What sort of weight should I be aiming for?
 

Hello! I'm just getting started into this touring thing. Plans are in place for my girlfriend and I to do a year (or more) long tour in 2010. We've got the bikes, are obsessing over what equipment and why and wheres (based on reviews, and this forum in specific) and will be doing our first weekender in 2 months or so.

Now, my question - How much weight are we looking at carrying "fully loaded?" - Of course that is an open ended question, just curious to see what seasoned tourers are carrying. What about the solo tourer, how much do you carry with you in terms of lbs?

The big 4 of self contained tours (and backpacking) is the panniers/trailer, tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad. So, depending on trailer or panniers, it's going to be a big weight difference.

On my recent trip through France, I took my bike and all the gear in two large suitcases (the bike is S&S coupled). When I weighed them at the airline counter, they came to 99 pounds. I was shocked. There was very little inside those cases when I left the hotel, cases and all was certainly no more than 10 pounds.

The bike is between 35 and 40 pounds without racks or gear. So the racks, panniers, and gear ran between 40 and 45 pounds. Either way, it was about 90 pounds plus me (180 pounds) and food and water. I managed it without too much problem, though one day I did have to walk uphill for about a mile to get the top of the second 1000 meter pass I'd cleared that day.

That said, it is always better to carry less weight. One place that I try to save weight is in toiletries. Everything goes into a small plastic bottle or tube; nothing metal except razor blades.

Next time, I'll use lighter tires, too. I got a new pair of Schwalbe's Marathon Plus and found them to be quite heavy. I didn't get any flats but with lighter tires and tire liners I don't get many flats, anyway.

Assume that a few weeks into your trip that you will have a much better idea of what you want to take and how much weight you feel comfortable with. On a ride to Arizona, I came across a German couple touring across the country. They'd been on the road for about 2 months. The man of the couple was pulling a trailer and had a full set of panniers. When I asked him about it, he shrugged and said that he was used to it by now.

Are you aware that there are several couples currently riding bikes around the world that have websites? You don't say where your 1 year tour will be, but you might find those sites valuable:

http://www.cyclingaroundtheworld.nl/index.asp

http://homepage.mac.com/isaetterry/index.html

http://www.erck.org/

http://www.downtheroad.org/

I'd also suggest looking at www.biketouringtips.com for more links.

Ray

The weight carried is very dependent on the rider and how much or how little they want in comfort. And the weight will vary from day to day, depending on how much food you are carrying.

Solo or with someone (camping), I between 50 and 60 lbs. My ride partners (wife or daughter) are smaller and weaker than I am, so I carry the bulk of the shared equipment. Shared equipment is tent, cooking stuff, food, maybe some toiletries, etc. They carry their own clothes, sleeping bags and personal items. If you are riding with someone more closely matched to your size and strength, some of the heavy stuff can be shared between the riders. Obviously, if you are solo, you are on your own:rolleyes:

I carry more clothes then most people because I just can't stand doing laundry every night. I carry 3 days of riding clothes (and am wearing one), rain stuff, some cool weather gear depending on the time of year, maps, a couple of paper backs, camera and some writing material. Depending on where I'm riding, I also carry 1 to 4 days worth of food.

How much your equipment weighs also depends on how much you spend on it before you leave. Lately, I've dropped significant amounts of weight with newer lighter tents (4 to 6 lbs), lighter sleeping bag (1 to 2 lbs), lighter pad (1 lb), lighter stove and pots (1 lb) and lighter camera (1 lb). The real fight is to not be tempted to add all that weight back by carrying more stuff...electronic gadgets being the biggest culprit.

If you are on a shoestring, buy the lightest stuff you can for as much as you can afford. Lots of this stuff will be with you for a long time. If you buy quality stuff, you'll enjoy it more. Tent, bag and cooking gear are the heaviest items, try to trim weight there.

This is an open ended question and so of infinite interest and open to endless debate. You are going about things correctly by asking questions and with a little experience you'll decide your own touring style and come up with a gear list that has your essentials and probably a couple of luxuries. I encourage you to come up with a detailed gear list as this will help you in packing and prevent you form leaving stuff behind.

The next are broad generalizations, but the weight of the bike goes from 20lbs to 35lbs and the gear from sub 20lbs to over 50lbs. I'm a lightweight tourer in that I use a sport touring bike and fully loaded with the "big 4" and cooking equipment my gear is 20lbs, it goes up to 22lbs if I take my Asus PC along

Here is a thread with a discussion about gear and my gear list

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ighlight=20lbs

I've made two major changes, 1) I replaced the pepsi can stove with a Trangia as it has a simmer ring
and is just far more sturdy, 2) as it's fall I'm using a 20oz quilt not the 16oz summer one.

Go to

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com

for lots of journals and some gear lists

Here's the inspiration for my setup

http://milly.org/rambouillet/index.htm

For a radical approach look here

http://www2.arnes.si/~ikovse/weight.htm
http://pompinos.blogspot.com/

and finally there's the Crane Bros journal of a ride through Central Asia in the mid 1980s with 18lbs of gear

http://web.archive.org/web/200412110...tup.net/crane/

OK

Sorry I can't think in non-metric anymore:

- pair of panniers about 2kg (add 1.6kgs for front panniers)
- tent 1.5kg
- sleeping bag 1kg
- sleeping mat 400g
- stove and gas 1kg

Are your basics. You probably can go lighter on all of these but I'd ay these are reasonable weights to aim for for 'normal' kit.

Spare sets of clothes really add to the weight. As do bits and bobs and gadgets. Take travelwash and use merino layers. Decant shampoo etc into small travel size bottles. Send extra supplies to post offices (General delivery/poste restante) to collect en route. Riding with someone else obviously means you can keep the weight down (you only need one tent and one set of cooking equipment, one first aid kit, one tool kit and set of spares etc)

I'd say try to keep the weight of your panniers and contents (excluding food and water) below 15kgs.

Oh and take with a pinch of salt the claims from super weight weenies: if you follow one of the links from the post above the guy manages to carry phenomenally little kit - but among other things (IIRC) he has no spare clothes, eats raw food, doesn't carry soap and only 20g of suncream even when travelling over the Himalayas. Hmm there's a point when maybe less isn't more.

That pinch of salt probably weights a few grams so I'd leave it behind. ;)

I prefaced the link you're referring to with the word "radical". The guy does some amazing stuff, but it's too extreme for me. My approach is to use light weight stuff with at least 90% of the comfort of regular gear and pack sensibly. Doing that I can get to 20lbs. I have the big 4, 3 changes of clothes, and, shampoo in a 2 oz bottle that I refresh with small samplers or from motels when I don't camp.

The way I do things isn't the norm, but I have everything to be comfortable, I just carry 20lbs less than most folks. I think it makes the riding more enjoyable and I like to be able to easily carry my bike and gear onto trains or up stairs.

Obviously it depends on many things. People cite comfort as the reason to carrying more stuff, but the way to be less comfortable is to carry too much not too little in my experience.

For summertime touring with some cold conditions at higher altitudes in the US, 30-40 pounds including the panniers is reasonable assuming camping and some cooking.

Different strokes though, some like to carry all kinds of stuff.

I've never done more than a month long tour. Most were on the order of a week. I think the amount you carry breaks down according to the time you stay stationary in one place. If I was to ride 200miles over three days and stayed at a destination for a week i'd carry more than if I was riding 1000miles and stayed in a different place everynight.

I don't see the need to carry cooking gear if one is riding everyday and there's food along the road, personal preference but it reduces the amount of gear carried.

From what I've seen more people send home stuff after time on the road than add stuff. Whatever you determine a max load to be I'd reduce it by 30% to allow for big loads of food or water picked up for long stretches from re-supply.

Recent two month tour which included a 40 degree down bag and a bag liner which got in down to 25 degrees came in at 35 pounds not including daily water. Their was two much duplication between my partners and myself. We found we act most meals cold, between us we had three stoves and pots and pans and gas. The weight gear varied a lot - I came in at 35, partner 2 closer to 50, partner 3 at 70lbs. They had a extra tire and I had tire liners. To much duplication in mechanical gear as well. The biggest difference were bags. tents, and on and off the road cloths. My bag and liner was less than 2.5 pounds, tent was 3 pounds, and pad at a pound at opposite end of stectrum there was 5 plus pound bag , at 5 plus pound tent , and almost 2 pound pad. Several day of food alot by partner varied alot as well. As a diabetic I also carried 5 pounds of drugs and medical testing gear.

My general rule regarding touring weight is this ....

Weight of bicycle + weight of gear < or = 1/2 my body weight.


I've ridden with all sorts of different weights, and have found that anything more than 1/2 my body weight is a struggle to haul around, and makes touring less enjoyable.

Have a look at my "A few other comments ..." near the bottom of this page:
http://www.machka.net/pbp2007/2007_PBPTouringGear.htm

These are comments regarding the weight of touring gear, and some of the other reasons why a person might want to travel as lightly as possible.

In addition to those comments I'll also add ... if you are planning to fly anywhere with your bicycle and gear for a tour, the lighter the better. Airlines are putting weight restrictions on how much stuff you can carry without being charged a lot more.

G'day

My load (excluding the weight of the bike and trailer/bag) for a week long ride of the Mundi Biddi Track where I carried all my food for the week, would have been around 16 kg. I try to apply lightweight backpacking techniques (from my hiking) to my cycle touring as well.

If you want to learn more about lightweight backpacking, start with BackpackingLight Yahoo! group. A lot of the ideas can be transferred over to cycling.

Andrew

Suggestions I can make while not having done any real solo touring on my bike, but I have hiked the AT. Go light when it comes to cooking gear, alcohol stoves are one of my favorite ways to drop weight, invest in a good sleeping bag,down is great if kept dry, there are alot of nice synthetic fills out now that aren't very bulky though. And third think about if you really need a tent, I've done alot of hikes using a lightwight tarp set up, or used a hammock.

I'm planning a loop of SC in 09, ideally I'd say I'll be looking at 50 pounds less I get a trailer, then I might tote a few extras.

Well, there are a lot of good ideas posted here so far. I like the Machka rule of 1/2 my body weight as a guideline.
Aside from the weight issue I believe that you also need to think about the space required to carry your stuff. Try to gather up all of the stuff that you feel you just can't do without and figure out the size of panniers that you will need. Be sure not to get panniers that are larger than you need because you will end up filling them up with stuff you don't need.
I understand that this discussion can quickly diverge to other issues, but one of the reasons that I have never tried a trailer is that I would have very little space restriction for packing and would end up carrying too much stuff. I could mount four panniers (I always carry two panniers), but then I would have space to fill up with stuff that I reallly don't need.
The space issue also enters into the decision on which tent and sleeping bag to buy. Look carefully at the "packed size" listed for these items when shopping and determine if they will fit into the panniers that you are considering. Some tents pack into reasonably small diameter tubes but they are long and your panniers need to be deep to fit them in. Unless of course you intend to carry the tent and bag on top of a rack. Good luck with your planning.

I am sure that is relevant for you, but doubt that it scales real well. I guess maybe it does if you look at it as one measure that is only used to be an absolute maximum that you never exceed. Someone who weighs twice as much may have a bit heavier clothes, but they certainly don't need twice as much stuff.

I agree that the "half body weight" rule breaks down as the rider gets heavier. If I was to apply Machka's rule my bike and gear would be closer to 100lbs rather than 45lbs. The problem is that there is a wide range of body weights and gear weight should not be linked to it. It should be determined by what you need to carry. I've done a lot to reduce my gear weight, now my next goal is to reduce my weight further by, well let's be frank, loosing weight, getting rid of the belly, there's easily 10lbs there:lol:

Yep comes down to telling where the point is where less stops being more.

I think it's worth bearing in mind that the ideal weight for a short tour may be more than the ideal weight for a longer tour. As well as getting fitter I tend to lose a couple of kilos a week so, applying the half my bodyweight rule, that means I can carry a bit more ;-)

With backpacking the base starting weight is 20-25% of body weight. Many ultralight backpackers go with less while others exceed 25% of body weight. It' just a starting point. Although not exactly the same there are many parallels between backpacking and bike touring.

I came up with the core of my gear list from several UL hiking websites and forums. Then I just added the cycling specific stuff like tools and spares. As an example of something that saves weight but gets me 90% of the utility I don't carry a folding spare tyre, I carry tyre boots that I can use to patch splits until I get to the next store.

My bike plus gear is way more than half my bodyweight. I'm 5'2" and 11x pounds where 1 < x < 6

bike: ~34
gear: 30-50
depending on season (clothes),
distance to next services (food/water),
temperature (water),
geographic region (haven't really tested this yet, but i would be carrying more spares for a remote trip),
length of trip (slight variation in spare parts),
which bags I choose to carry - my arkel bags are huge but very heavy, my others (lone peak + canondale) are lighter & smaller

IMO travelling lighter is always better, but ...

I figure the heavier people are likely stronger than me and able to carry more if they wanted to.

For me, when the load gets over half my body weight, it's really difficult to move the load and I find myself walking up hills rather than riding, and slowing way down when I ride, and really struggling to manage it all in airports and train stations. So, knowing that, when I pack I aim for something below 1/2 my body weight ... which in my case is not easy to do.

But sleizure's question "What sort of weight should I be aiming for?" is a difficult one to answer because there is no one right answer. sleizure has got to load up his bicycle and go out for rides in all different terrains and figure out what works for him. However, the 1/2 the body weight may be a good guideline for a maximum load.

I'll go with the "half body weight max load" limit.

A lot of weight reduction is about having confidence in your own abilities to navigate, ride, fix and cope with adverse conditions. You only get this from experience so my advice would be to do a weekend shakedown tour, leave out the excess then try a week or so and see what works for you.
Metalwork is heavy so think about how you can minimise your toolkit yet still fix your way out of trouble.
Footwear is heavy and bulky and it is always a major issue, do you need clipless cycling pedals, hiking boots, trail shoes.
You have heard about how electronics can stack up in your bag but paperwork can run riot. You collect maps, guidebooks, tourist leaflets, tickets etc at an alarming rate. Consider an archiving policy such as: Throw Away or Send Home

This is all great information. I realize each has their own likes and things that has worked, this gives me a good starting point, and more importantly, more links to read and get advice from. I'm going to try to pack as light as possible, and understand that if for some reason I feel that a specific item is absolutely essential, I will make my efforts to bring it along regardless of the weight - however a soft "maximum" limit to know when to stop is going to help me from packing the kitchen sink. We plan on disappearing for a year or more, Likely the spare clothes are going to eat alot of our weight up. Thanks again.

I lived on the bicycle for three months, in quite a wide range of weather (low: -6C; high: +44C), with:

1 sleeveless jersey
1 short-sleeved jersey
1 short-sleeved non-cycling top
1 long-sleeved wool top
1 long-sleeved cardigan (a very thin, light one)
1 vest
1 jacket
2 pairs of cycling shorts
1 pair of leg warmers
2 pair of zip-off pants
1 pair of beach shorts
1 bathing suit
1 sarong

By the end of three months I was bored to death with those clothes, but they got me through. There were days when I was wearing just about all of them at once to keep warm!! And then other days when the bathing suit and beach shorts were almost too much. :lol:

If I were heading out for a year, I wouldn't bring any more than that ... instead, every 2 or 3 months I might buy something(s) that caught my eye along the way, and then mail home the stuff I was bored with.