The Pinoy Bikepacker: A Cycle Touring Primer by Lagalag

Last night, I attended Lagalag's "The Pinoy Bikepacker: A Cycle Touring Primer" at their store in SM City North EDSA. I've always been interested in touring and it would be nice to hear from people who have been doing it.

The event started a little after 7:00pm and the discussion was led by Pen and G-third, who I believe are members of UP Mountaineers.

G-third and Pen

There were quite a lot of us packed inside the store. There were about 10 of us there who had no experience in the kind of multi-day bikepacking that they do. There were also other members of Lagalag in attendance. Generally, the talk had a very friendly vibe because of the presence of the "veterans". It's nice to see other people being interested in trying to do a bikepacking tour. As mentioned by G-third, people do bikepacking for different reasons. Some people just want to see new things and be in new places. Some people want to explore the in-betweens of their destinations. For me, it's all about experiencing getting from point A to point B using one of my favorite things in the world - a bicycle. I haven't really been doing a lot of traveling. But I love having more reasons to ride my bicycle. And seeing the pictures of their bikepacking trips (see them in their Facebook page) makes me think that seeing the beautiful scenery and the interesting people are just more reasons to do so.

Crowd shot

G-third was the one who discussed about the finer points of bikepacking. In his introduction, he told us how Google differentiated bikepacking from biketouring. Basically, to some, bikepacking involves shorter distances and lighter loads compared to biketouring. But for the purpose of our discussion, these two terms are interchangeable, thus the title of the talk. He also emphasized the idea of "Filipino bikepacking/biketouring". I've been researching on the web for a while and as G-third pointed out, foreigners do biketouring differently than we do. Mainly, Westerners have more financial freedom to do long tours so they can actually leave their day jobs and even sell of their possessions to fund their expeditions. This phenomenon is documented in several of the blogs and sites that I follow. Filipino bikepacking, is shorter and more on a shoestring budget because most of those who do it, can't leave their day jobs and have families to take care of. So in a sense, our brand of bikepacking is more "practical", I suppose.

G-third is bikepacker himself with a lot of experience

G-third then talked about the key things in preparing for a bike tour. Here are some of the things I learned:

1. Don't worry about age or lack of athleticism. There are many bikepackers who started in their latter years and those who came from virtually zero physical fitness. The key is to cut the length of the trip into shorter distances per day. But of course, having a couple of long rides are still a good way to prepare for any bikepacking trip.
2. Don't worry about having the right gear. Sometimes we can get too fixated on buying the right stuff, that we overspend for luxuries, distracting us from the more substantial planning. It's bikepacking, Filipino-style so all that is needed are the practical things. Keep it light and keep it simple. Conversely, we were comforted that we shouldn't worry about our gear, particularly the bicycle, breaking down. The occasional flats or even broken spokes happen, so knowing how to do basic fixes are important. But as G-third mention, worry about your body more than your bike. This means eating, hydrating, and resting properly before and during the trip.
3. Planning is everything. A bikepacking trip starts with a desire to see things.They talked about their Souteast Asia tour and it started with one of them just wanting to try the new border pass. Then, proceed to ask how much time and money can you spare for the trip. Knowing the destination, the budget, and the duration shapes the itinerary of the trip. The itinerary will only be complete if the route is plotted in the map. One of the most important tip that G-third mentioned is to check blogs, because more often than not, other people have tried the route that was envisioned. Researching online leads to knowing the right gear for the climate and finding out the best places to stay.
4. Find out the airports' and the airlines' policy on checking-in bicycles. We had a lengthy discussion about how to make sure that the bikes are checked in properly. Airlines and airports have different policies on this, so it's important to check online and to call ahead of time. When confirming the policy via the telephone, make sure there's a way for you to show the check-in counter personnel that you were instructed with a certain policy. This involves asking for an e-mail confirmation of the policy that you can print out and show. There was a also a discussion on the merits of checking-in a naked bike, putting it in a box or a bag, and wrapping them in plastic. Whenever able, try to push for a naked bike check-in.

The talk ended with a walkthrough of their Vietnam-Laos-Thailand. It was a very interesting trip. Going abroad for a biketour isn't in my mind yet, all I want to do is bikepack around the country, particularly in the Cordilleras. But seeing the photos and hearing their stories made me want to try it. G-third even mentioned that it's actually cheaper to go bikepacking in Vietnam than in the Philippines because the food and lodging are cheaper there. He said that they spent around 35,000 pesos for their 15-day tour. Then Pen said that exclusive of airfare, they spent around 7,000 for their 2-week tour.

Now all I want to do is plan a bikepacking trip to the Cordilleras

(photo c/o Lagalag's Facebook page)

All in all, the talk was quite informative. It's good to get some pointers from people who've actually done it. It's also nice to see how normal these other people are. They're not athletes or exploring extraordinaires. They're everyday people, with everyday responsibilities. If they can do it, so can I.

Postscript: I think it's awesome that even though we're in a store, G-third, Pen, Bunny, and everyone else aren't trying to sell us any of the equipment they have on sale. I appreciate that because it means they're really into it for the love of bikepacking, and not just to sell us stuff. I guess if I'm really into biketouring, I'm now in good company.

The Larga gear are actually cool and practical