Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
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Then there's the expedition people that go out into desolate places, those guys will carry a lot more weight, at around 80 to 120 pounds in gear, The guys a long time ago that use to tour their stuff was even more heavier due to the lack of modern materials! I can't imagine pedaling around with that much weight, which is why I will never do an expedition type of trip!
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When I went into the middle of Iceland, I think you are talking about me as being one of the "expedition people". I did not want to know how much gear I had for weight. I had a luggage scale but chose not to use it. I think I had two and a half weeks of food on the bike when the photo below was taken. This bike frame is rated for up to 60kg of luggage, not counting weight of rider. I think I did not have that much, but maybe I did? The bike handled the weight fantastically.
The tour I am planning right now would almost exclusively be on pavement and fairly flat. There will be some sections where I need to carry four days of food, but probably no more than that. So, I can travel pretty light. Using the bike in the photo below, but I anticipate that the rack top bag will be nearly empty most of the time.
I like having extra volume available like that big rack top rear bag, if you see the big box of croissants on sale, you have room for it on the bike, it took several days to eat all of them.
When you add up the weight of everything on that bike that says Ortlieb, that is about 8 pounds, just for the panniers and rack top bag.