djyak

Lighter tent, small sleeping bag/pillow, and I don't carry anything for anybody! Sometimes the nice guy gets the shaft saying, "sure, you can put that in here." Most often not a problem though. I cycle with about 6-8 people at a time.

irwin7638

A lot of people seem to pack for survival under any conditions. Reality is that you are just using a vehicle slower than a car, and stopping at different points along the way for food or other supplies is just part of the fun. When I travel by bike, I am not going off to the uncharted wilderness so I end up carrying less than I do when I backpack. You can stop and do laundry while you have lunch one day, that eliminates a lot. Other than that just carry the basics of camping. I have a popular post about it on my blog also.

Marc

Niles H.

One approach would be to find someone whose load is working well, and is where you want yours to be, and then match his packing list. Adjust from there if necessary.

Touring in pleasant climes can also help lighten the load in several ways, including psychologically.

djyak

I like this advice, because I've done it myself here in Europe. When I first started touring, I'd talk to other "veterans" at campsites, and they'd let me take a look at how they packed, what they brought. Helped a lot!

Machka 

And unless you're travelling in some really remote places you can buy ... toiletries, clothing, camping gear, etc. etc. along the way.

Regarding the food ... we rarely carry more than about 1.5 days worth with us. We just buy it along the way.

B. Carfree

I use a piece of Tyvek into which I put some rivets for string and attached some mosquito netting to the bottom. It's supported with one old pole from a dome tent with a piece of bamboo from my yard. I cut in a door made of mosquito netting with a zipper (from an old, discarded tent) and I have an extremely large tent that weighs in at well under a kg, including the stakes and a piece of plastic that I put under my sleeping pad. One night on the Lost Coast I stayed warm and dry all night in spite of seven inches of rainfall. I was thankful that I had room to cook inside the tent that evening. It isn't pretty, but it's light, large, cheap and functional. I'm a bit like that, except that I'm quite a ways from light.

Newspaperguy

I tend to plan a little pessimistically. If it's a hot, dry summer, I'll still carry full rain gear, just in case. If it's warm in spring or fall, I'll carry cool weather clothing for the same reason. And I prefer having a little more food than I think I'll need if I'm on a road where services are a distance apart. If something goes wrong along the way, I could end up being on the road a lot longer than I had planned, so I want to be ready, just in case that happens.

nun

I'm the same way, but it's still possible to cover all bases for 3 season camping with well under 20lbs of gear. And if your load is that light you can also ride a bike that's in the 20lb range.

Bacciagalupe

I find that a checklist helps with that elimination process. You can look right down the list and cross out the stuff you don't need; you can review it after the tour, and scratch off items you didn't wind up using.

Rowan

Do you have a picture of it pitched?

djyak

My list is taped right to the top of my rubbermaid tub with all the gear. Best way to ensure I don't take too much.

Bekologist

yah, touring BC and the west is often pretty remote. i've ridden into towns so small everyone's gone and everything's closed up. probably happens in the rural prairies too.

For riders in Ontario, who's ever come ridden into a small town and pulled up to the BeerStore five minutes after they've closed up? That puts a damper on a trip.

I'm not sure what kind of lightweight rain gear I'd be able to find in a small town- likely stuck with a 30 dollar kilo of PVC that rolls up the size of a soccerball. I'm not confident of the advice of just buying things as you go along....it starts to rain. you have no raincoat. buy it later, wot? sure, you can resupply your toothpaste when needed, no need to pack a costco sized tube, but bring a raincoat and your shelter.

if you're buying a tent mid-tour, somethings likely gone wrong in the planning and execution.

An exception would be starting a tour in a large city and purchasing things immediately before setting out - i've helped outfit scads of northern tier and west coast riders setting out the next day or later that week who were just picking up what they needed then. not the best way to get familiar with your tent, but you've got to start somewhere.

Bekologist

I'd like to see that. I have what in my mind is a similar shelter but constructed out of a sil-nylon shaped tarp and a straight pole instead of a hoop. weighs under a half a kilo.

staehpj1

+1

I figure that pretty much any good list allows for some cold weather and the possibility of rain. On long tours especially ones with some portion of them in the mountains a few cold nights and probably some rain are a given. That doesn't necessarily mean that much bigger of a load.

Even with frost a lot of nights and at least one night with an overnight low in the teens I was fine with my normal summer kit on the Southern Tier in February. That is with a base load that might range from 10-15 pounds depending on what luxuries I take (second pair of shoes, bigger heavier camera, etc.).

I have a newer proposed list with a few more gram counter specific items that even goes a fair amount lighter that should still good for some iffy weather.

staehpj1

Me too.

andrewclaus

+2 on this. I put my three-season stuff for a two month trip in a four pound set of panniers and weighed in well under 20, more like 17. I wish I had a lighter bike--the heavy touring bike was overkill, but it was comfortable and durable. Same thing with the panniers--too heavy for the load but It's hard to imagine lighter packs lasting as long and being as easy to pack.

Aushiker

My approach is simple ... lighten my wallet buying way to much lightweight gear

Andrew

truman

last big tour - I knew temps would range from 20'sF to 100F.
I spent the money for a lighter tent, lighter sleeping bag and pad. Worth every dime.

I also resolved to only take 2 panniers and a bar-bag, planning on nothing strapped to the rack, except on-trip incidentals, like groceries - extra water for long pulls between services, et.cetera.

I arranged to filter water rather than carrying more with me, except when it would not be available to filter.

I took one pair of pants, with zip-off legs, one wind jacket with zip off sleeves, arm warmers, knee warmers, one pair of lightweight running shorts, 2 pair of bike shorts - and merino wool shirts (1 LS, 1 SS) and socks (2 thin, 1 thick) that I could layer for cold, or unlayer for hot. I also took a lighter weight rain shell that acted as a cold shell too.

I took very light off-bike shoes - I ride clipless pedals. If I didn't, I'd take only one pair for on and off-bike.

I was comfortable, except when it was at the very coldest (for a couple hours, a couple of mornings) and once when it was *pretty* cold, plus windy and raining.

Tourist in MSN

Agree. Unfortunately I often forget those ideas by the time I pack for the next trip.



But, my trip this coming year will be a rails to trail route that is quite flat, I will likely haul 10 pounds more than on my trip thru the mountains last summer because I will not be careful to minimize weight this time. Last year after I packed everything and weighed the total, I dug thru all my gear and pulled about 8 pounds of stuff out that I knew I did not want to haul up the mountains.

DropBarFan

My tool kit is heavy, I see now on the web that there are some lightweight multi-tools made from titanium, carbon etc. I carry flip-flops for off-bike walking. Different ways I could cut load weight but most at some cost of money or convenience. I figure that with including my weight & bike weight it would only be about 5% total savings. Every bit helps on the uphills I guess but on flats it's the wind resistance from extra bulk that's the problem.

andrewclaus

I wonder about that sometimes. I would argue that, unless you have perfect cadence (not me), you do more work with every pedal stroke with more mass. And every time you accelerate from a stop or increase your velocity, you do more work with more mass.

It's basic physics, but I don't know if it matters much in the real world with most cyclists. It's just one of those things I think about on long days. Like on my last trip when I reduced my load and the cycling got much better, even on calm flat days like on the Erie Canal. Maybe everyone has a better cadence than I do.

Newspaperguy

To prepare for a trip later this winter, I packed the panniers and weighed them. The weight is around 24 lbs. The tent and handlebar bag were not included in this weight, but I had clothing for rain and for temperatures at the freezing point.

ClemY

When I was riding down the Pacific Coast trail I ran into a group of teenage to mid 20 boys who had some strange looking camping gear. I asked one what the situation was. They had come to America from Europe and expected to use hostiles/motels for their trip. When they found that to be pretty expensive, they purchased camping equipment that looked like junk from the local 5&10. This is what they found on the local economy where they happened to be. You might want to plan ahead.

DropBarFan

True, even in "ideal" conditions there's always going to be acceleration & such. Lots of flat areas can be windy so one is regularly decelerating/accelerating. I did a tour on the dead-flat Eastern Shore & even w/o super-heavy load it was hard to tote the bike up motel steps at the final destination.

SparkyGA

Reminds me off the (travel) backpacking rule: Take all the stuff you want to carry and stick it in a pile. Throw half of it away. Look at the new pile in a few days and proceed to throw half of that away too. Works good.

Biggest thing to me is bringing too many spare parts. I carried an extra pound or 2 on my last tour for 5 months and didn't use a single piece of it.