I have never been in a raft or kayak, but I find them both extremely interesting! Why you may ask? This is a bicycle touring/adventure blog, well I think that my interests are piqued due to the self powered nature and adventure expanding possibilities a water vessel brings in! And to be honest, I think that is why I love cycling so much as well. You are in complete control of your adventure destiny as it pertains to movement.
Enter Bikerafting! or Packrafting or as I have been referring to it Raftpacking, like Bikepacking or Backpacking. Basically it is the combination of bike packing with rafting thrown in. Bikerafting now gives you the ability to be even more self sufficient as it expands your movement to not only land based adventures, but water as well. while being able to carry yourself on land or water! This is just really cool. The way it works is that you would pack on to your bike a blowup raft, a personal flotation device or a PFD as they are referred to and a double sided paddle that comes apart in to about 4 pieces. This is in addition to whatever you are packing for your style of tour. You may have camping equipment or possibly you are going light weight or ultra light where you are staying in hotels along your trip.
In most configurations the bike has 1 or two wheels taken off and is strapped to the raft usually in the front to offset the total weight of the vessel as you are in the back. I have seen some images of people bringing another raft/flotation device to hold the bike which would tether to the raft.
I am not going to attempt to write the book on the topic because there is an excellent article written here: https://bikepacking.com/plan/bikerafting-guide/ There are also boat loads [ pun intended ] of videos on the tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzBotWhSzD4&feature=youtu.be
Enter Bikerafting! or Packrafting or as I have been referring to it Raftpacking, like Bikepacking or Backpacking. Basically it is the combination of bike packing with rafting thrown in. Bikerafting now gives you the ability to be even more self sufficient as it expands your movement to not only land based adventures, but water as well. while being able to carry yourself on land or water! This is just really cool. The way it works is that you would pack on to your bike a blowup raft, a personal flotation device or a PFD as they are referred to and a double sided paddle that comes apart in to about 4 pieces. This is in addition to whatever you are packing for your style of tour. You may have camping equipment or possibly you are going light weight or ultra light where you are staying in hotels along your trip.
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| Alpacka Ultralight - weighs 5lbs packed and holds 400lbs!! |
In most configurations the bike has 1 or two wheels taken off and is strapped to the raft usually in the front to offset the total weight of the vessel as you are in the back. I have seen some images of people bringing another raft/flotation device to hold the bike which would tether to the raft.
I am not going to attempt to write the book on the topic because there is an excellent article written here: https://bikepacking.com/plan/bikerafting-guide/ There are also boat loads [ pun intended ] of videos on the tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzBotWhSzD4&feature=youtu.be
