then there's the hike n bike nutters, who instead of just leaving the bike hidden somewhere, will sling it over their shoulder and cart it up all sorts.
I'd hasten to add - some of those 'nutters' are good freinds of mine
It was a revelation when I first encountered it. It suddenly made the more remote routes accessible in a day. Plus it avoided a long trudge at the start or end of day to get to the more interesting mountain bits.
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
That looks a lot like the setups we're going with on our regular road bikes for LEJOG this year. Nice to see you've eschewed mudguards to keep the clean lines of the bike
I've spent about £60 on the bikepacking bags so it was a way cheaper option to try touring than getting a touring specific bike, panniers etc. If I love it I may invest at some point but we're just dipping our toes and we like our carbon road bikes too
A future optionThat looks a lot like the setups we're going with on our regular road bikes for LEJOG this year. Nice to see you've eschewed mudguards to keep the clean lines of the bike
I've spent about £60 on the bikepacking bags so it was a way cheaper option to try touring than getting a touring specific bike, panniers etc. If I love it I may invest at some point but we're just dipping our toes and we like our carbon road bikes too
https://masoncycles.cc/shop/categories/bokeh-bikes
lane
Veteran
Agree but that's the Netherlands
mudsticks
Obviously an Aubergine
Yes I take your point, but as a sometimes slightly grumpy, solitude loving hill goer, it can be a bit annoying when there's cyclists riding all over our remote places.
When we have slogged all day to get there on foot.
There's so many more rideable land-rover tracks in the Highlands now.
Grump over - I'm being a total hypocrite here anyway...
matticus
Guru
Ah, the Brocken (did you see a spectre?)
Rode round the lower roads of the Harz mountains on my Germany trip. Route: View: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/82831
Quite welsh terrain, I thought in that section!
(https://audaxclub-sh.de/event/hbk_2022/ Audax: a form of touring not yet discussed here!)
