Originally Posted by
Tansy
Bah, with all the comments on overpacking, I was expecting to go to his blog and see him hauling a u-haul with his bike! Ultralight is nice for some, but I know I prefer to have several days of clothing, a tent I can spend a rainy day in without going bonkers, a very warm sleeping bag, spare blanket, laptop, kindle, a few book I can't get on the kindle, heavy duty raingear, a pair of hiking boots, and room to stock up on food before areas without much service.
8mph was on the high end of my daily average on a good day and I walked up a lot of hills, but I enjoyed myself.
I wouldn't want to carry all that myself, but yeah what Joe is carrying is not out of the ordinary. I like to go pretty minimal, some folks like to take a ton of stuff. I'd have to say that compared to most of the folks I have met on tour Joe is in the middle of the range.
I have met quite a few that have probably had well over 100 pounds of stuff on their bikes. Some of them seemed happy and were having a good time. I have also met a few who were miserable with the load. I often recommend folks try packing lighter and especially advise new tourists to cull their list aggressively. That said packing 10-15 pounds of less of stuff for a multi-month tour isn't for everyone.