Originally Posted by
alan s
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?
I don't have a formula, but I imagine reduction in weight isn't a big issue when you're free wheeling down a hill. Its benefits become apparent when going into corners and climbing mountains. If we are going to take the weight of the bike into consideration we should (unfortunately) also consider the weight of the "engine".