N0bodyOfTheGoat
Über Member
- Location
- Hampshire, UK
One carries everything on the bike to sleep outdoors, the other sleeps overnight in Travelodges etc. 🤣
What is the difference between bike packing and cycle touring?
- Thread starter tyred
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Only the lower orders sleep in anything less than a five star hotel.
- Location
- Inside my skull
Bike packing hotels are boutique
- Location
- Inside my skull
I have used the former for multi day walking trips with overnights, such as walking the Pennine Way over a couple of weeks. The latter for day walks in the hills. If it is an Americanism it has been used in England at least 50 odd years.
Nobody went back packing when I started going out in to the hills in 1972 with the Leeds Mountaineering club.
nogoodnamesleft
Senior Member
But backpacking is a somewhst ambiguous term. For some it's tent, walking boots and overnights in wilderness. For others it's low cost international travel normally done by youngsters sticking to hostels in larger cities.
Yes I know the term can mean different things to people but as I said higher it’s another Americanism.
- Location
- Inside my skull
No one in your group used the term. Others in other groups in England in same period did. 🤷♂️
Up until I discovered Youtube, my use and understanding of the term backpacking was that of the (usually young and on a "gap year") traveller going across continents using public transport, hostels and a very large rucksack.
I almost avoided this thread because in other places, I have seen discussions on this topic deteriorate in a similar way to helmet discussions - but I was pleasantly surprised
.
I think one of the earliest demarcations I heard was that bike-packing didn't use racks; another was that bike-packing was primarily off road and cycle-touring primarily on road. Certainly, I reckon that, bike-packing was typically presented as an activity with trail/adventure bikes or gravel bikes, and cycle-touring with more traditional touring bikes.
When typing that, it got me wondering if bike-packing, as a term in its modern parlance, came around before or after gravel bikes (or the same time).
Like others here have said, I don't think it really matters and the lines are becoming more blurred. Maybe the blurring is because as more people give "bike-packing" a go, the less "purist" people get generally, and people work out what mixture of bags, terrain and accommodation appeals or works for them. I do think that "purist bike-packing" has become a gateway to more traditional cycle-touring for some and that this in itself is bucking or turning the trends. It seems to me that there is a shift in the trend more towards racks and panniers.
I almost avoided this thread because in other places, I have seen discussions on this topic deteriorate in a similar way to helmet discussions - but I was pleasantly surprised
.I think one of the earliest demarcations I heard was that bike-packing didn't use racks; another was that bike-packing was primarily off road and cycle-touring primarily on road. Certainly, I reckon that, bike-packing was typically presented as an activity with trail/adventure bikes or gravel bikes, and cycle-touring with more traditional touring bikes.
When typing that, it got me wondering if bike-packing, as a term in its modern parlance, came around before or after gravel bikes (or the same time).
Like others here have said, I don't think it really matters and the lines are becoming more blurred. Maybe the blurring is because as more people give "bike-packing" a go, the less "purist" people get generally, and people work out what mixture of bags, terrain and accommodation appeals or works for them. I do think that "purist bike-packing" has become a gateway to more traditional cycle-touring for some and that this in itself is bucking or turning the trends. It seems to me that there is a shift in the trend more towards racks and panniers.
wakemalcolm
Legendary Member
- Location
- Ratho
I think bike-rambling, as I like to call it, officially jumped the shark when Tailfin launched bags to go either side of their rear rack and tried to get the general public to buy the emperor's new panniers using their army of tailfinfluencers.
Ultimately, the most important thing for me is: where did you go, what did you take and did you enjoy it with a side helping of: you got a gpx for that?
Ultimately, the most important thing for me is: where did you go, what did you take and did you enjoy it with a side helping of: you got a gpx for that?
Last edited:
matticus
Guru
I really wanted to post this, but you've put it much better than I would have!!
Similar threads
