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Old 04-27-12, 05:02 AM
  #122  
staehpj1
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Originally Posted by pacificcyclist
Touring light means you have to dispose of some of the luxuries. 20lbs or under for motel/hotel and 30lbs or under for camping are considered UL. You can do with with light steel bikes. Just so happens that CF bikes are plentiful. My advise is to continue pairing down your stuff and send them home. If you can achieve 30lbs or under towards the end of your trip, consider nun's setup but with beefy Old Man Mountain racks as the weight are borne on the axles and not on the fork or chainstays. They have minimal sways when you climb out of the saddle to attack a hill and they are ultrastiff. My rear OMM Sherpa rack was crushed by 3 18 wheeler trucks when my 26" touring rig came off the bike rack and landed on the interstate and survived saving the rear wheel, rear derailleur and brakes. Everything seatube forward were completely crushed to pieces.
Different perspectives I guess, but, I don't think 30 pounds is even close to ultralight. It is pretty easy to get to 30 pounds without much or any high dollar or specialty U/L backpacking type gear. That is pretty much normal fully loaded touring with only moderately careful packing.

I figured it was only borderline ultralight when I had 22 pounds of gear including panniers, cooking, and camping gear. I'm not sure it all would have fit in Nun's saddle bag though. I figure that when I got to under 15 pounds of gear it probably really qualified as ultralight. Even then I have things that are not necessities like a 4:3 camera with and extra lens and a tiny tripod. The sub 15 pound load (sub 40 if you include the bike) also included a day pack for hiking and extra hauling, and a pair of off bike shoes (Crocs).

FWIW, I find it takes some effort to pare down the load, but the tour remains comfortable I generally don't miss the stuff I left behind.
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