You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
My background:
Road cyclist: sportives, fitness and leisure rides of 1-4 hours.
How I perceive bikepacking:
* Travel light.
* Consider a cable lock to facilitate quick shop visits.
* Ride 4-8 hours each day.
* Pitch tent or bivy after 23:00 when it's dark. Be gone by 07:00 to retain stealth. Leave no trace.
Question:
What do you do for the other 8-12 hours of the day when you're neither riding nor sleeping?
1. Visit a museum, some local attraction or go for a stroll.
That means leaving your bike (and all the gear attached to it in the frame, saddle and handlebar bags) secured with a mere cable lock? Would you not worry about it - or the luggage attached to it - being stolen?
2. Pitch your tent in the daylight. Sit inside and read, relax.
At least your bike and luggage are alongside you now. But you might be interrupted or asked to move on, unless you're genuinely in the middle of nowhere or you pitch at a legitimate camp site?
3. Visit a pub, cafe, picnic area
Choose one which allows you to keep your bike nearby, within sight.
Common sense tells me to do option 3, or use an undesirable bike and transfer the luggage on it to a rucksack on my back when I leave it.
Any tips or advice? Am I worrying too much about crime? Alas I'm from the South East :-/
how can I spend the time when I’m neither riding nor sleeping
Eating.
That's it.
Where you are bikepacking makes a huge difference. If you're in a nice country away from cities then you're unlikely to have anything tampered with. I wouldn't bother going bikepacking anywhere I thought crime was going to be a major problem. I did the tour divide without any kind of bike lock at all.
I think of bikepacking as just riding, eating, sleeping, always keeping the bike within eyesight.
What you describe sounds like touring to me, in which case i'd either use a more substantial lock or more secure accommodation.
I have no idea, but I like the idea of visiting art galleries, museums, maybe taking in some stately homes and sculpture parks. 'Ride. Culture. Dream. Repeat' as the popular tee-shirt slogan has it.
carry on riding till its dark ?
What you describe sounds like touring to me, in which case i’d either use a more substantial lock or more secure accommodation.
this
bikepacking and/or touring is also taking what is required for your specific needs, so if you're planing on riding all day and always within sight of your bike then you don't need a lock (or something minimal to stop an opportunist), if you're stopping often to look at the local sights then pack a decent lock and maybe casual clothes so you're not wandering around in cycling kit, or invest in some Gravel Specific (TM) loose cycling kit
it's mainly common sense
You don't go bikepacking and ride for 4 hours, ever.
I'd expect to be riding, with food and coffee stops, from morning til it's near dark, no point in rushing to your camp spot, take your time, take it all in.
I've never waited that late to pitch. 10pm maybe, often a little earlier depending on where. If proper remote maybe earlier again. If in more built up places consider a campsite every third night or something to get longer to relax if you want one.
But just because you have not got a tent up doesn't mean you can't do the other sort of camping admin like cooking etc. You can do it where you plan on camping (or have just camped if talking about breakfast) or better still somewhere with a better view than the stealthy location you are going to sleep.
Then a leisurely lunch stop somewhere (pub or DIY) and riding a bit slower than you are expecting and its amazing how fast the day goes.
But I do like the idea of longer arty stops. Snag is those sort of places and minamialist bikepacking trips don't really mesh geographicaly and also clothing wise. As above what you are describing sounds more like touring with a bit more kit than my idea of bikepacking. I like touring, don't get me wrong - but bikepacking to me is dirty, rural long days in the saddle with just a bit of sleeping and eating to break it up.
If you're going to a museum you're probably in a city. There's no way I'm leaving hundreds (thousands?!) of quids worth of bike/gear unattended or secured with a light cable lock! If I was to do that kind of touristy-touring I'd book a hotel for a day or two and leave the bike(s) safely in the room!
But really,
this. Any "spare" time can be taken up with more leisurely eating or just chilling out & looking at the scenery. You ARE going somewhere scenic, right?!I think of bikepacking as just riding, eating, sleeping, always keeping the bike within eyesight.
Alas I’m from the South East
Move somewhere civilised! 🙂
More seriously. You'd be riding a lot more than 4-8hrs: get up, ride for an hour or two, find a cafe and have (second) breakfast, ride a few hours, find a cafe and have lunch, ride some more, find a pub, have a meal, ride a bit, find a bivy spot. Kip. Repeat.
When going into shops I might take items like the Garmin and lights with me but it would be such a faff to remove and replace everything. As Tom says, away from towns and cities there's generally very little crime of any sort
Knowing me, I'll probably spend an epic 12-16 hours in the saddle, stopping only briefly to ram a cake or sandwich into my mouth before pedalling on, then collapse in the tent at the end of the day.
I was just trying - for once in my life - to slow it all down, make the ride a bit more enjoyable, pedestrian, cultured, and get some indoor/warmth time too as it'll be Winter. But maybe that's more the touring mindset with camp sites and stopovers pre-arranged. Thanks all.
@scotroutes - foot problems. Tell me about it. Sesamoiditis ended my jogging and walking activities in 2016. 2 wheels are essential now.
Alas I’m from the South East
Move somewhere civilised!
I wouldn't entirely disagree with that 🙂 Am plotting my escape.
What do you do for the other 8-12 hours of the day when you’re neither riding nor sleeping?
Ride some trails off my main route. Hike up a hill. Go swimming in the sea/a loch. Do a bit of fishing. Soak up the scenery. Enjoy the peace and quite with no one else around. Carve big sticks into smaller sticks.
I only bikepack in remote areas, or to get me into remote areas to do something else while I'm there.
Going off-topic, does anybody know the origin of the Eat, Sleep, <your thing here>, Repeat meme? Earliest reference I can find on the internets is to a popular beat combo called Copeland in 2006, but that was just Eat, Sleep, Repeat. Fat Boy Slim is much more recent.
Back on topic the answer is that there is no answer. Just keep riding and keep looking back to see if you are being chased by bicycle thieves.
Not quite the same but 'Eat when you can, sleep when you can' was I'm pretty sure a Royal Marine saying.
This is exactly why I haven't tried it in South Wales. I'd expect to wake up and not even have the tarp/tent still be there.
If you don't live in or haven't grown up in the countryside it's possible that you won't realise just how quiet things get after dark. At this time of year with the clocks having gone back you'll get the evening "rush hour" of folk coming back from work in the local town then there's very little going on until pub chucking out time when a few taxis will zip around then there'll be nothing until morning.
This has a couple of knock-on effects: 1. you could set up a bivy just about anywhere and no-one will see you. 2. Any light stands out like a sore thumb (the countryside at night is really dark) and people know where their neighbours' lights are.
So while in theory you can bivy anywhere, in practice you need to be in a spot where you can't see any house/farm lights because then they won't be able to see you. No fires and not flashing high powered bike lights around helps as well 😉
Sometimes it's worth scoping out a bivy spot before dark, heading to the pub a bit further along the road then returning later to set things up and get your head down.