Bike touring or bikepacking is becoming a large sector within “experiential tourism.” It is also a kind of rural aggregator activity, bringing guests to scenic sights, wine tourism destinations, “hidden regions” and smaller secluded hotels. Because it is “slow paced” travel, bike touring interacts with businesses along the route, drawing cash into local economies. The “slow way” is the reverse of the “highway” phenomenon.
“Cycle tourism is no longer a niche, it’s a strategic pillar of experiential tourism”
shiptocycle.com
The tour operator
There is a dilemma for us (as Findy); do bicycle tour operators need a suite of IoT tools or do fleet management principles dilute the whole principle of “getting away from IT all”? It is a genuine question. We have to acknowledge that the “getting away” part applies to the rider, the client, the user. The tour operator is running a logistics exercise and they are ‘at work.”
“Getting away from it all” is about the rider’s experience, not the operator’s back office. Riders want no screens, no notifications, no admin. The operator wants to know where their bikes are, whether a guest is stuck on a hill with a dead battery, whether a bike is quietly leaving the region. Those don’t conflict as long as the IoT stays invisible to the rider. Riders want to switch off, operators want peace of mind.
The market evidence suggests operators already accept a fair amount of tech when it removes stress for the guest. Self-guided tour operators routinely hand out navigation tools. Backroads has fitted its bikes with Wahoo GPS units on trips across Europe, North America and elsewhere. A Burgundy operator (The Hungry Cyclist Lodge) gives self-guided guests Garmin units for navigation.
Normal fleet hygiene
On the asset side, an Austrian fleet operator, iBike-Box, wanted one central overview of its rental partners. A South Tyrol rental company, Sanvit, gives every customer a lock and a BikeTrax GPS tracker, free of charge. So, in the more mature Alpine markets, tracking is already treated as normal fleet hygiene, not as intrusion.
Where the “hassle” objection does bite: first, privacy, guests do not want to be tracked on holiday. Second; cost against thin margins. Cheaper alternatives are pitched hard at this segment. Airpinpoint.com markets AirTag based tracking at $29 per bike plus $11.99/month against a fee of $80–200 plus $15–25/month for dedicated GPS.
Watering holes
The pragmatic opportunist thief knows that cycle tours congregate around specific “watering holes.” Stolen equipment, valuables and ID documents are not easily replaced in foreign countries. It is of vital importance to secure gear (both on a personal and group level). In fact, it is one key to a successful tourism business. IoT has a specific role in that context.
Outside of theft and security, we’ve already discussed user navigation, batteries and bike management tools. Those appear a little more “niche” for now. Lower price tier tour vendors will not extend budgets for marginal gains that do not address “core” business functions. If an issue cannot be resolved by the “sweep vehicle,” or support crew, a bike is usually swapped out for a replacement. If it’s your own bike, the same principle applies.
Rural communities, “retreat” centers, spas, and hotels, all see the value of cheap transport for groups. The initial cost of funding that “cheap” transport option and maintaining it, is a headache in itself. This is a nuanced topic, but it rides on deeply woven principles of efficiency. Greenways or longer cycle corridors often receive infrastructural funding acting as “a force multiplier” to develop these inherent capabilities at scale.
We acknowledge that there are other tangents to this thread; e-bikes are driving a wider audience for bike tourism, but that requires a technical toolkit and uncommon electronics troubleshooting skills. A (20kg+) broken e-bike in remote terrain is a “problem.” Bosch motors, the industry leader, are commonly reported as IP 54, splash protection only. Batteries can move independently of bikes, are expensive, and easy to steal.
A touring blog notes that brands keep systems proprietary partly to control motor, sensors, battery and software as one package. There’s a clear business incentive; lock-in limits third-party competition and pushes revenue toward motor replacements rather than repairs.
Fundamentally, the administration of heavier, powered vehicles, is a different business model to well proven, rugged, pedal powered (13kg+) machines, with “mostly” interchangeable parts. We will address this sub topic, as well as other related themes, in future posts.
“E-bikes are infrastructure-dependent. IoT is part of the infrastructure that lets e-bikes go further from town.” (TBC)
