Bikepacking. A sport?

[fatbikephil]

It's definitely a game...

[Rob S]

It all depends on your approach to it, if you're just trying to get around a route then it's an activity (albeit a sporting activity). If you are trying to be the first home or trying to make a certain time to finish by, it's a sport. IMHO

[ScotRoutes]

Sport


Not sport

[Bearbonesnorm]

And what a great game this is. It's like throwing a grenade into a room, closing the door and running off

[Rob S]

And what a great game this is. It's like throwing a grenade into a room, closing the door and running off


Or poking a hornet's nest! Come to think about it, I'd say it's more like sport than bike packing is

[Alpinum]

There are only three sports: bullfighting*, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games

Ernest Hemingway

As if he had any clue...
Just because he was a writer and arsehole... C'mon

Like the writer (russian philosopher I'm not going to point my cheeky finger at) who worked his arse off writing down some gibberish he thought was utterly important (Michael Jackson is about 10^6 times better known... well poor show...) under deck when a mate went to call him out on deck to see the beautiful sunset.
When on deck, sailing across the Atlantic, the writer was enraged for what he was called away from his precious work and shouted never ever again they should disturb him from his meaningful work for nature's poor show.

He's the only writer I ever came across to not find love and beauty, rage and pity and all the other grandness in nature. And he surely had less impact than Aristotle, Goethe (who envied the younger Humboldt), Schiller, Shakespeare, Thoreau, Emerson and even Muir, Danilevsky and many other writers (I, except for Aristotle, excluded the many polymaths who where writers too).

Where were we again?
...

Ueli Steck was the only mountaineer I can think of who clearly saw himself as an athlete, rather than a mountaineer. But when we talked about sport he clearly didn't see his doings as such. Is calling an activity 'just' a sport too reducing? Does calling yourself an athlete purport your activity to being a sport?

When I sat down in front of tents one morning with Alan after a Highland Trail event and rolled a cigarette to go with a brew, he said "you shouldn't smoke, your an ultra endurance athlete". I laughed in disagreement to his probably not so serious statement.
Do bikepacking event/race winners call themselves athletes? I never heard or read of such. Perhaps it's wrong to assume an athlete does take part in sports. For me those two definitions are connected.

Sport...
Yeah. Not such a thing for me. It's all in your/the other's heads.
Sportive? Active.
Competitive? I like a challenge.
Training? Conditioning.
Etc.
I do seem to struggle to call something a sport, since I appear to believe it is indeed reducing it to a too singular form.

And what a great game this is. It's like throwing a grenade into a room, closing the door and running off

Indeed. Something I quite like too (throw a grenade)

[fatbikephil]

Given that we are leaders not followers (in terms of bikepacking that is), maybe we should make it a sport based on some of the criteria set out in Stus post. Spar Wars 2, this time its serious!

[woodsmith]

Given that we are leaders not followers (in terms of bikepacking that is), maybe we should make it a sport based on some of the criteria set out in Stus post. Spar Wars 2, this time its serious!

Better that we codify it than the dead hand of the UCI.

[ledburner]

Given that we are leaders not followers (in terms of bikepacking that is), maybe we should make it a sport based on some of the criteria set out in Stus post. Spar Wars 2, this time its serious!

Better that we codify it than the dead hand of the UCI.

Rule #1 There are no rules.
Rule #2 In case of doubt or dispute - see rule 1

[Verena]

It's definitely a game...

I like this. As in, "we're playing bikepacking this weekend"

I heard or read somewhere a while ago, that due to the messy and tricky nature of eating it, a family called it "playing spaghetti tonight" rather than "eating spaghetti", I thought that was brilliant

[jameso]

And what a great game this is. It's like throwing a grenade into a room, closing the door and running off

Good sport? Or, 'be a good sport..'

[woodsmith]

Given that we are leaders not followers (in terms of bikepacking that is), maybe we should make it a sport based on some of the criteria set out in Stus post. Spar Wars 2, this time its serious!

Better that we codify it than the dead hand of the UCI.

Rule #1 There are no rules.
Rule #2 In case of doubt or dispute - see rule 1

I prefer,

Rule #1 Don't be a dick
For everything else see Rule #1

[jameso]

Do bikepacking event/race winners call themselves athletes? I never heard or read of such.

I see a few 'Ultra-Endurance Athlete' type social media profile etc but rarely (if ever?) from those winning. Brands who sponsor riders use the terms a lot. It's hardly encouraging to many newer riders when it's presented to them as ULTRA ENDURANCE or ALTHLETICS for the sake of a rider or brand's ego. Long distance and self-supported, yes. I digress / rant but what's 'ultra' anyway?

[Lazarus]

Rule #1 There are no rules.

There are for ITT and for BB200/300 etc even LNT is a rule.

As for ultra etc I doubt the average newbie needs to be encouraged to do the HT550 etc as it is well beyond most bikepackers never mind newbies.i am not sure what word is required to indicate the level of fitness required but you will need more than fitness.

[jameso]

As for ultra etc I doubt the average newbie needs to be encouraged to do the HT550 etc as it is well beyond most bikepackers never mind newbies.i am not sure what word is required to indicate the level of fitness required but you will need more than fitness.

I meant that the prevalence of the racing element in bikepacking events, and the common reference to ultras and epics, isn't the sort of thing that makes it all seem particularly accessible. I believe it's far more accessible than it's portrayed anyway. The epic stuff or the importance of it just gets talked up a lot.
A new rider may not take in the HT550, sure. But a relatively experienced bikepacker or tourer may be new to the racing aspect and be far more capable of placing well than the image of racing suggests.

[Lazarus]

Fair points and most.lf my bikepacking is within 5 miles of my house so yes ( cost of equipment aside ) it's very accessible to do.
I don't do Instagram or any social media is it not also awash with micro adventures and other such more achievable goals ?

[Cheddar Man]

I read a very well written piece suggesting that a sport is a sport if you can do it better if you wear the correct shoes. So from that perspective, Bikepacking probably is a sport!

[psling]

I read a very well written piece suggesting that a sport is a sport if you can do it better if you wear the correct shoes. So from that perspective, Bikepacking probably is a sport!

And swimming isn't...

[AndreR]

It's definitely a game...

I like this. As in, "we're playing bikepacking this weekend"

Are you going to the game this weekend?
Who's playing?
BearBones are taking on Bikepacking.com, should be good it's the semi-final.

Sorry I'll get my coat

[woodsmith]

[/quote]

Are you going to the game this weekend?
Who's playing?
BearBones are taking on Bikepacking.com, should be good it's the semi-final.

Sorry I'll get my coat
[/quote]

We'll walk it if we get those effete hipsters from The Radavist in the final.

[AndreR]

Are you going to the game this weekend?
Who's playing?
BearBones are taking on Bikepacking.com, should be good it's the semi-final.

Sorry I'll get my coat
[/quote]

We'll walk it if we get those effete hipsters from The Radavist in the final.
[/quote]

[BigdummySteve]

How can it be a sport when everyone’s a winner?

[Ian]

And what a great game this is. It's like throwing a grenade into a room, closing the door and running off

OK, let's try again.

Baiting Colin looks like it could be a sport?

[BigdummySteve]

Do bikepacking event/race winners call themselves athletes? I never heard or read of such.

I digress / rant but what's 'ultra' anyway?

It’s like a Marshall amp,Nigel explains here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOO5S4vxi0o

[jameso]

It’s like a Marshall amp,Nigel explains here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOO5S4vxi0o

A new epic-athletic performance bikepacking brand, 11 Ultra?


No?