Originally Posted by
Paul_P
But what does faster mean ? Faster than what ? I agree that being lighter enables going faster, but to what end ?
Yes the days are shorter, and you can advance less far in a day, but what is your objective ? Is it a fixed distance ? Do you have to reach a specific location by sundown ? Day after day ?
without a doubt, less bike+load weight means less effort for the same distance, makes quite a difference with lots of climbing, and for a lot of us old geezers (most of us I suspect) it just makes a difference in enjoying the activity, especially with sometimes longer distances between campgrounds, or towns, or whatever.
Certainly in my experience, every decade translates into things feeling harder, so reducing the load weight is a nice tradeoff--hopefully done smartly enough where ones experience still means one is warm, dry, fed and watered properly and all that stuff.