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>Within the overlanding and bicycle-touring community, there are frequent complaints that so much of the federal-owned land in the United States (BLM land) is o

>Within the overlanding and bicycle-touring community, there are frequent complaints that so much of the federal-owned land in the United States (BLM land) is out west. Not only that, but much of that land is basically uninhabitable; there's a reason it's all managed by the BLM. It's not really a good place for hanging out in nature unless you can haul a LOT of water with you. It's far from civilization, much of it is arid, there isn't much cover if any. Even the roads aren't really fit for riding a bicycle (or even driving a car); you could use a full-suspension mountain bike I suppose, but that's not what bicycle touring is about.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago
> you could use a full-suspension mountain bike I suppose, but that's not what bicycle touring is about. But it is what “bikepacking”[0] is about, a term that over the last decade has started to crowd out “bicycle touring” among younger generations. People are intentionally searching for rough roads, even singletrack and hiking trails, and especially in North America! (But you overestimate the need for suspension.) Water is indeed something one has to plan around. I have cycled several hundred km of rough roads in the American West and met quite a lot of people living in vehicles on BLM land, just moving every two weeks. They of course were able to haul in all the water they needed for days on end, while a cyclist on rough roads can carry no more than about 15 liters at a time. [0] http://bikepacking.com http://bikepacking.com