I ride a road bike that isn't meant for touring, and try to take the absolute minimum amount of gear I can to stay perfectly comfortable throughout the tour.

Here is what it looked like on a recent trip:



With this setup I did ten centuries back to back, and never felt exhausted at all. I woke up feeling great each morning, and every day I had as much time as I wanted to take photos, find some food to eat etc. The beauty of packing so light and riding fast is it gives you more time to do other stuff!

Here are some general pointers for going fast and light:

- Bags weigh you down too, not just gear. Select bags that are very light for their capacity, like my Revelate Viscacha. Switching from this rear rack and bag to my Viscacha saved me a few pounds! Racks weigh a ****load. Avoid them. Use bikepacking style bags instead.

- Don't bring cookware. I'm not implying you can't bring it and still pack light (You can!). But if you want to be as fast and light as you can, this helps. Why spend time in camp cooking in you can just eat while riding? I pick up some bananas in the morning and stuff my jersey pockets, and when I've gone through those I pick up a box of granola bars when I stop for water. I'd rather spend my touring time on the road than watching a pot boil.

- Don't rely on outlets to charge your electronics, bring a backup battery. I used this one and it worked very well. Killer battery life on it. Relying on outlets makes you less independent and its a huge timesink if you charge something during the day when you're not camped out.

- Be in good shape and be able to keep up in a fast group ride. Should go without saying. If you aren't fast on a naked bike you won't be fast on a loaded bike.

- Bring less clothes. You don't need a weeks worth of fresh laundry. A few pairs of cycling shorts will get the job done. Bring some liquid soap and learn to do laundry in a sink, its quicker than a laundromat. Strap wet clothes to your bike or the outside of your bags and let the wind dry them, or hang them up while you camp.

- Bring multipurpose items. My battery charges all my electronics. My headband keeps my head warm and doubles as a sleeping mask. My bike headlight works great as a camp light, since it has a very low power "walking" mode. Paracord has all sorts of functions.

- Be able to go 20 miles on a single water bottle. The less you have to stop for refills the further you'll go. Most people drink more water than they need to while they bike. You can go pretty far on a single bottle. My last century I didn't even bother with a second bottle, just stopped halfway for a refill and that was that. Obviously you never want to push this too far and get dehydrated...you need to know your limits before pushing them on a tour

YMMV and everyone has their own approach. None of this is gospel, its just stuff that has worked for me.