I don't think this has been done thus far. I haven't looked back to see if anyone has ever had people 'fess up' so I'll give it a shot.

With all the recent discussion abut gear, UL or not UL and some of the other topics that have come up as well I think we need to come to realize who we are. In some case certain situations are required. If you are going to be riding down tight enclosed trail you can't really use panniers very easily. While when on road riding you really don't have any reason not to use panniers, quote unquote. Due to a persons preference as to which method of riding they are doing most of the time can determine what kind of setup you are using. It can also go to determine which kind of setup you will HAVE to use. If you are going to have to carry 3-4 days worth of food or water on you because of limited resupply you have to set up your system much differently than someone who is going to be riding through a town every 10-15 miles.

Let's have a roll call of the people on the message board. What is your preferred type of touring, on road, off road or are you a mixed tourist(both on and off). This can help separate out the crowd and help it make more sense why some people prefer one method over another as to how you pack.

I'm 100% on road. I try my darnedest to avoid gravel roads or any bike trails whatsoever. I do occasionally get on a bike trail, paved trail, but I try my darnedest to avoid them. Who's next to fess up?

You should have designated another category of "improved gravel trail" or some such phrase to include trails like the GAP/C&O, Katy, etc. No cars, but I certainly would not call those trails the same type of off road gravel riding as some of the single track I have been on or the 4X4 trails that I have been on.

I pretty much do everything, but I do not do ultra light.

I prefer off road touring but many routes even the Divide Ride require some paved section riding. Preparation for any type of surface provides flexibility to adapt as the situation changes unexpectedly due to weather damage or fire closures.

My tire choice (700x47) allows me to handle all but the most extremes trail conditions I may encounter. The limit is due to my bike handling skills or lack of them. Small front panniers only, low total equipment weight and low gearing gets me through most off road surface riding including single track with periodic Bike N Hike pushing as needed. Minimal vehicle traffic is a bonus off road.

Few trails go very far except for canal paths and rail trails which can be gravel roads or fully paved. I suppose you could lose yourself inside of a large state or national park for a few days and then come back to the beginning. I intend to do the Erie Canal Path, the GAP and along some river valley in Europe on a dedicated bike trail.

I would call myself a mid weight bikepacker (MTB + full 3 season, comfortable camping gear = 50 lbs). I prefer single track and gravel roads over paved surfaces. Also have a major preference for hilly/mountainous terrain... Lots of pushing

99% of my rides I don't see another person

I prefer to go offroad, but most of the trails are only a few days long, and those are sight seeing days, not hammering it 50-100 days. I would like to do the Great Divide, but I don't think my health is up to it.

I have never been on a trail that was so narrow I couldn't use panniers, in fact the panniers I have were specifically designed for MTBs, as they are a little smaller, and use compression straps so you can keep the load tight. I often point out in the bikepacking trails and pics, that the bikes are picture on dirt trails and such you could ride a bus down. Bikepacking gear is really for suspension bikes, more than a particular type of bike. Or they can be useful on recumbents, though the one I had came with front and rear panniers. There are whole businesses designed to make pannier gear for offroad use, like OMM racks.

Most of my long trips have been on the road simply because there are long roads all over the place. Including some of the most beautiful places.

I have only read a few guides and such, but from what I hear the more relevant point is that most of the trail is on roads, whether paved or not, they are not technical single track. Ray Jardine of ultralite guru fame, had now done the Great Divide 11 times on motorcycle (and quite a few times on foot, though not bike). I was surprised there was a motorized option. Some of the narrower pictured sections were pony express trails, and they are as wide open as the prairie, you could carry a canoe sideways through there.

One guy I respect who has done it says you don't need anything more than 1.5 inch tires. Of course if it is wet, nothing is wide enough in certain places.

Mostly, but not entirely, on-road.

For long tours (more than a couple days) I'll probably be on the road. But I take lots of weekend camping trips where I'm in a forest for a weekend at a time and need to pack in all my supplies.

I'm curious why you would try your darnedest to avoid paved trails? You'd rather compete with cars every minute?

On road (some gravel) with 25c tires, about 40 pounds total weight, bike plus packs. Self-supported long distance, mostly camping.

I like a little of both. For the off road portions, I generally prefer unpaved roads (e.g., U.S.F.S. roads) as opposed to bike trails, although the Mickelson Trail was very nice due to its relative remoteness in places and varying scenery. Either way, I am not into UL, but that doesn't mean I carry the kitchen sink and don't try to cut weight here and there.

Mostly on road for me and mostly paved road at that. This is not to say that I won't ever do a trail and forest service road tour at some point. I actually planned to do one a while back but it was cancelled due to a knee injury. The thing is that when I start thinking off road I usually tend to start thinking about going backpacking rather than bike touring.

I am primarily a paved road traveller but I love to include off the beaten track alternates on gravel/dirt roads. For example, on a Bikecentennial trip years ago from CO to AB I left the group on a dirt road side trip at Monarch Pass, took the gravel Cumberland and Cottonwood passes and rejoined the paved route at Buena Vista. Later on that same tour I left the paved route at Bannack State Park MT, climbed over Lemhi Pass into ID, pavement north again through Salmon, hit the dirt again at Shoup ID and climbed up to a firetower for the overnight. Next day I continued over Horse Creek Pass ID and re-joined the paved route at Darby MT. On the TransAmerica Route I've always taken the gorgeous gravel Gibbon's Pass alternate to the paved Lost Trail Pass main route.

1983...



199? Schofield Pass CO...




I am intrigued by the bike packer's method of travel but, like bikenh, I just don't think I could fit several days of real grocery store food into that kind of baggage, so the traditional 4 panniers works best for me. (I have eliminated the HB bag). I like to have EXTRA unused room in my bags, not just enough. I just don't see where I could fit a rotisserie chicken, deli potato salad, bag of cereal, bottle of wine and three ears of corn into frame bags plus another 2 days or more of food without reverting to Cliff bars and that salty freeze dried stuff. I used a BOB trailer for a few years but have retired that and gone back to the bags which I prefer. That high, protuding seat bag used by bike packers seems to contradict everything I've learned over the years to keep stuff low. I suppose that if the contents are that light it's location doesn't matter.

My tent requires one small pannier with room left for other stuff on top. I was stranded for 24 hours on a previous trip during Tropical Storm Agnes at a campground with no indoor facilities aside from the toilet building. It was pretty tight in my Big A Seedhouse 1, but I was able to sit up in my Therma-Rest chair, read and endure the storm. I could not imagine doing that in a bivy or hammock.

All of my tours include backcountry unpaved roads, forest roads, and trails (but not technical single-track). I enjoy the outdoor and adventure experience of being in backcountry. Of course getting to and connecting these routes are paved roads, so my answer is mixed.

MassiveD: The Divide Ride is mostly Forest Service gravel roads some much rougher, sandy, washboard,rocky or muddy than others. Single track is a very small percentage of the route. Extended climbing and descending daily at higher altitudes with the unpredictable weather on those various gravel road surfaces increases the difficulty at times and also provides great scenery at the same time. Worth doing all at once or in smaller 300 mile sections due to time, work or other limitations. Cherry pick the best portion and best season and give it a try. The worst result will be to see some beautiful country.

That 1.5 inch tire would be doable under dry conditions, light load and careful choice of line to avoid tire damage. My 1.75/47mm tires worked well except for the deep mud or deep dry sandy ATV churned stretches.

If you totally avoid bike paths then you miss interesting trails like this.

Mixed terrain for me. I'd prefer more single track and forest road, but I take what I can get here in the NE.

I prefer gravel and dirt roads to pavement and I prefer single track and forest roads to gravel and dirt when they are gong my direction.

I will fess I did a bad job at stating that, didn't I. I generally avoid all bike trails simply because of not knowing whether they are paved or gravel. I do occasionally stumble into a paved trail and will ride it when it 'fits in' with where I'm trying to get to. One big that I've ridden twice in the past couple of years ???might be part of ??? C&O/Gap, aka heading east on the rail trail out of Hancock, MD right south of town. I've ridden it both directions now up to the next trailhead...generally trying to hook up Hagerstown and Hancock and that is the quickest route for doing it. I've ridden one of the paved trails on the SW side of Chicago last year. I had to stop at the bike shop and was trying to get up to Batavia for the night and the trail took me right up there so I ended up riding the trail, quite unplanned on until I ended up having to stop by the bike shop. This year I rode the MRT down in New Orleans, and camped out right on the pavement for part of the night until the cops chased me out just before sunrise.

I generally stick to the highways exclusivley. They have traffic in case I need it, health emergencies are a good reason to stick to pavement, much easier to get to you when its needed, and if you run into major mechanical issue they also have traffic so trying to get a hitch into town is much easier as well Try doing that where their is no cars sometime and see how well it goes for you. Highways also connect towns and people, trails can take you anywhere. Highways also are paved and I ride 700x25c T2s year round, around home and on the open road. I'm not going to take them down too many gravels roads. Highways are better maintained then town roads in most parts of the country. Yeah, as I learnt this year, at least I think its what I saw I would have to get back down to LA to fully test out the concept, in some places like MS & LA you want to avoid the bigger highways and stick to the smaller highways that generally have the least traffic/less wear and tear on the pavement. In most areas I've been in thus far that hasn't been an issue but in the poorer parts of the country like MS/LA it can make a REAL BIG difference. Highways also don't end in dead ends, they connect places. Around where I was born and raised they have recently put in a 2-3 miles bike trail, in the middle of nowhere, it connects pretty much nothing to nothing and just eliminates farm land from being able to be used for growing crops. I don't have a ton of time online, no internet access at my house, so I don't have a ton of time to kill fully mapping out a route that I will end up changing as I ride along anyways. Riding the highways makes the route planning much simpler/much more reliable and I can do it from anywhere even on the open the road without the need for the internet. I could just take a Rand McNally Atlas with me and use it for my map instead of using the internet for my map. When the EMP hits their will be no internet or cell phones, everything electronic will be fried.

I don't have any trouble with cars. I get the respect from the drivers. In 8400 miles this summer I think I only had trouble with just one driver yelling out the window at me. Drivers respect me. I obey the traffic laws unlike so many cyclists out there. I ride reliably, I try my darnedest to ride predictably. If you respect the drivers they will respect you. If you ride like you think you own the road then they teach you a valuable lesson...a lesson you deserve to be taught. I don't get hassled by drivers.

I guess part of my willingness to ride roads is I live on one, a fairly heavy traveled highway sits right out my front door. I can't go anywhere, including into where I'm sitting right surfing the web without having to deal with cars and semis. I generally see 4-5:1 ratio. 4-5 cars for every 1 semi truck. The only area I've ridden thus far where I've seen anything worse was, I believe I remember the right name, Morris, IL last summer. It's a major semi hub that sits on I-90 west of Chicago. There is 1:4-5. 1 car for every 4-5 semis. Other than the bad pavement I didn't mind the traffic at all. I did hop on the sidewalks because of the pavement issues in the area. I deal with cars and semis everyday. I've gotten use to it. I would love to be able to ride on the interstates. I would do it in a split second. I love the traffic and the challenge of the traffic. It helps to keep me awake. Down in SC on US301 this year I was suffering miserably trying to stay awake, big thanks to the lack of traffic. I was trying everything to stay awake. I was riding right down the center of the road no handed...yeah a 4 lane divided highway. When I stopped in the GA Welcome Center I about keeled over when the ladies in there told me that I was seeing heavier than normal traffic for the road, it was July 4th weekend. There was no traffic on the road and the lack of traffic was putting me to sleep. Having that road be a 4 lane highway is a total waste of taxpayer money. It's not needed. In contrast, coming home I road US1 from Trenton on up to Newark. It was grand. 4 lane highway with on/off ramps and plenty of traffic. I was directing traffic at the on/off ramps and was having no trouble staying awake...thanks to the traffic. Like I said I would much rather and feel much safer riding the interstates than the regular two lane highways/town roads/bike trails. Trouble in a lot of spots is the bike trails are used more by pedestrians out walking their dogs than they are used by cyclists. Instead of having to worry about cars you have to worry about getting bit by darn dogs or hitting the darn dogs. If that isn't bad enough I can ride the highways for free. In several of the states I was in this summer a decent amount of the bike trails was pay for bike trail. You had to pay to ride them. I know several in western WI is like that and I don't remember if it was KS or NE or where it was at I also saw the trail maps indicating the trail was a pay for trail. I was going to ride one of the trail heading east from La Cross toward Sparta, WI until I saw it was a pay trail and then I said the road is shorter and its free. I'll take the road. I'll take the cars, quite frankly, any day of the year.

I have to agree with you on saying I wouldn't ever do a trail or FS road. Right now there is so many miles of roads that I haven't been on that I tend to stick with them until they get boring. When that happens I can see changing over and going for something new and different. One of the reasons I like the idea of county hunting is to force me to always take a different route whenever I'm going someplace, even someplace I've already been, like from my house to my mom's house in Ohio. I try to my best to keep from repeating the same route and even going through the same counties as much as possible. Granted up here in the northeast its getting a bit difficult to avoid the same counties so I'm having to look at the different highways right now to get me out of the New England and back into New England each summer.

South Carolina highway? Sure looks that way...decent pavement and narrow shoulder is a good giveaway. Curious where that was taken.

Ok, inquiring minds want to know...where? I guessing somewhere near/at a ski area.

I primarily tour on roads, but I do a little bit of both. I've ridden through mud, grass, dirt, sand, gravel and more on my last two tours. At least a few miles of each. I also hike with my touring bike when the terrain is too much for riding.

When the gravel road turns to a double track, then turns into a cow path, then turns into a dry creek bed, 1.5 inch tires are not good enough. Infact; 2.5 inch tires are not quite enough.

I sometimes ride a paved road too a gravel road too a bikeable trail.
Sometimes I pedal too a trail head, stash my bike and go hikeing.
Anybody else ride an old bike to a hiking trail, ( Fed wont let you ride your bike there kind of place).

I fairly often do shortish hikes while on tour. I either stash the bike or park it in plain sight depending on the location. I don't typically hike more than a few miles when on a bike tour though.

I sometimes return to my bike in a week or 2. I leave a note in a clear plastic bag that says july 2015 or whatever date I expect to return to the bike.

I have shouldered my bike, carried it a hundred yards down a trail, then over to the other side of a small hill, and locked it to a small tree. Only to have it discovered by a forest ranger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-D33GlUfyw