Bikepacking - where's it heading?

[Matt]

up,
out,
over,
through,
around and back with a smile

no need to over complicate

[Cheeky Monkey]

I can't see bike manufacturers doing anything significantly different - surely the point is you can do it all on a "normal" MTB?

I think quite a bit of the bike industry will do anything to sell sand to arabs. So if they see an opportunity to market it they'll do so.

I Maybe far too old and cycnical

[ericrobo]

An interesting discussion... here's my tuppence worth : I've been a fell-runner, climber (still am a bit), alpine climber, road cyclist until 1990, then mtb since then... I love it, the physical exercise, the terrain, the riding, BUT what does really count is the Land, the Love of the Land, something which I hold very dear. So comments about Right to Roam, Law in Scotland as opposed to England and Wales are very relevant. As MTB'ers we probably take the Land for granted, but without it we have nothing. Great rides in great country is (to me) what it's all about... when you are out in good country for a few days the atmosphere soaks into you...(hoping it's not pee'ing down - ha !) Climbers have this thing called "The love of the hill" - same thing as Love of the Land.
So as bikepackers do we all have the love of the land ?

[nobby]

So as bikepackers do we all have the love of the land ?

I had that well before becoming a cyclist or even a walker. I've always been fascinated by the landscape; man's impact on it, and what it contains. I even managed to work it into a history degree at a polytechnic. Probably comes from enjoying living in cities for 58 of my past many years.
I became a bikepacker because the reduced luggage width makes it easier to get my non folding bike in the cubby hole on an Arriva Welsh Borders train, and from that came a desire to be able to use the bridle paths and towpaths with a camping load encumbered bike. Any offroad harder than that is probably not for me :)