Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
I find it a little depressing sometimes that simply discussing topics and exchanging ideas civilly seems to so hard to do these days. It's as though discussion without adopting an absolutist position or sarcasm causes great stress and needs to be shut down. They're just conversations. I enjoy participating in threads because it allows me to learn more about subjects; but if I have it all figured out already my mind is shut to any new concept I haven't already considered.
This forum is an enthusiast's site about-and-for Bicycle Touring. As with all enthusiast groups, people have very strong opinions. For long-time practioners these opinions become more ingrained by successful experiences. It will take a lot of evidence for these ingrained-opinions to be upset. But I think most enthusiasts will eventualaly align when positive evidence becomes substantial.
Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
Yes it was/is, although I'm not so sure it wasn't more of a rhetorical device to put that activity down.
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I wouldn't ask golfers to define tennis for me as one might expect their bias to be woven into the interpretation. Here, there is sometimes a subtle undertone that bike packing is a trendy catch phrase being used by hipsters to make something more out what they are doing.
I'm not sure if your referencing my statement that Bikepacking is a subset of Touring as a put down. I would never go on bikepacking.com and say that, but I stand by that because there has always been a subset of Touring Cyclists that do what bikepackers do, including me.
Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
To me that only re enforces why younger bikers like Max the Cyclist avoid touring sites like this (to our detriment) as they are tired of grumpy old boomers putting them down. Regardless, they appear to be out there, doing stuff and pushing the boundaries in a way that some of us only used to do. Fortunately, they'll let us join them, with panniers or without, on all sorts of bikes but they don't seem to be too hung up on letting us tell them what why or how it is that they are doing.
As for Max-the-cyclist I'm not sure you know or remember when he first started posting on this site. He came with an attitute that everyone was doing it wrong and he had seen light and that light was ultralight. As time progressed and his super-minimalist style began to receed, especially after an ill fated touring experience with some adverse weather. He did do a good job in testing some alternative gear, but unforfunately his initial-impression might have tarred him.
/meta