Hey everyone,
I am taking off on a lightweight touring trip about 9 days from now on my Surly Straggler. This is my first time ever doing such a thing so I was a little bit unaware of how much everything would weigh. I had loaded up my bike completely yesterday and weighed it at 60 pounds. Making me have 30 pounds for the gear. Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't lightweight touring be under 20 pounds for gear? I'm kind of nervous about the weight because I feel that my cyclocross chainrings of 46/36 would not be able to climb some steep hills if the time arouse. Would it be suggested that I ditch the front racks completely and pack tighter in the back?
Thanks for the help.

You need to ditch stuff you are taking, not stuff it in there tighter.

You need to have space to put supplies that you pick up along the way - like dinner fixings at a store.

Before ditching the front rack/bags, I would seriously evaluate all of the gear you are planning to take and try to pare it down. Get rid of any items that are non-essential. Bring clothes (cycling and street) that are light weight and can be easily washed in a sink and dried overnight.

Years ago while still in college, I spent a summer backpacking on the Appalachian and Long Trails in Vermont. I started out with about 60 lbs of gear in my backpack, and the frame cracked during the first week of hiking. At the first town stop, I went through all of my gear and mailed home about half of it. Got rid of all sorts of things I didn't really need, including a SLR camera, fishing gear, books, sleeping bag and some clothes. It made a huge difference.

The past two summers, I have ridden week-long loaded tours of the GAP-C&O Canal trails. My total load both times was about 20-25 lbs max, mostly carried in rear panniers. We didn't camp out, so that helped a lot in saving weight. I carried 3 sets of cycling shorts/jerseys and light street clothes that could be easily washed by hand and dried. I could have dropped another 5 lbs by reducing changes in clothes, not bringing any books and less tools and gear. However, we found that 20-25 lbs was a reasonable load to carry and the trails are flat.

Here is a question: Should I keep my gortex or my waterproof cycling jacket (without hood)

I'm not disagreeing with other answers. If you can get by with less, do it. But I also feel like 30 lbs. is a reasonable amount of weight to be carried of one rack. So see what you can leave behind, but I would say also see what you can do about losing a rack.

I agree that multiple racks give you more carrying options, which is nice, but if you objective is to keep it light, I don't think I would spread < 30 lbs. of gear over 2 racks.

Whether you carry a rain jacket or not depends on where you are riding and what the weather is like there. I would not ride somewhere that gets a lot of rain, particularly with cooler temperatures, without the jacket. I carried my Showers Pass jacket on both of my GAP-C&O trips and was glad that I did, even though I only used it a few times. Weather is so unpredictable, and I would hate to be on a multiday tour without a jacket if it rained a lot.

If you get your cargo below 30s lbs, I agree that a rear rack is probably sufficient. However, you should ride it loaded to make sure it handles Ok. You also might be able to distribute some weight toward the front with a small handlebar or top tube bag. Here are photos of my bikes loaded for the GAP-C&O.

I rearranged some stuff, to the things I knew that I would absolutely need. I went from 30 to 22 pounds and ditched the front panniers for a Relevate bag.

Depends on the climbing in tour. In mountains one regrets extra weight but on flat roads 5 extra kilos hardly gets noticed esp in rural areas where one stops infrequently. Can be nice to have luxuries like a larger tent & spare clothes etc esp with changeable fall/spring weather.

Doesn't that depend a bit on the engine driving the chainring.
As well as the cassette in the rear.
And the hills you're climbing.

Perhaps also whether you are able to take a rest break when needed. I've encountered hills that went along fine most of the way up, then got steap near the peak. But, stopping once or twice, and one can make it up... then off for the rest of the ride.

Stuff like raingear depends on where you're travelling. Here on the west coast, I wouldn't anticipate significant rain for another month or so. Perhaps bring the thinnest, lightest raingear needed. Even in the midwest, rain storms often hit with a bang, then are over in a few minutes.

How does it ride? That load looks pretty darn high. And what are the attachments points of the rear rack. While the photos are not the clearest, it look like there are no bottom attachment points.

If you got the weight down to 22 lbs, that should be fine. However, you should test ride your bike loaded to see how it handles. You might be better off with much of your gear in front panniers, with sleeping bag on the rear rack. It also seems to me that your rear pannier is riding awfully high.

I was in much the same boat as you over the last 12 months before my first tour, it started at about 30lbs for a sprig tour, then the plan got changed to a Summer tour, so I was able to reduce to about 24lbs. So I had a good hard look at all my gear and got rid of if ALL non essential stuff. even some of the gear that people though was essential, I added a couple of comfort items back in, and it all came to around 12lbs including panniers. You just really have to be strict on yourself. For example I decided to go without any rain gear, as I did get wet and miserable, but not cold enough to cause any health risks.

I'm all for load lightening, but it all depends on your trip goals. You really need to pack for your trip. If you're going on a cycling trip, the pack should only support the cycling. If you're going on a camping trip, pack for camping. If you're a photographer or blogger or travel writer, pack for that.

For my last multi-month tour I successfully ditched front panniers and HB bag, and even fit my sleeping bag inside a rear pannier. I got rid of a LOT of stuff. Going stoveless helped get rid of one front pannier and using a single-wall tent got rid of the other. A good tip I heard about clothing is that you should be able to wear everything you carry at the same time as part of a coordinated layering system. That tip pretty much emptied out a rear pannier for me.

Interesting that you managed to do a multi-month tour without a stove and without any spare clothing...Not sure I could do that. Also interesting in this thread is the elimination of the front loading. Now I am a noob at this but it seems that the idea would be to balance the load across the bike and not put it all in the rear, if possible. Is it really better to move the weight to the back, even when you are making the load as light as possible. Here I was thinking about using a HB bag and purchasing a bike that I could use front racks on...even though my goal was to do multi day trips with less than 30 lbs. Guess I need to rethink this strategy and maybe just tour using my CX bike and rear rack.

Never really thought about it, but that is pretty much what I do, both with on-bike and off-bike clothing, although I do carry two pairs of some things (e.g., underwear), so technically I couldn't wear everything at the same time, at least not comfortably.

For loght touring, I carry very light tent with fly and foot print as well as ultra light Thermarest, and I limit myself to 22pounds easily. I don't cook, so that saves a lot of weight, but I do carry supper and light morning snack to camp. I find panniers from Lone Peak to be very light and with good features. I also like Velo Orange Grand Cru Crank 46/30 rings. I don't use front rack any more.
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One of the thoughts for weight distribution is 60% front, 40% rear, because when you are riding, you're weight is mostly on the back. And try to get that rear stuff lower, much better handling that way.

And if that weight is all in the rear, bike handling, both while climbing and descending can suffer quite a bit. Whenever I can, I try to only use front bags, although when going for multi-week trips with lots of off-road miles on a tandem the rear panniers almost always make the trip.

I stopped using Ortliebs when I started traveling light. They're fantastic bags, but heavy. A set of Ortlieb front bags is just shy of 4 pounds, the rack is probably another pound. That's five pounds. Rear bags can be another 4-5 pounds. If you're trying to get under 25 pounds, 5-10 pounds worth of bags is significant.

If you're worried about weight distribution, hang a dry bag off the handlebars to move some weight forward.

After reading what has been posted, is it maybe suggested that I keep the front racks and rear racks and pack all of my equipment in the front for better handling? Is adding that extra pound for the front racks worth it? Also keep in mind that I have to keep the rear rack to strap down my tent.

You're right that a pair of rear Ortliebs & rack are 5+ pounds, but most people seem to be replacing it with 3+ pounds of frame packs, seat bags, and handlebar bags. For me the simple convenience of panniers is well worth the couple of extra pounds, for general touring. Weight matters but not like it does for backpackers.

My rig from my tour this May/June, 24.2 pounds of gear (base weight, includes panniers, not rack). 40 days, 100% camping, cooked meals:

Stoveless and minimal clothing was an offshoot of successfully hiking several long trails. It worked very well on the bike, too.

As the pack weight drops below 20 pounds, it matters less and less where you put it. Some ultra-light tourers carry it on their backs, or on a rack-top dry bag (tried both, missed the convenience and durability of panniers). I ditched the bar bag when I looked at the weight-to-payload ratio. I used a $5 cue clip instead for a map, and a ziplock in the panniers for other stuff I used to carry in the bar bag (spare maps, journal, electronics).

My load in the back (17 pounds without food) had negligible effect on handling and hill climbing. I could ride no-handed indefinitely, and I never used the small chain ring on pavement.

My last backpacking trip (Smokey Mountains, 4 days, fall 2013) I carried a 22-pound pack that included 4 days of food and cook kit. Could I carry that on my back for a month of touring, maybe? But why? Let your bike bare the burden of gravity not your body. Additionally a month of extreme minimalism can be a lot more taxing than carting around a few extra pounds mounted on your bike.

I think the answer is to try it. I carry my weight up front whenever possible, but I still always have 2 racks. Something ​will end up strapped there at some point. But my goal isn't to get my weight down as much as possible. If that were my goal, I would probably remove the rear rack. So you should do some test rides and see if you prefer the ride with the weight on the front. Then decide if you prefer it enough to justify the weight.

Yes, on steep slow climbs in low gears the front end can get really "light" & sort of dance around even w/using front & rear panniers. With rear-only panniers that would only be worse. If one is cutting luggage to the bone perhaps front-only panniers might work? & one can buy front racks with a platform to lash on sleeping bag or such. BTW WashPost had an article about ultra-light backpacking where hikers keep luggage to <10 lbs.

D.C. area hikers can lose 10 pounds in a day ? just not where you think - The Washington Post