Originally Posted by
cyber.snow
Interesting that you managed to do a multi-month tour without a stove and without any spare clothing...Not sure I could do that. Also interesting in this thread is the elimination of the front loading. Now I am a noob at this but it seems that the idea would be to balance the load across the bike and not put it all in the rear, if possible. Is it really better to move the weight to the back, even when you are making the load as light as possible. Here I was thinking about using a HB bag and purchasing a bike that I could use front racks on...even though my goal was to do multi day trips with less than 30 lbs. Guess I need to rethink this strategy and maybe just tour using my CX bike and rear rack.
Stoveless and minimal clothing was an offshoot of successfully hiking several long trails. It worked very well on the bike, too.
As the pack weight drops below 20 pounds, it matters less and less where you put it. Some ultra-light tourers carry it on their backs, or on a rack-top dry bag (tried both, missed the convenience and durability of panniers). I ditched the bar bag when I looked at the weight-to-payload ratio. I used a $5 cue clip instead for a map, and a ziplock in the panniers for other stuff I used to carry in the bar bag (spare maps, journal, electronics).
My load in the back (17 pounds without food) had negligible effect on handling and hill climbing. I could ride no-handed indefinitely, and I never used the small chain ring on pavement.