2023 Bikepacking Recap & Predictions

Join us for the last video of 2023 as Neil recaps key moments in the bikepacking world and beyond. He covers the current state of the bike industry, popular events, the status of bikepacking routes, new features on BIKEPACKING.com, and more…

This video was supported by SURLY BIkes, Learn more about SURLY here: https://surlybikes.com/?utm_source=bikepacking.com&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=-123099&utm_id=sur-2065070

Outline
Intro: 0:00
Popular Events: 0:25
Triple Crown: 3:13
State of the Bike Industry: 5:00
Routes Added and Subtracted: 7:09
Reducing Our Impacts: 9:24
Bike Racks: 10:27
Accomplishments and Updates: 11:38
Looking Forward: 13:06

Related Links:
Sea Otter Recap – https://bikepacking.com/plog/2023-sea-otter-finds-part-3/
M.A.D.E Articles – https://bikepacking.com/?s=Made+bike+show
BESPOKED – https://bikepacking.com/bikes/bespoked-2023-bikes/
Rigs of The Tour Divide Drop Bar – https://bikepacking.com/bikes/2023-tour-divide-rigs-part-1/
Rigs of The Tour Divide Flat Bar – https://bikepacking.com/bikes/2023-tour-divide-rigs-part-/
Triple Crown Recap – https://bikepacking.com/plog/2023-triple-crown-challenge-interview-with-katya-rakhmatulina/
Kitsbow Closed – https://bikepacking.com/news/kitsbow-is-closing-its-doors/
Backpacking Routes – https://bikepacking.com/bikepacking-routes/
Bikepacking 101 – https://bikepacking.com/bikepacking-101/
Guide to Low Waste Bikepacking – https://bikepacking.com/plan/tips/guide-low-waste-bikepacking/
Best Rear Bike Racks for BIkepacking – https://bikepacking.com/gear/best-rear-racks-for-bikepacking-video/

Do you enjoy our videos, routes, and articles? Help sustain this resource by joining the Bikepacking Collective: https://bikepacking.com/join/?utm_source=youtube

#bikepacking #pedalfurther #goodnight2023
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::About The Host::
Neil Beltchenko (https://www.instagram.com/neil_beltchenko/)
Geometry: 150lbs, 5’9.5″, 32″ inseam, +2.5″ Ape index

– All right, wow, 2023, you’re almost over, and well, you were a pretty exciting year. There were a lot of bike packing happenings, incredible achievements, awesome events, loads of new bike packing route, lots of ridiculous bike sales, and plenty of silly comments on the YouTube channel. Alright, let’s just get right into it. 2023 reaffirmed that cycling events are really important, and maybe as important as ever, even if they’re not necessarily focused around say, bike shops or dealers as they had been in the past with Interbike. So I remember going to Interbike back in, I don’t know, 2015, 2016.

And for me it was exciting because it brought kind of the bike industry together as one. However, over the years, brands and dealers really didn’t see the necessity to kind of participate given, A, the time, and B, the location of the event. So in 2018, Interbike decided it would not return

For another year. But that doesn’t mean that trade show style events were a dying breed. And actually since folks kind of stopped worrying so much about the spread of COVID-19, they’ve thrived this year, at least from a media perspective. Sea Otter’s spring timeframe, Southern California Weather and bike event that kind of coincides

With the show seems like the best case scenario for event promoters. And many brands really still think this event is relevant, as this year I got countless emails asking if I was going to attend ’cause folks wanted to show me new products. Maybe one of the coolest events this year was MADE,

Which essentially took over for the North American Handmade bicycle show. The inaugural Portland Oregon event was a smashing success and it definitely showed in your interest in Miles’ articles that captured some genuinely incredible handmade bikes from folks all around the United States and a few beyond.

It’s going down again next August in Miles and myself plan on being there and we’re super excited about that. Previously hosted in the UK, Bespoked move to Dresden Germany this year and it proved to be a worthy trip for contributors Josh Meissner and Stefan Haehnel with a wide range of talented

German and European builders attending with some beautiful builds on display. In fact, the top 12 bikes of Bespoked article was one of our top 15 articles on bikepacking.com this year. And regarding race events, it’s just hard to ignore the Tour Divide. Each year our rigs of article

Is definitely one of the most popular of the year and it was no different in 2023. The 2,700 plus mile Tour Divide is an inspiring event whether you plan on racing it or not. And this year it was truly incredible dot watching with three racers on pace to beat the record

Before being stopped in their tracks in death Mud for nearly 24 hours. A few other races that have definitely gained popularity and are popular on our website are put on by Nelson Trees, the Silk Road Atlas and Hellenic Mountain Races all have a reputation for being some of the most challenging

Bike packing races out there, which not only brings in top athletes to participate, but also excites those dot watchers out there. Speaking of challenging the Triple Crown, wow, like seriously what a year, even if you don’t follow bike packing races, it was hard to ignore a few of the major accomplishments this year,

Particularly those Triple Crown results. The bike packing Triple Crown, if you haven’t heard of it, it basically refers to completing the most iconic off-road bike pack races in the United States. The Tour Divide, the Colorado Trail Race, and the Arizona Trail race. But in 2012, David Goldberg

Dreamed up of an even harder challenge doing all three races in one year, dubbing it the Triple Crown Challenge. So before this year there were only 13 folks that completed the challenge, but there were six finishers this year that completed by far the most in any year,

Making 19 all time Triple Crown Challenge finishers. Not only were there six finishers this year, but four of which were women, including Katya Rakhmatulina, who set the new women’s record with a time of 32 days, six hours and 33 minutes. And Alexandera Houchin also set a new women’s single speed record

With a time of 34 days, 22 hours and 33 minutes. So if this is the future of racing in our little sub industry, we’re definitely in for a treat the next few years. So before I move on, I just wanted to let everybody know

That this video is supported in part by Surly Bikes. Surly, they make serious steel bikes for people that don’t take themselves too seriously. They make bikes that are versatile and durable that can be dressed up or down for bike packing, commuting A to B, and gravel grinding,

Or really whatever you call fun on two wheels. With 15 original dirt friendly platforms, they offer something that fits just about anyone for any style of riding. So for more on Surly and their bikes, make sure to hit this card right here or you can also find a link below.

Alright, so 2023 was a historic year and maybe not for all of the right reasons. So after the 2022 and 2021 pandemic kind of boom, 2022 started a downward trend. But it seems as if 2023 told the real story of the current state of the bike industry. The main issue is inventory,

Between over purchasing during the pandemic and the consumer desire waning, brands have too many bikes or products. And because of this we’ve seen some wild discounts in hopes that manufacturers can kind of clear inventories. I would say the biggest sale that we saw this year was that Kona Process Sale.

You buy one Kona Process, you get the second free. That was insane. But there have been many other big blowouts from bike brands, really too many to name them all. And if you were trying to sell a used bike right now, well you know, it is not easy at all.

The other downward spiral is brands closing their doors such as Guerrilla Gravity, or Islabikes and All-City are both winding down their operations. Kitsbow my favorite cycling apparel brand. I’m wearing a shirt right here. Yeah, they shut their doors too. So I cannot tell you how many comments I’ve received this year asking

What shirt I was wearing and it usually was the Kitsbow icon. So sorry folks, head to eBay, or maybe we could convince folks from Kitsbow to just start the Icon brand. How cool would that be? It’s definitely the best shirt I’ve ever worn.

Yeah, I’ve even heard of a few bike shops that have or definitely plan on closing their doors on the other side of the new year. Some larger brands that offer quarterly updates also continue to report losses versus 2022. And we also continue to see more brands

Such as Yeti this year focus on their margins and offering direct to consumer, which directly takes business and maybe more importantly, relationships away from local bike shops. We definitely would be nowhere without our local bike shops. They still are the only ones that can repair our bikes. So I really urge everyone

Or anyone that is interested in buying a new bike, now is the best time to support your local bike shop and in general, supporting them when you can. In 2023, we continued to grow our bike packing route network, which is the largest and first of its kind.

We ended up publishing 56 new bike packing routes this year that ended up covering over 11,000 miles. We also launched the first of many Route network hubs, the first one being here in Gunnison, Colorado. These hubs will host several different routes from week-long trips to Overnighters

And offer an extensive guide to the town they start from and the surrounding area. You’ll be able to find all of our route network hubs, which are indicated by large orange pins on our maps and stay tuned for our second route network hub, which we will be publishing in a few weeks.

We are just super grateful to our readers who have helped contribute some fantastic routes this year and definitely over the years, you are a driving force to growing routes worldwide. While some excellent routes were published this year, unfortunately the BLM notified us that one and perhaps more of our route would be affected

Due to updated travel management plans in Utah. So the Labyrinth Travel Management Plan was finalized this fall, and that plan closed 23% of the roads inside the Labyrinth travel management area to off-Road vehicles, which shockingly I know includes human powered cyclists. Nevertheless, we understand the desire to reduce habitat fragmentation

And protect delicate ecosystems and wildlife. Because of the updated plan, our popular Hey Joe Safari route was affected, as seven miles of the route inside Labyrinth Canyon were closed. And despite not catching wind of the Labyrinth travel management updates and voicing our concerns in advance, we did ask the price BLM Field Office

To consider keeping the roads open for our San Raphael swell routes. And we should hear more on that decision in April of 2024. So I’m not here to criticize the BLM, I know they’re working hard to maintain our public lands, and I know these decisions are not easy to make,

But I am here to say that we can only track so many changes. So please inform us of anything that you hear or find along our routes by submitting a route alert, which can be found under the map on each route page. So we continue to update

And share ways to reduce our impacts that translate really well for bike packing, but are also a good general rule to live by, at least they have been for me. In our updated “Bikepacking 101 Handbook,” which we published this year, we have a bike packing ethos section that showcases

That bikepacking can be a limited impact activity, showcasing our 2022 updated leave no trace bike packing principles, and updated this year, our guide to low waste bike packing. After reading the updated low waste bike packing guide, I’ve strived to reduce my waste and this means bringing more reusable containers,

Letting attendants know that I don’t need or want to go packaging or bags when ordering food or checking out, selecting non-plastic items at a convenience store, buying locally raised food, and refilling water in faucets or spigots. Small things like this can help reduce our impacts and I urge everyone to read Cass’ article

As it’s filled with great ideas, and I found it to be extremely helpful. All right, so I was super surprised after kinda looking back at the year and I realized that I didn’t once use a seat pack. Yeah, it’s pretty wild. At one point I was actually really against using racks altogether,

But over the last handful of years I started using them for the first time and I found that they offer a more enjoyable experience. And despite some of your silly comments on YouTube about coming full circle, not me, I’ve only done the half circle. I’ll probably go back eventually, but yeah, anyways,

These racks have really come a long way and are definitely more optimized for off-Road travel. And believe it or not, many of you all are super interested in racks as the most viewed video on the YouTube channel in 2023 was the best rear racks for bike packing.

And our second most popular article on the website was our bike rack gear index. We saw some really cool systems launched like the Ortlieb Quick Rack that joined a slew of cool designs already available. We also saw a lot of unique kind of front steel cradle harness like systems,

Like the Good Day Space Cradle, and I see no end in sight, and I suspect that we will see more innovation in this space in 2024. So speaking of the “Bikepacking 101 Handbook,” the recently updated 2.0 version was our most popular article out of nearly 1100 unique articles published in 2023.

It’s an extensive resource and Logan did a tremendous job of detailing everything that you need to know from getting started, to choosing bikes and bags, and how to pack your gear, how to create an attainable route and much, much more. Plus paired with the other resources and gear indexes on our site,

I think we’ve made it pretty easy to find what you’re looking for. We also added a new gear review and tip area on our homepage to kind of provide another way for folks to view our steady stream of content. We are also super excited

To roll out a new three tier membership option in 2024, where folks can join as a supporter, sustainer, or builder to fit their budgets better and to do more to help support our independent platform. And finally, yes, the bikepacking.com YouTube channel recently reached a hundred thousand subscribers, something I’m super, super proud of.

I hope that you’ve kind of enjoyed three plus years of content, and notice maybe a bit of improved delivery over the years. But yeah, I just want to thank you all for the continued support. And yes, I want to thank you all so much for the ongoing comments and of course criticism

As it’s fun to interact with you all. I’m super excited to bring a lot of awesome videos to you all 2024. All right, so what can we expect for 2024? Well, as far as the industry is concerned, I think we’re in a pretty good spot for bike packing.

We continue to see really cool innovative bikes, products and brands focusing on making bike packing easier. And despite the bike industries let downs, I suspect things will definitely kind of normalize or level out once those inventory issues do get resolved, which should be sooner rather than later. And despite kind of that inflation,

At least here in the United States, it seems like the economy is doing all right, and folks have jobs and people are spending money, maybe not as much money as they were during the pandemic. So I don’t think we’re gonna see another buy one get one free sale towards the holiday next year.

But I do know this recovery is going to take some time. So I don’t know, we’ll see. All right, so it’s time to hear from you all, what were some of your highlights of 2023? Was it a trip you went on, just a simple ride that you went on,

Perhaps making your first route or going on your 50th? Let me know in the comment section below. And if you like what you saw in this video, please hit that subscribe button and notification bell. And if you wanna help support us a little bit more,

You can do so by signing up for the Bike Packing Collective. The collective has a lot of awesome perks, including the twice yearly bike packing journal among other things. So to learn a little bit more about the Bike Packing Collective, you can click on the card in the top right corner.

As always, thank you all so much for watching. Happy New Year and until next time, pedal further.