staehpj1

Not sure about the OP, but I like the idea of a total weight of bike and gear of about 40 pounds while still maintaining cooking and camping capability. I also like the idea of having a road bike for tooling around or riding into town after camp is made.

My thinking is that if it makes sense to ride a 30 pound bike when carrying 50 pounds of gear, maybe it makes sense to go lighter and more sporty when carrying 20 pounds of gear. I know that unlike some others here I do not especially like riding a touring bike when it is not necessary for the load carried. I would pretty much not even think of taking the touring bike for riding near home or for an organized century or what ever.

I am thinking I may even go with 25mm tires, but may use a beefier front wheel since I plan to use front panniers.

My recent tour was my first attempt to get close to 20 pounds of gear weight and it got me thinking about what I really need. While it was a mild weather tour I think I can go as light or lighter even for 3 season flatland touring or summer touring in the mountains or maybe even three season touring in the mountains. At 22 pounds of gear weight I had luxury items like a bigger than necessary camera with two lenses, a tripod, and more tools than I probably needed. In addition I had some other items that were never used on the 25 day tour or were rarely used and could be done without. I had a bit more duplication of clothing than absolutely necessary as well. I also had a number of items that I could go to lighter options on.

I think I can get total bike and gear weight to 40 pounds if using a road bike. Somewhere around that weight point I have to think that a road bike makes sense.

What is there to lose? I doubt that I will irreparably damage the bike and if the experiment would fail I'd just not go that route again without some changes.