I think I could too. My wallet may not like it though. :lol: If the money wasn't an issue it would be wonderful.

I did a long tour with 3 other guys and we stayed in motels. We split room costs and used roll-away beds when we could. It wasn't expensive (at the time) and it was a lot of fun.
I've done shorter tours also by sharing rooms with friends. Also did a 9 day loop around Oregon with my ex. It might be cheaper than you think. Motels and hotels in some small towns are cheap.

A short (6 days) tour with 8 of us staying in motels. Friend had a B.O.B. trailer and that's me with just rear panniers and a seat bag.
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I think the hard thing for some to adjust to when carrying the extra weight is that you can't try to ride like you're on a fast club ride. You can't expect your bike to accelerate and climb like a 16 pound race bike when it weighs 60 pounds. If you're riding day after day with someone who is just a little faster than you are, you have to let them go.

If you can deal with that then having the extra weight won't ruin your experience, even if your bike is 100 pounds. As long as you have the gears you need and keep an open mind you can have an adventure. I've been on short tours with people who sacrifice everything to shave a pound or 2. This is ridiculous if you don't have the clothing you need or other essentials.

I travel extensively so I know how much hotels are, especially the cheap ones as I gravitate towards them. My last tour was two weeks. Even if I paid an average of $75 a night for a hotel, and good luck averaging only $75, the total cost of hotels would exceed what my entire two week tour did, food and camping included. It is very difficult now to get a hotel that cheap. You will generally be north of $100 a night no matter where you are now. I don't tour with others, I'm always alone. On my last tour, I did Northern Indiana and Ohio. On the Indiana part ot the tour, hotels and motels were few and far between, since much of the area I covered was Amish country.

Early on during my X-country tour, I put my bike on a scale at a weigh station. 90 lbs. Probably not the most accurate scale for something relatively light, but I’ll take it. I have never weighed my stuff again ever since. I am a disciplined packer and have invested $$ where it counts. My lighter of two touring tents is only 2.75 lbs. The heavier one, which I take on relatively easy terrain, is 3.25 lbs. My long mattress is just under 1.5 lbs, and my sleeping bag is only slightly heavier. And my bags are never full.

For the tour in MT mentioned above, where I got caught in two bad storms at altitude, I caught a case of weigh weenieitis just before I left. Decided to leave my warm, waterproof gloves and good rain jacket at home and instead took inferior items to save some weight. Dumb risk I’ll never take again when dangerous conditions are possible. The extra weight of the good stuff would have amounted to a tiny fraction of my overall load including body weight.

What I was talking about, though, is those bike tours where somebody else transports all your stuff from nice hotel to nice hotel, provides food and drink - and sag! - on the road, and dinner and breakfast, all rolled together, and all I have to do is ride from hotel to hotel. I know they exist because people talk about them. It totally avoids the whole loaded bike thing.

I have a confession - touring bikes don't interest me, any more than mountain bikes do. I like road racing bikes, and everything else is just meh. Once again, I know others are different. That's just me.

BTW, I can also see how one might enjoy the problem-solving aspect of determining what to pack to thread the needle between having everything you'll need and having a 200 lb bike. Not for me, though.

I think I’m going to look forward to getting to an air conditioned hotel room after biking all day.. We’ll still see the sights. Not like we’re flying to Montreal.

Going to miss out on the campfires and sleeping rough no doubt but likely getting too old for that.

seems like the best of both worlds. See the sights and travel light.

Enjoy.

Reminds me of "See the USA, In your Chevrolet!"

I have done a little CC touring ... the thing is to go to motels where you definitely want to bring a sleeping bag because under UV the carpet and bed spread would glow like the Sun. Three people in a $48 room (all taxes and fees included) because all you really need is a bed, a toilet, a microwave, and a shower---and heat or A/C.

Particularly if certain things happen---caught in a downpour a long way from your planned camp site (and knowing it will be a lake when you get there, or a day when everyone is just beat (maybe after a night in a lake,) or just when you feel like getting really clean, getting some good take-out, and sitting around relaxing and then sleeping in a bed which is only marginally more comfortable than a good pad and bag but as I age, sometimes the little extra luxury is worth it ... and for a five day tour, say, lodging might be $100 .... and if you do every second or third night ....

Even if it is five or six days in hotels every night .... it is not a Huge expense, necessarily, and the joy of riding your nearly unladen biker all day might make up for some of the cost.

But as they say, "Chacun à son goût."

A friend recently did a Trek Travel tour in Italy. It was expensive but she can afford it. She said she had a great time and it was worth the expense, at least one time.

If you don't have to prepare for cold weather you can go really light.

When I started my long tour my bike was north of 65 pounds. After the first week it got hot and stayed hot so I mailed things home, like warm clothes. I could have sent my front bags and rack but I kept them on.

Ever camp out? Of course, you have to carry more stuff and it's not for everyone. I used to sleep in a tent a lot when motorcycling in the desert and I got sick of it.

A couple of people mailed stuff home at the start of the third day while we were waiting for the ferry on Port Townsend, WA, which is where a lot of “An Officer and a Gentleman” was filmed. One woman mailed home…wait for it…the blow dryer and Sony Watchman TV she had brought along. 😬

True on the clothing front. My big weight “penalty”, which I assess on myself, is my kitchen. One thing I enjoy is making good dinners, although sometimes access to supplies near camp can be limited.

A few years ago, I stopped early on the get lunch for the road and a bagel for breakfast, but I wasn’t willing to carry everything the rest of the day. There was a Dollar General a few miles from my campground, but pickings were slim. I already had some pasta. This the rest of what I picked up. Sausages for a snack. Tuna and tomatoes to go with the pasta (I always have olive oil and fresh garlic with me.). Sardines to go on the bagel in the morning.

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During my April trip in NJ and DE, I had good access to grocery sources, so I did better with this pre-cooked chicken sausage.

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As a former back and bike packer , I have to agree with Mrs RSbob, whose idea of camping is “staying at the Hilton with the window open”. Just don’t enjoy sleeping on the ground anymore, Thermarest or not. To those that enjoy the adventure or have limited finances or both, more power to you for getting out there.

htfu :d

A what and a WHAT???

OMG.

My biggest weight penalty is from always having more than enough water. And sometimes I like to collect heavy things I find along the way, like railroad spikes and rocks.

Like my sister and me the time Dad took us for what was supposed to be* a short hike on the Appalachian Trail. Pockets full of rocks.

* The Trail runs about 10 from my hometown, so it's pretty close. Dad mapped out what he thought would be maybe 5 miles between two roads. Mom dropped us off where it crossed one and was to pick us up at the other. Turned out to be more like 8-10 miles, so we took quite a bit longer than expected (A three hour tour....). Mom was fit to be tied.

The rest of us had no idea she had those items. We were equally shocked. She was fresh out of college and had a job as an accountant up at Price Waterhouse. She had her entire partnership track mapped out. She lived in Detroit. Her boyfriend was getting ready to go on trial for injuring someone in a car accident. She quit the tour in Indiana.

Funny thing is that I ran into her the following year during a tour from Seattle to Cortez, CO after I had entered Yellowstone. She was driving the other direction with her boyfriend, noticed me and turned around. I’m riding along when a car pulls up along side me and I hear a voice say “Hey, Dave.” Imagine my surprise

They pulled over and we talked for a bit. I asked how she recognized me. “You’re wearing the same clothes I saw you in all last summer.” It was true.

lol, when I took my then wife on our tour (her first) she asked if she could bring her blow dryer. I told her she could bring anything she wanted as long as she was willing to carry it. The dryer stayed home.

For several years some of us would do day rides in the local mountains. 40 miles in, 40 back with 9K feet of climbing. No place to get food near the turn around so one friend started bringing those foil pouches of tuna, along with some bread and little packets of condiments. I tried it and I really liked it. I've had stomach problems with some things but the tuna sandwiches worked great.

Some friends, I think 8 in total, rode across the US in 1987 and one of them wrote a book about it. I read it before I rode across and it had everything from funny stories to basic how-to stuff. I remember he said "Nobody cares if you look the same every day".
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