What is a good weight for a touring bike as you walk out of the shop with it? What is too heavy when completely stripped down with no equipment on it at all?

Take a look here: https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/10...ike-weigh.html

Brad

How much time off are you getting for your Vacation?

If you are credit card touring, you could get by with a carbon wonder bike. If your camping gear is ultra light and you never cook, you do not need much more than you would need for credit card touring.

My expedition bike is about 40 pounds but the frame is rated to handle up to 62 kg of gear not counting the rider. That is more weight than I will ever carry, but the bike will not break or shimmy regardless of what I put on it.

Every other touring bike will be somewhere in between. How much gear do you want to carry?

Bare frames (even the very popular LHT) dont weigh that much , though the parts added to make it tour ready, will add some weight each.

Unloaded steel touring bike with traditional touring gear, triple, HD tires + wheels, rear rack, brooks saddle, triple bottles....you looking at high 20's/low 30s.

I have a Soma Double Cross setup with compact crank, lighter-weight 32 hole wheels, carbon fork, carbon seatpost...it's around 22ish. The bike, IMO, is barely adequate for a multi-day tour, I have to pack really light.

Our steel tandem weighs 36 lbs., 18 apiece. Plus a lot of our gear only weighs half as much apiece. Get your SO on a saddle!

Me...195 Pounds
Bike...33 Pounds with racks and other assorted odd devices
4 Panniers...maybe 40 pounds loaded
Total...268 Pounds

This doesn't include all the water, helmet, clothes and shoes, etc. If it were 10 pounds lighter or 10 pounds heavier, I would not be able to tell the difference.

Too heavy? Rider weight, gear carried? Water and food carried? My heavy bike goes faster downhill. Frame size? Component weight? All my bikes are XL, most are 30-35 lbs. But then again I'm an XL too. Try this, light enough to pedal up hill, heavy enough to carry all your stuff and not break.

Excellent response.

The LHT is crazy heavy. Just admit it!!!

The one I use most currently weighs 20 lbs before I add gear. But it's 27 years old - if I were buying one today I'd expect it to be at least 4 lbs. lighter.

I suspect this is a pretty common scenario, and the reason why most contemporary touring bikes (LHT for example) are in the 28lb range. The problem with this for me is that the bike becomes a one purpose machine, too much of a truck for a weekend joyride.

When I got into cycling, racing bikes were about 21lbs, and (good) touring bikes were about 23-24, maybe 25-26 if you built if for a heavy load with 48H wheels etc. There really wasn't much difference between racers and tourers except the geometry, and maybe they'd go .1mm thicker for the tubing gauge of a tourer. Tires were typically 27 x 1 1/4" or 700x32, though 28c wasn't unusual. 38c or whatever didn't exist. Some people used touring sew ups, really. Good luck finding those today...

Nothing weighs Less than a Part Not Installed . Or an item left at home.

When you put racks, fenders, and such on a LHT it's more like 35 lbs. Anyone want to weigh theirs??

My steel Jamis touring bike is 26 lbs from the store. 28 lbs with full fenders, bottle cages, and racks.

25lbs ± 15

1991 Marin Pine Mountain with fenders, cages and racks 35lb's.
1987 Raleigh Quicksilver LE with fenders, cages and racks 43lb's.

I feel like I'm in fine company with the LHT's.

My Disk Trucker with racks, cages, and fenders weighs in at 31lbs. That's the 54cm model (26" wheels).

I have absolutely no problem riding my Vintage 26-pound steel-frame 'touring bike' (before racks or any other accessories), loading it down with racks, frame pump, water bottle(s), panniers, lights, bell... so my 'bike weight' is closer to 30-35 pounds before I load said panniers...

Reviving it!

I just got a new scale to replace the one my kids stole and promptly broke.
So i obviously weighed all my bikes!

My 64cm splined triple butted chromoly bike with front and rear racks weighs in at 33 pounds. Thats also with 2 bottle holders and a semi-compact pump.

With a Brooks saddle and some 32 spoke wheels my Cervelo RS cross country bike is 21 lbs

Don't worry about it.

Buy a bike you feel will carry anything you might pack on it (then double it!).
You can always save weight. Eg: a liter of water is just over 2lbs. But I wouldn't want to do that, no not at all.

Buy a bike, plan a trip or two and enjoy your selection.

Hope this helps,





-Snuts-

6.02x10^23.

I think I share the same outlook.

-Snuts-