On the cables, you picked a topic that got the minimalists debating with the ready-for-anything folks, I am surprised the debate appears to be over already.

Water, hot days I carry about a gallon of water if I do not know if I can get resupplied. I consider myself to be running low on water if I am down to only one 26 oz bottle remaining. But most days I start with some empty bottles if I know it will not be too hot.

I've done two coast-to-coast rides, plus eight weeks in the Rockies. None of the bikes on any of those rides suffered a snapped cable. Tubes, and maybe even a spare tire -- yes. Plus tools, patch kit, and duct/gorilla tape.

Good luck. Have fun.

I don't think the two camps automatically split minimalist vs ready-for-anything. Who is more prepared is probably the one that did a better job of optimizing their packing list. In my experience the minimalists often, but not always have better thought out packing lists while the heavier packers often but not always tend to throw in stuff a little more willy nilly. When someone goes over their list hundreds of times and reviews it before, during, and after every trip they are likely to have exactly what they need. Minimalists are more likely to spend large amounts time optimizing their list. So it isn't a slam dunk that the person with 90 pounds of stuff will be more likely to have what they need than someone with 15 pounds of stuff. In fact I found that on the Pacific Coast where I toured in the company of a lot of folks almost all of whom were carry several times my 20-ish pound load. Despite that I was the one who always seemed to be loaning out stuff to some of the heavier packers.

Don't get me wrong minimalists and heavier packers can both have poorly thought out lists and be poorly prepared, or well thought out lists and be well prepared. My point is that it is possible to be well or poorly prepared regardless of which packing style you embrace.

I was obviously premature when I said that the debate appears to be over.

It has become a "why" vs "why not" debate. The benefit of carrying a cable is tiny. So is the cost.