Originally Posted by
tombilcze
As a novice, this is great info. I don't think the following questions are hijacking the thread since they go hand-in-hand with the packing. Another thing I have wondered is how much weight you carry in the panniers? What is a good target weight to aim for to keep the bike from being overloaded? I am just looking fora target to help me plan on minimizing what I will be taking on my first tour.
Just to give you a ballpark idea, I have toured with a 105lb rig. My bike(Cannondale T1000) weighed 25lbs, so everything else- racks, panniers, and all my gear, weighed 80lbs. The gear was divided between 4 panniers,and 1dry bag. This is probably considered a very heavy load, but I travel with a lot of camera gear. I popped only 1 spoke on a 5000 mi tour.