Machka 

How much does your touring gear weigh?

Parameters:

-- excluding credit card tours, hub-and-spoke tours, and randonnees where you'll naturally travel quite light

-- excluding the bicycle, racks, waterbottles, bicycle computer, etc.

-- including your panniers, handlebar bag, truck bag, trailer ... and all the touring stuff you normally carry (tent, hammock, bivy, sleeping stuff, cooking stuff, clothing, rain jacket, toiletries, tools, electronics, documents, etc.)

Squeezebox

So you are saying the wt. or my steel vs. Ti bicycle doesn't matter? Oh! about 10 lbs!! Skin out please.

Machka 

Not the bicycle ... just the touring stuff you take with you (bags, tent, hammock, bivy, sleeping stuff, cooking stuff, clothing, rain jackets, toiletries, tools, electronics, documents, etc.)

Ramblin Man

About 25lbs.Im getting a little bigger tent so ad another pound or so.

jonc123

My wife and I just purchased a larger tent last week, REI Half Dome Plus 2. We were using a Squall 2 Tarptent. Went from 2.5 pounds or so to a 6 pound tent. We'll use the Tarptent for backpacking.

Can't wait to try out the luxury! Upgraded my Thermarest pillow also to a larger size for some extra comfort. Tent works out to 3 pounds per person which doesn't sound bad to me.

Ramblin Man

I've got the Big Angus Fly Creek Ul 1 38oz with tent stakes and footprint. It's a good tent just a little small for me and panniers.

robow

Nice poll Machka, should be interesting where most fall.

staehpj1

It varies with the trip, but these days I am most often between 10 and 15 pounds for that gear assuming camping and cooking. I can get into the 0-10 range, but that isn't the norm. Once I am below 15 the motivation to reduce the load becomes less, so while I could go lighter I don't tend to bother trimming that last bit. At that point I kind of get to the "good enough is good enough" level.

I started out carrying over 50 at the beginning of my first tour (Trans America), but sent stuff home numerous times during the trip. Since then for the most part each trip I have gone lighter and lighter.

Happy Feet

I say somewhere between 30-40 lb's. I like a good tool kit so I'm not at the mercy of strangers and I'm honest about how much food and water weighs.

Miele Man

I take two weeks long totally self supported tours in Northern Ontario, Canada (near kirkland Lake and heading west or south) on mining/logging roads. My gear including food for those two weeks is about 50 pounds max. I have a 3 man dome tent that i like because i can bring the bikcycle inside it with me if i have to stop in a crowded campground. peace of mind knowing that someone's not ripping it ort parts off whilst I'm sleeping.

cheers

wheelinthai

My vote was for multiple days tours, and not just 3-5 days tour. I usually stay at guest houses, so cash only, no credit card. I also don't cook. I do carry a light bivy and sleepinhg gear( for emergency only). My loads are around 14-20lbs.

Machka 

I debated about putting something about food and water in the parameters, but then decided to see how it goes.


We don't carry much in the way of food. At any given moment, we might have a bit of coffee, sugar, a couple packets of oriental noodles and a couple granola bars on board ... we buy whatever else we need along the way, throughout the day.

Machka 

Yes ... multiple days tours ... or whatever is most common for you. Personally, I carry slightly more on short tours.

saddlesores

huh....cash or credit? i don't think it matters to fall under the heading "credit card touring." (*)
point is you're paying for lodging and meals, not cookin' n campin'.

i stay in guesthouses, so didn't vote. my loaded touring days are long ago,
back before the intertubes and you had to make hotel reservations by fax.

[(*) although in cambodia or laos, change a couple hundred bucks into local currency and you
get a brick of bills that can weight a couple pounds....]

chasm54

I've voted with the majority at 30-40lbs, though I think these days I am normally under 30lbs. 40 is as heavy as I have gone, and even though I was out for two months I felt I'd taken too much.

staehpj1

3-5 day tours are multiple day tours, aren't they? My understanding of the term multiple is that it means more than one.

I generally am going for anything from 9 days to a few months and within that range my pack weight is typically the same regardless of trip length.

staehpj1

And the rest of us are all lying about it?

I figure that if you start including food and water the whole notion of comparing gear weights becomes meaningless. Consumables are too variable day to day or even hour to hour. On a longish tour there may be a day here or there where I need to carry more than 24 hours worth of water and most days I never have more than two regular sized water bottles and one of the winds up empty much of the day.

Food weight is similarly variable, but not quite to the same extreme.

Machka 

And I did exclude the waterbottles in my original post. However, I suppose if you're heading off into the great unknown and will carry extra water, you could count that.

As for food, it would come to 1 kg at most ... those few just-in-case extras.

Our food situation usually goes something like this:

1) stop at a grocery store at lunch, buy lunch materials, a few dinner materials, a few breakfast materials for the next morning, and one or two snacks if necessary.
2) eat the lunch materials before setting off again.
3) carry dinner and breakfast the rest of the day.
4) top up the dinner materials, if necessary, at a shop toward the end of the day.
5) eat dinner
6) sleep
7) eat breakfast
8) travel with the basic minimum of food to the nearest grocery store around lunchtime ... and repeat.

The only time we'd carry more than that would be if we were really not sure of encountering a grocery store the next day, and that has only happened rarely.

gerryl

No idea. Don't care. Bring what I need and leave the rest behind.

BigAura

This method works great, I used to do it that way. Plus one week in into your tour lay out everything, then mail home anything you hadn't used (excepting true emergency items). When you get home examine carefully any items that never or hardly used as a note for your next trip. OR you could also just carry everything again just because you can.

Squeezebox

Please point me in the direction of some through gear lists.
I'll add my $.02 here. I think wt. of bicycle and racks can easily vary by 10 lbs. so that wt. should count. IMHO
I also think if you're wearing anything more than shoes, shorts, jersey or such, and helmet. That extra counts as gear wt.
I'ld like to hear the difference between your warm weather and cold weather gear.
Please & Thank you.

Squeezebox

I think that most tourers can get food at least once a day. But if you are somewhere where you have to carry more than 1 days food and water, It makes sense to me to add the extra wt. as that is an unusual situation.

Happy Feet

People don't often include food and water as part of their touring weight but we are hauling whatever we use around on our bikes aren't we? 1L of water weighs 1Kg or 2.2 lb's so someone who carries 2L carries about 5lb's of water. Anyone heading across Canada west to east may go via the Coquihalla Hwy. This leg is 121km through arid alpine country with a 50km non stop hill and no reliable water source along the way. A pretty common route up here for multi day tourers. Or going from Revelstoke to Golden, Golden to Lake Louise, Banff to Calgary... Few people are taking 1 water bottle.

Food you can buy and eat as you ride, but then you are tied to routes that have that convenience at every meal time. I like to have at least a days worth so I can go where I want and not consider food stops as that much of a necessity. I'm a vegetarian so I have to be a little more thoughtful about what will be available where I stop. Sometimes a diner or fast food place won't have a good source of food for me. I don't like to cook and clean so I try to buy ready to eat food but I also tour in bear country so fresh food like cheeses and peanut butter I avoid, unless it can be eaten right away - no leftovers. I usually go for canned food like beans or chili. It's heavy but provides good calories and protein and is filling. When I do bring a stove I also bring enough instant coffee/hot chocolate for the whole trip because buying individual serving each day is problematic. If I do oatmeal in a bag I also bring enough for the whole trip. You ever go into a store and ask to buy a single serving of oatmeal... just what you need for that day?

If you disregard meaningful amounts of food and water in your weighting then you're really limiting the parameters of what a multi day tour is, for most people and it starts sounding a lot more like CC touring. And not everyone who is touring is older with lots of disposable income. Many people bike tour because it is an inexpensive holiday. If you start eating in cafes and pubs for every meal that quickly becomes an expensive holiday.

nun

Here's my gear list, I don't bring the booties anymore, and now take some rain pants instead of the running tights. My cold weather setup would replace or augment the Marmot Catalyst jacket with a Montbell Thermawrap and I'd take thicker socks and gloves and probably put the tights back in there. I would use winter shoes and take a buff for extra head insulation.

https://wheelsofchance.wordpress.com.../25/gear-list/

nun

You must be able to go at least 100 miles between resupply if necessary. So I always carry 2 liters of water and can carry more in my saddlebag and in my back pockets. I also carry two days of food and make sure my jersey pockets are well stocked with energy bars and fruit. The convention in hiking and backpacking is that base gear weight does not include consumables like food water and fuel, but obviously they must be carried too and I usually expect to be carrying at least 4.4lbs of water and a couple of pounds of food.