Bike travel as with backpacking it is a common tendency to take way too much stuff. Novice backpackers are encouraged to use a smaller backpack as they will inevitably fill the large one and it will weigh a lot more as a result. Going uphill I want as little weight on the bike as possible and quickly learned that less was more. I have known people who took this to extremes and would go hundreds of miles into wilderness areas with tennis shoes and cut their toothbrush handle to save a few grams but they also covered twice as many miles each days as those with heavy boots and tents and other "necessary" gear.