Originally Posted by
MTBMaven
I am curious what you are carry so that two people traveling together are riding bikes that both weigh more than 100 pounds. Let's say your bike weigh a portly 40 pounds, that's 120 pounds of gear between the two of you. Is there one area of your gear that is contributing to all that weight, e.g. cooking gear, clothes, tools, water, etc.?
I don't want to pass judgment on anyone but it seems like you need to consider thinning out your gear and/or looking at lighter equipment.
When we flew from Singapore to Australia, we put our bikes and all our gear (which didn't include food and water because we don't take that on a flight) on a scale and it came out at 92kg.
The bikes are 17kg each, and that leaves about 30kg in gear each, not including the daily essentials. What was in there? Camping gear, cooking gear, water filter, clothes (all seasons as we bought good stuff so we didn't want to throw it out and we didn't want to be bothered mailing it back and forth), laptop, camera, mp3 player. It adds up quickly!
Several times we tried to thin our things out but if you have to carry everything for 3 seasons and for being totally independent (on a budget), then it's hard. I think it's easier if you're doing a shorter tour in one region and one season. I could definitely cut back if I were going touring around Europe for 6 weeks as opposed to around the world.