
doesnt look lightweight, but in reality all the stuff on the bike was between 20 and 25lbs, closer to 20lbs when I weighed myself holding the blue panniers, black arkel jobees and the drybag. Realistically when you figure the two racks probably are a few pounds, maybe between 2 and 3, so I guess 25lbs is not far off.
Total bike weight about 55lbs
This was for last weekend north of Montreal, so had warmer clothing plus a slew of extra stuff--was expecting rain so had long wool gloves (dishwashing gloves to go with them), extra wool socks, toque, fleece neckup, some old cross country ski gloves I use all the time for cool weather riding, and a whole rain gear kit including a somewhat heavy Showers Pass rain jacket, plus rain pants and booties.
Glad I had the extra clothes as I needed most of it and would have been even more miserable with less so no regrets there. Had a much warmer sleeping bag than usual but did use a mini Trangia alcohol stove and one wee alum pot, that worked well for making pasta and coffee , soup, all of which I had packed in with my clothes in the Arkel Dry-Lites. (stove in front panniers along with coffee mug and whatnot, the old codura panniers tougher for this stuff and was being careful using the Dry-Lites for the first time on a trip.
The Ortlieb drybag seems like overkill, but it was a combination of wanting to keep the down sleeping bag and tent really dry in anticipation of rain and perhaps the necessity of a second night out wild camping. Plus, I got the drybag a while back and hadnt used it for a bike trip so figured I might as well use it and see how it works.
I could have eliminated the front bags and rack, but it would have been a tight fit with all on the back, so I wanted more free space for sticking in groceries bought in the town before looking for a camping spot, plus again, didnt want to risk stuffing stuff into the lightweight Arkels and risk damaging them. In the end was the right decision cuz the front panniers had lots of room for a litre of juice, the filled up 1.5l nalgene for the nights supper and breakfast, plus a plastic packet of 6 muffins.
Plus the weight balance was nicer front/back, thinking it might be better for riding on a stone dust/fine gravel trail, and anyway, the bike just felt more balanced without it all on the back.
In summer temps, less clothes and lighter sleeping bag would take a few pounds off, I could probably go with a much lighter rain jacket, and most likely would be able to ditch the front panniers and rack. So realistically it could be 20lbs and I'd still be ok for sleeping comfort. The tent is a 2 person MSR which is probably 4.5 lbs, not superlight but then its what I have now, but realize that there are numerous 1 person tents out there at about 3 lbs.
I made a list of everything I took and it will be fun to reduce it next summer with warmer temps.
This was first time using an alcohol stove and was very happy with the mini trangia, bigger than what you guys take cuz I had the small pot and stove holder thingee, but still fairly light even though I took a plastic mug also (wanted to have oatmeal in pot and coffee in the mug)
gotta admit, enjoyed having less stuff than usual, even though I kinda treated this two dayer as a test for clothes in cold rainy temps, so did have some overlap and duplication going on with clothes.