Originally Posted by
BlarneyHammer
When y'all say x pounds, what exactly do you mean?
Do you count food? Water? Your helmet? The clothes you're wearing? The panniers? The racks?
I use skin-out base weight: Everything minus my naked self, the bike, food, and water. Racks, panniers, helmet, sunglasses, bike shoes, water bottles all count, even if they don't go in the panniers, because you still gotta push 'em up the hill. Food and water don't count because sometimes you're not carrying any, or very little.
Using this metric, I've only gotten as low as 23 pounds, and I feel like I'm packing light (no front panniers or handlebar bag).
I count panniers or any other bags. I count all camping gear. I count any clothing that gets packed. Basically anything that goes in the bags other than consumables gets counted.
Food, water, and fuel are too variable to count IMO. I don't carry much food or fuel at a time any way though and shop daily and late in the day when possible.
I don't count one set of the most basic clothing that is always on me when riding (what I always have on on a warm day).
I count racks and anything that is always on the bike whether on tour or not as part of bike weight, not gear weight.
By that accounting method, on recent tours I have gone with 9-15 pounds depending on the trip. I think I'd probably be at least three pounds heavier if I used "skin out" accounting.