Would you like to see sub-forums or stickies on specific bikepacking topics?

[Colorado Cool Breeze]

I have a request/suggestion in to add a couple sub folders or stickies within the Bikepacking folder that would discuss specific
areas or topics of bikepacking.

Weather Protection- tents, tarps, bivouac, sleeping bags, pads

Bikepack Cooking stoves (alky, canister, white gas, wood) Cookkits (Titanium, Al, Beer can)
water treatment (steripen, tablets, gravity filters, pumps) and finely favorite meals/snacks on the trail.

Clothing- riding protection from snow, wind, sun, sweat, & what to wear around camp.

Please post your thoughts and ideas here and in the suggestion thread.
http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,4835.0.html

Thank you

[Slim]

Although I agree it would be ince to be able to sort through sub-topics to find something, I don't think we should do it.

1: Many threads cover several topics at once, where do you put it.
2: Right now we have 2 sub forums bikepacking and Q&A, and I see Q&A's get posted in the bikepacking forum all the time. I think if people can't get that right, splitting into sub-topics will be a losing battle.


Stickies yes.

[AZTtripper]

Yeah I'm all for stickies but I don't see any more sub sets being added for several reasons.

I have the power to make a thread a sticky but also don't want to get too carried away. A first page of all stickies would not IMO be a good way to go.

CCB I thought about making your, did you get out weekly, thread a sticky but it seems to be holding up on it's own.

Feel free to make suggestions tho, I'll do my best to make anything worthwhile a sticky.

[Area54]

What I've done in the past on other forums is create an FAQ, this is a lot of work initially to set up, but essentialy covers the same sort of thing in a much smaller forum footprint. Within the FAQ sticky, I can then create headline topics with quicklinks to historical topics. They've worked very well in the past, however it relies on good maintenance and autoprune turned off.

[Slim]

A separate FAQ/FDT (frequently discussed topics) with stickies of frequently covered topics would be a nice idea. That way the stickies don't cover up the entire page when you open the forumpage, blocking out all current threads.

[chrisx]

I would like to see a sticky for repair your bike topics and videos.  

EXAMPLE

bar tape
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/handlebar-tape-installation-drop-bar
http://sheldonbrown.com/handlebar-tape.html

How to wrap bar tape

wheel building
http://crankedmag.wordpress.com/issues/issue-5/hadrann-wheelcraft-method-part-1-lacing/

People would post up links they used and found reliable. A person would maintain an alphabetical list of links in the first post.

Yesterday I realised I have never put tape on a drop bar.  I have been looking over the web for instructions.  If a bikepacker who has taped 100s of bars said this is a good article or video and posted a link I would not have to sift and guess at it.

Perhaps the myog forum could be the make and maintain your own gear forum with a repair sticky on top. There are a lot of blank spaces to fill in between bar tape and wheel building.

[Colorado Cool Breeze]

I would like to see a sticky for repair your bike topics and videos.  

Oh I like that idea chrisx a repair section or sticky. For me field repairs would really be a big plus.
I was just thinking the other day how I was going to stow 6 spokes in my seat tube and keep them safe and quiet then I realized
I have no clue how to field install and tension a half a dozen spokes. I'd love to see an article or video on how to recover from a stick
\popping up and taking out a few spokes.

[Colorado Cool Breeze]

What I've done in the past on other forums is create an FAQ, this is a lot of work initially to set up, but essentialy covers the same sort of thing in a much smaller forum footprint. Within the FAQ sticky, I can then create headline topics with quicklinks to historical topics. They've worked very well in the past, however it relies on good maintenance and autoprune turned off.

Hi Area54,
My big picture thought is how do you help the new guy get started in bike packing.
Consider he is probably in info overload and might not even know enough about bikepacking to ask the proper questions.

That is kind of where I was coming from with the sticky or a new folder suggestion. Break bikepacking down into it's individual parts.
If a guy wants to learn about packing gear on his bike he could go to the BikeBags- folder or sticky where just panniers, handlebar bag, seat bag, frame bag are discussed.
If a guys wanted to learn how to stay warm and dry at the end of the day he would look in the Weather Protection- folder or sticky where tents, tarps, bivouac, sleeping bags, pads are discussed.

[Bedrock]

I like the idea of the general topics that CCB and chrisx have proposed and I understand what others are saying about stickies being complicated and cluttering up the front page. How about just starting a thread in the Q&A forum with a title like, "Bikepack Cooking" (as CCB suggested) and then see if it becomes popular? If it does it stays up top, if not, it fades away. Just my two cents.

[wahday]

I don't have a strong opinion as to whether we use stickies, Q&A's or a FAQ/FDT but overall I agree with CCB that at this point, with as many posts as there are in this forum, it would be nice to organize and parse out particular topics for ease of access. I think the point that we are trying to make this information accessible to folks just exploring bikepacking is a good one. The gear reviews are nice and useful, but seeing how people actually use equipment in the field and sharing specific techniques also communicates some really useful information.

I thought the Dirt Bag thread (or whatever you want to call it) where people discuss their low cost/re-purposed strategies is a great one. It helps lower the financial obstacles to getting out there for the first time.

[Colorado Cool Breeze]

Hi guys, I'm in bed sick as a dog with a cold or the flu not quite sure yet. Anyway my mind is mush it may take a few days to recover.
thank you for your ideas and support so far on this project to develop a couple stickies that will break bikepacking down to its basic components.
Please feel free to post any additional ideas on this subject if you have one.

[offroute]

Agree that more organization/less digging for info is good.

AZTrip, what are the reasons you don't see subsections being added?

By subsections, I assume it's meant, say, as a section within Question and Answer. I don't think that's worth doing. I could see storm readiness as a complete forum of its own, just as clothing might be (although some overlap between those two titles would undoubtedly occur), or cooking. Let's face it, we're speudo-minimalists on the trail, so how many topics could/should there be?

Also, I think there's too much to talk about if the site includes every topic of general mountain and road bikes. There are other sites which are good for that; ones that get way more traffic and input. Bikepacking-focused, obviously worthy content. Too much general bike discussion would ruin this site, IMO.


Bikepacking
A forum called that seems wrong. Is it not assumed that every forum will have a focus on bikepacking (unless specified otherwise) at bikepacking.net? Getting rid of just this title and breaking down the activity into a few more specific topics seems like a no-brainer. Cargo gear, bivy gear, bikes, navigation, techniques, training/injuries, etc.

Routes
Why a main tab with this title and then a forum topic with the same title that has different info? Should I have to click on both to determine that they have different info?

Just a couple off the top. FWIW, JMHO.