Heavy touring. Not light.
 

And now for something completely different. This summer, the Karate Monkey weighed around 70 pounds, fully loaded, with 3 water bottles and plenty of food. 80 mm front sus fork, 35 mm wide rims, geax tattoo tires @ 29x2.3. Perfect set up. So more of a do all bike packing rig. Plenty of dirt roads, unmaintained class 6 NH roads and lots of good singletrack. Pavement as well. The front bar bag was a $ 3.99 goodwill tv guide duffle bag, plenty of pockets and tie downs. Small frame bag, handlebar bag, cheapo rear rack with 2 small panniers. A pletscher rack with big clamp thing. Trangia stove, small cook kit, 2x bike clothes and some good off bike clothes as well. Love those merino wool base layers. Keen sandals for pedaling, flip flops for off bike. Got a nice 45 North face summer bag, a roll of closed cell foam pad, bug net and a silnylon tarp to cover the eno double nest tarp. The pad and the bug net were perfect for a stealth night in a farmers field, no trees, next to ( wait for it) a pet cemetery. Very quiet. Steven King kept coming to mind for some reason. Anyone else like to carry enough, but not too much stuff? Cold and wet for me is not fun. Would never want to run out of layers or a plan B. And small luxuries. Like dried salami. And 500 ml of good whiskey. Both great for plan B.

My last tour was thru 3 seasons, end of Feb, to middle of November so I carried cool weather clothing..

I Had planned for it being Colder, But it was Ireland where I started and It has the Gulf Stream of the Ocean currents warming ,

so I mailed the stuff for colder than 0C back.

Warm Stevensons Triple bag , with Down filled air-mattress was Bulky, still pretty light, but nice to crawl Into at Night. ..




[double spacing and breaking up sentences, to not seem like 1 long run on sentence , does help the reader.
(unless you were just Venting) ]




:rolleyes:

Heavy touring is what it's all about, my friend.
Go anywhere - - do anything.

52 pounds for bags and contents on tour last summer. Did not weigh the bike. Could have reduced the load somewhat (one-man tent would have been lighter than my two-man, ditch the camp stool, etc.) but probably would have missed something eventually. Would have considered it unwise to be out without tools and spares.

Incidentally, mid-tour had to regroup and restart so tried the second part with a B.O.B. trailer instead of four panniers. Probably a net increase in weight but more stable on some of those downhills.

Well, I certainly don't strive for "heavy touring", but ultralight really holds no interest to me and I do love my creature comforts so I'm usually packing a fair amount, generally 4 panniers worth.

And yeah, that almost always includes some good whiskey!

I've honestly never weighed my gear so I couldn't tell you how much I carry, but I'd strongly suspect it's less than your 70 pounds. But I've never cared enough to bother weighing things so who knows?

I tour with a group about every year down in the Ozarks and though it's hilly, we never try and cover too many miles in day, maybe 40-45, and so I load up and bring the kitchen sink, meaning packable fly rod, a small camp chair, a larger tent, and heavier stove than my usual cat can alcohol stove. It's a nice change.

It didn't happen without pictures, ha-ha.

:lol:

(this is going to come back at me!)

:ride:

-Snuts-

My last one was pretty loaded too. Full camping gear 4 panniers and the mattress and sleeping bag on top of the rack. Didn't have whiskey but maybe I should have. I did have sardines and crackers for emergencies. Also a radio as this was during the world series....go cubs!

Pffft.. 70 lbs is middle weight. I do 123 mile day rides at that weight unloaded at home.
Mine was 120+ in SE Asia, didn't have any camp gear. I didn't leave town without 3 or 4 water and 2 or 3 OJ. When I left Hanoi I was pissed off at looking for OJ among the pop and poison drinks and took a 1 + 6 pack.

With 2 rear bike bins with inserts, rack top dry bag, big front CF nose trunk, a half frame bag, spare tire, AND still 2 plastic bags hanging on the bars. 3 kinds of coats/cape and ALL the stuff I have normally take in my suitcase, Ipad, phone, GoPro, elec shaver, 8 lbs tools, lock, couple cans food, roll of paper towel, 4 - 8 snickers bars and banana maybe chips. Plus I got birthday flowers and had them showing in the grocery bags for 3 days to Hanoi. ha My full Pentax digital camera was around my neck the entire trip. Plus a fanny pack with documents and translation book. 2 full wallets.

Generally I went 120 to 140 miles per 2 days, could be 85/45 or 60/75. Wherever the cities lay. Laundry days were half forced layovers. Actually, a couple times I had to heave the whole bike over a construction wire divider. Good thing I wrapped to seat tube with CF.

Between my Hunqapillar, gear, tools and water I travel with 70 lbs no matter what. I'm not into a bivy bag on the ground and munch trail mix for 3 meals a day. I think the creature comforts are more important than the obsession with speed. Here is what I have it down to after 44 years of different touring distance.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S...5_094127-1.jpg

Marc

WHEN it comes to living-on-the-road for tours that are measured in months, not days or hours, I find the comfort of a heavier load to greatly exceed any speed advantage.

AND I hardly notice any weight on my bicycle after two-weeks on the road.

My rig for 3.5 months of touring Alaska & Canada. 80 pounds bike/gear/supplies.
http://ziligy.com/photos/posts/BearCanisterOnLHT.jpg

That weight increased to nearly 90lbs when I headed out on the Dalton Highway for 10-days, without resupply.
http://ziligy.com/photos/posts/JeffArcticCircle.jpg

By the time I finished my month of trekking. This is how my bike was set-up (and stored in Edmonton), awaiting next summers continuation to the Pacific.
Lighter than I started out with. Dropped a few items. Added the frame bag, empty for food, souvenir's as I tour.

:giver:

-Snuts-

In answer to your question, yes. I don't go super heavy (at least I think I don't, as I have never weighed my rig recently), but I definitely don't go light. When I crossed the country in '99 with a different setup, I put the loaded bike on a truck stop scale. It came in at 90 lbs. with no food and no cooking gear except for the one large pot with a lid that doubled as a fry pan that was part of the shared cooking gear. A good deal of the weight was due to two film cameras, including a medium format, and lenses.

OK here is my crappy phone pic of my rig.

Good looking bike. But you won't be a true heavyweight tourer until you strap on some front bags, :)

I like where this thread is going.

That's a great pic of you and your rig up in the Arctic circle; that must be some fine touring and a real change of pace from S.C.

Look closer at the front wheel, another view...

My bad; you are a signature member of the heavy touring crew, :thumb:

Check the rich guy I met on the same ride.

Its a thorn with a rohloff!

how do you pack your Stephenson Triple Bag ? My main issue with this bag is the bulk. I started to pack the down pieces separately, pull out the mattress and roll it up separately too.

For a multi month tour you don't need to carry everything the whole time. Cool weather gear for cool weather. Summer stuff for the summer. Don't carry stuff you'll need in 2 months, pick it up at the post office. And send stuff home that you really don't need. Adjust as you go.

I fall somewhere in the middle. This is from last month. No idea what it weighs, nor do I care. It's fast on the downhills and slow on the uphills.

http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/...28F6D57654.jpg

Only 500ml?

That is what I was thinking.

I do not know what mine weighed when I took the photo, but I had almost two weeks of food packed about five days before I took the photo. If I would have known that I would see a grocery store in the middle of nowhere after only eight days, I could have packed lighter.

It went on top of my rear rack, in a Stuff sack , along with the Tent, in another bag..

I had a rain cover made for the works, Rack top load and Panniers, in one piece..



:thumb: