Originally Posted by
Rowan
I have made my point about the bike being included in weight, but to ram it home a little:
To discount the bike is like saying an UL backpacker can pack light... into an eight-pound, heavy-duty, galvanised-steel-tube-framed, canvas pack... and still be walking UL.
C'mon, the bike is an essential part of the whole touring package here. Without it, there is no touring, let alone L, UL or SUL touring.
Haven't seen much discussion of this, but backpacking and bike touring are quite different activities. On a bike, all of your equipment and gear, your bike and you are on wheels. Weight you roll along while riding a bike is quite different than weight you carry on your body while hiking. Shaving grams off your gear would seem to pay significantly greater dividends for a backpacker than for a bike rider. While I certainly understanding the benefits of reducing weight for both riding and hiking, the relative benefit of reducing weight must differ to some degree. Is there a formula that says, for example, the reduction in 1 pound for a hiker is equivalent to a reduction in 5 pounds for a bike rider?