this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024

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Bicycle Touring and Bikepacking

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For all the pedal pushers out there that love long distance cycling. There are no gear requirements and no 'minimum distances' here.

Have you ridden for a cheeky overnighter or a 3 year global trek? Doesn't matter, you're welcome here.

Have you got panniers, bikepacking bags or just a backpack with the essentials? Doesn't matter, you're welcome here.

Have you got the latest in carbon engineering or your dads old 10 speed from the 70's? Doesn't matter, you're welcome here.

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Casual Chat Quarterly 02/24 (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

I was wondering if we should put “bikepacking” in the community's title, as in “Bicycle Touring and Bikepacking”, just so that we can poach people who search for this term from within lemmy. I’ve been following the user counts for a few cycling comms for a bit, but only started writing them down a bit later. I know that earlier [email protected] had like double the growth compared to this sub, even though it is pretty much dead. This seems to have turned around now and [email protected] seems to grow more. One user at a time :)

| | 25.11.2023 | 189 | 252 | 550 | | 15.12.2023 | 176 | 256 | 557 | | 01.01.2024 | 179 | 261 | 563 | | 15.02.2024 | 185 | 270 | 589 | | 01.03.2024 | 190 | 272 | 590 | | 16.03.2024 | 193 | 273 | 590 | | 01.04.2024 | 197 | 273 | 590 |

(These are numbers i got from lemmy world, might look different on other instances)

Still the bikepacking comm seems to have a lot more subscribers. I wouldn’t mind moving everything over to the bikepacking comm too, although when it was new it said in the description “leave your panniers at home”, which turned me off... since i have panniers haha. They have changed that description though. What do you think @[email protected] (or everybody else), should i add it to the Community title?

I also sometimes wonder if it even makes sense to have a dedicated touring / bikepacking community when there's so little traffic in the regular bicycle subs. I would think it would be good to maybe crosspost to f.e. [email protected] if it fits in there too (or other bike community). Is that a good idea @[email protected]? I would also like to add some related communities to the sidebar, like they have over at [email protected] . Recommendations welcome.

[–] retrolasered 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Oh I dont know, bikepackers just make fun of how much I carry and how long my trips take me 🥲 ..on a more serious note I feel like quality content is better than more. This community doesnt feel that quiet to me, especially for quite a niche one on lemmy. I dont mind sharing the community with those goddam elitists 😁 so long as any reddit repost bots that show up are swiftly purged!

I have some trips coming up soon, I will have something to share then :)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I understood the seperation on reddit, they had the traffic for it and the bikepacking sub was meant to be all about offroad and dirt. But seperating communities by the type of bags you use seemed like such a shallow take to me, unless the community was solely about gear aquisition.

Looking forward to see what you're up to. Is your ladyfriend coming along again?

[–] retrolasered 3 points 4 months ago

I dont think she would appreciate the distances on my next few trips tbh, maybe on a shorter one!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Hey dude, this post was perfectly timed!

Not to bore ya with my life story but in the past 3 months i quit my job, got rehired as a contractor for a month, packed up my life to move countries and ive just finished a 2 week bike tour (deets+photos+vids later) which i managed to sneak in, in all the chaos. I mention this as a bit of an apology for the radio silence.

Love the idea of adding "bikepacking" to the comm. I literally made this comm cause of the old description of /bikepacking and the perceived snark in their comm at the time, like the aformentioned comments about panniers.i assume it was all banter, but i love the freedom of cycling, and wanted this community to be as open and welcoming add possible

In terms of the dedicated comm for touring, i defs understand the hesitance, but i will be sticking around and trying to champion this comm moving forward. After the initial surge from reddit, i think a lot of people went back, but personally i would rather see a few posts here, then ever use that site again. i also think the nature of touring means that were going to have big content droughts over the northern hemisphere winter regardless.

I like the idea of cross posting, perhaps we can reach out to the mods over there to ensure they're happy for us to do so too.

anyway it's 1 am and I'm cooked, hopefully this comment makes sense :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Awesome, looking forward reading about what you were up to!

This week i am going to fix a long holiday again at work, and i think i should be on my way around mid April for a couple of months, not sure where i'll go yet.

And yeah i like dedicated touring / bikepacking comms, on reddit i used to only ever check those, not the general cycling ones (except sometimes cirklejerk and bikewrench). OK, i'll rename the Community then!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Anything related to cycling in all its varieties is okay to post/cross-post on [email protected] 😊 IMO user numbers are still too low on Lemmy to get overly picky over what gets posted where, which is why I set up the community as "anything goes", and I think cross-posting is a great way to get new people to discover the more specialized bike communities.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Hey, thanks for your input. I also feel like cross posting would be a win-win. Some nice cycling content for [email protected] and some attention for the touring / bikepacking stuff, maybe gives people ideas who haven't thought about it.

When i joined lemmy in the midsts of last years tour, i started posting to [email protected] before there was any traffic here and i felt very welcome. Really like the vibe in "your" community. It was the most active cycling comm and i think it had the most subscribers too. It still seems the most active, but somehow [email protected] seems to have much more subscribers now (It says 1.88K on lemmy world). Strange how that goes.

[email protected] will always have a place in my heart, i had a really great time when i found it! ❤️

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I thought something was off with the subscriber numbers i kept writing down for [email protected], and what do you know, today it is suddenly at 2.76K. That makes a lot more sense and i like that number much better!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Man I wanted to post some pictures from my trip this weekend and I can't put it in post.

But for anyone interested I visited rare double deck bunker built in 1938.

Here is some link to maps with pictures: LI/27/A-140Z Bratislava - Devínska Nová Ves, Bratislava Region, Slovakia https://mapy.cz/s/fosusocufa

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Were you there with that weird scooter bike that is seen in those pics? ;)

That is a cool looking bunker, never seen one like this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

These bunkers aren't rare you can found map of them here: https://mapa.opevneni.cz/

But this one is weird, because it is on flood plain you have to have 2 standard ones stacked and waterproofed.

I just visited bigger one with antitank cannons and observation bells.

Btw it would be nice route around the border to check them out.