2023 Bikepacking Recap & Predictions (Video)

Wow, 2023, you were a hoot. There were many bikepacking happenings, incredible achievements, loads of new routes, a lot of ridiculous bike sales, and plenty of silly comments on YouTube. In our final video of 2023, I recount some of the highs and lows of an equally turbulent and exciting year in the world of bikes. You can find the 15-minute video below, followed by a written version with links to many posts you might have missed. Let’s get into it.

Popular Events

Last year reaffirmed that cycling events are as important as ever, even if they’re not necessarily as focused around bike shops or dealers as they had been. I remember going to Interbike back in the day; for me, it was exciting, as it brought the bike world together. However, over the years, brands and dealers didn’t see the necessity to participate, given the timing and location of the event. So, in 2018, Interbike decided it would not return for another year. But that doesn’t mean trade show events are a dying breed, and since folks stopped worrying so much about the spread of COVID-19, they have once again started thriving this year.

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Sea Otter‘s spring timeframe, southern California weather, and bike events that coincide with the show seem like a best-case scenario for event promotors. Many brands still think it’s a relevant event, and this year I got countless emails about folks wanting to showcase new products with us.

Maybe the year’s coolest event was MADE, which essentially took over for the North American Hand Made Bicycle Show (NAHBS). The inaugural Portland, Oregon, event was a smashing success, and it showed in the interest in Miles’ series of articles that captured some of the incredible handmade bikes from folks around the United States and a few beyond. It’s going down again next August, and Miles and I plan to be there.

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Previously hosted in the UK, Bespoked was held in Dresden, Germany, this year, and it proved to be a worthy trip for Berlin-based 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, our “Top 12 Bikes of Bespoked” article was one of the 15 most popular articles on BIKEPACKING.com this year.

Regarding race events, it’s hard to ignore the Tour Divide. Each year, our “Rigs of” article is one of the most popular of the year. The 2,700-plus-mile Tour Divide is an inspiring event, whether you plan on racing it or not, and this year’s incredible race was super exciting, with three racers on pace to beat the record before being stopped in their tracks in death mud for 24 hours.

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A few other races that have gained popularity are those put on by Nelson Trees: the Slik Road, Atlas, and Hellenic Mountain Races, all of which have a reputation for being some of the most challenging bikepacking race events in the world. They bring in top athletes and are thrilling for dot watchers too.

Triple Crown

Speaking of challenging, even if you don’t follow the bikepacking race scene, it was hard to ignore a few of the major accomplishments this year, particularly the Triple Crown Results. The bikepacking Triple Crown refers to completing the most iconic off-road bikepacking routes in the United States: The Tour Divide, The Colorado Trail Race, and the Arizona Trail Race in a career. In 2012, David Goldberg dreamed up an even harder endeavor: doing all three races in one year, dubbing it the Triple Crown Challenge. Before this year, only 13 folks had completed the challenge, but this year, there were six finishers, the most in any year, upping the number to 19 all-time Triple Crown Challenge finishers.

Not only were there six finishers this year, but four of them were women, including Katya Rakhmatulina, who set a new overall women’s record with a time of 32 days, 6 hours, and 33 minutes (32:06:33) and Alexandra Houchin, who set a new women’s singlespeed record with a time of 34 days, 22 hours, and 33 minutes (34:22:33). If this is the future of racing in our little sub-category, we’re in for a treat the next few years.

State of the Bike Industry

Last year was a historic year, but not necessarily for all the right reasons. After the 2020 and 2021 pandemic surge, 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 consumer desires waning, brands have too many bikes and products. Because of this, we’ve seen some wild discounts in hopes that manufacturers can clear their inventory. The biggest sale of the year was Kona doing a buy one Process get the second for free. But there have been many other big blowouts from bike brands—too many to name them all. Because of this, the used bike market has been bad; if you’re trying to sell a used bike right now, you know it’s not easy. Many new bikes are selling for similar prices as folks are hoping to get for their used ones.

The other downward spiral is brands closing their doors, such as Gorilla Gravity. Isla Bikes and All-City are both winding down their operations too. Kitsbow, my favorite cycling apparel brand, shut their doors as well. I’ve even heard of a few bike shops that have closed or plan to do so on the other side of the new year. Some larger brands that offer quarterly updates continue to report losses versus 2022, and we also continue to see more brands, such as Yeti, focusing on their margins and offering directly to consumers, which directly takes business and maybe more important relationships away from local bike shops. We would be nowhere without local bike shops; they still are the only ones that can repair our bikes. If you are in need of a new bike, now is the best time to support your local shop. And, in general, I urge you to support them whenever you can.

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Routes added (and subtracted)

In 2023, we continued to grow our bikepacking route network, which is the largest and first of its kind. We published 56 new bikepacking routes this year that covered more than 11,000 miles. We also launched the first of many Route Networks Hubs. These hubs will host several routes, from week-long trips to overnighters, and offer an extensive guide to the town they start from. You can find these hubs marked on our route map with larger orange pins. Stay tuned for our second Route Network Hub, which we’ll be publishing in a few weeks. We are so grateful to our readers who have helped contribute some fantastic routes this year. You are a driving force for our growing routes worldwide.

While some excellent routes were published this year, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) notified us that one route and perhaps more would be affected due to the updated Travel Management Plans in Utah. The Labyrinth Rims/Gemini Bridges Travel Management Plan was finalized this fall, and it closed 23% of the roads in the the Labyrinth Rims/Gemini Bridges Travel Management Area to off-road vehicles, which shockingly included 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. Despite not catching wind of the updates in advance, we asked the Price BLM field office to consider keeping the roads open for our San Rafael Swell Routes, and we should hear more on that decision in April 2024.

I’m not criticizing the BLM; they work hard to maintain our public lands, and I know these decisions weren’t easy. But I’m here to say we can only track so many changes, so please inform us of anything you hear or find along our routes by submitting a route alert, which can be found under the map on each route page.

Reducing our waste/impacts on trips

We continue to update and share ways to reduce our impacts that translate well for backpacking and are good general rules to live by. In our updated Bikeapcking 101 Handbook, we have a Bikepacking Ethos section that showcases how bikepacking can be a limited impact activity, highlighting our 2022 updated Leave No Trace Bikepacking Principles and our updated Guide to Low-Waste Bikepacking.

After reading the updated low-waste guide, I have strived to reduce my waste. This means bringing reusable containers, letting attendants know that I don’t need or want to-go packing or bags when ordering food or checking out, selecting non-plastic items at convenience stores, buying locally raised food, and refilling water in faucets or spigots. There are countless small things we can do to help reduce our impacts, and I urge everyone to read Cass’s guide. It’s filled with great ideas, and I found it to be very practical and helpful.

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Bike Racks

Looking back, 2023 was the first year I didn’t use a seat pack, and even I was pretty surprised by this. At one point, I was against using racks all together, but over the last few years, I started using them for the first time, and I’ve found that they offer a more enjoyable experience. Despite some of your silly comments on YouTube about coming full circle (not me; I’ve only done a half circle), these racks have come a long way and are more optimized for off-road travel. And many of you seem interested in racks, as the most viewed video on the YouTube channel in 2023 was “The Best Rear Racks for Bikepacking,” and our second most popular article on the website was our Rear Bike Rack Gear Index. We saw some cool systems launched, such as the Ortlieb Quick Rack, which joined a slew of cool designs already available; we also saw a lot of unique front steel cradle harnesses, such as the Goodday Space Cradle, and I see no end in sight. I suspect we see more innovation in this space for 2024.

Accomplishments and updates

Speaking of our Bikepacking 101 Handbook, the recently updated Version 2.0 was our most popular article out of nearly 1,100 unique articles published in 2023. It’s an extensive resource, and Logan did a tremendous job of detailing everything you need to know from getting started, to choosing a bike and bags, how to pack your gear, how to create an attainable route, and much more. Paired with the other resources and Gear Indexes, we’ve made it easy to find what you are looking for here on the site. We also added a new gear reviews and tips area on the homepage to provide another way for folks to view our steady stream of gear-related 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 better fit their budgets and do more to help support our independent platform. Finally, The BIKEPACKING.com YouTube Channel recently reached the 100,000 subscriber milestone, something I’m very proud of. I hope you have enjoyed the three years of content and noticed a bit of improvement during that time. I want to thank you for your continued support. Thanks so much for the ongoing comments and, of course, criticism. It’s fun to interact! I’m super excited to bring you more videos next year.

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Looking forward

So, what can we expect for 2024? As far as the industry is concerned, we’re in an excellent spot for bikepacking. We continue to see many innovative bikes, products, and brands focusing on making bikepacking easier. And despite the bike industry letdowns, I suspect things will normalize once inventory issues are resolved, which should be sooner rather than later. And despite inflation being ridiculous here in the United States, the economy is doing well, folks have jobs, and money is still being spent. I don’t think we will see another buy one get one free sale toward the holidays next year, but I do think this recovery will take a little time.

With that, I would love to hear your highlights of 2023. Was it a trip, a ride, making your first route, or going on your 50th? Please let me know in the conversation below!

Further Reading

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...