rodar y rodar

Nun, you use butt butter AND Gold Bond? Simultaneously, or sometimes one and sometimes the other? I`ve been using G.B. and keep meaning to try out some cream to see if I like it better, but I always seem to forget while I`m in a bike shop or placing an online order.

staehpj1

In this case they were 21 and 22 to my 57, but yeah.

nun

I don't use them together. In the morning I "butter up" for the day. Then at night I use the GB powder after my shower. This keeps me cool and clean

Doohickie

Meh. My DL-1 weighs 52 lb. EMPTY!

ted grant

made it to LA in 6 days averaging about 65 miles a day, i did use the 22/34 gear several times over big sur, glad i had it, bike only has a 42/11 top gear, I hit 36mph once, but then a big gust of wind hit me like a sail, so i slowed way down

interesting replies,, only was rained on the first day for about an hour, the bike had a front fender on the downtube and i used a piece of carboard on the back as a temp fender.

my packing list was simple, msr tent, down bag, 3 changes of bike clothes (top and shorts), wool sweater, waterproof shell, 1 pair tights, 1 pair shoes, alcohol stove, small pot ( used for coffee only), mini tool kit ( basically the stuff you would take on a century), and mini toiletries ( all trial size),

zero flats ( specialized armadillo 25c tires), zero irate drivers, lots of good food and beer/wine drinking, great weather. its nice to have a few extra things when you make camp, but they arent necessary, like I said , touring with 100 pounds is cool, but you will feel it on the hills. .

arctos

Long ago I learned from backpacking that less is more on a steep grade. When I applied this insight to bike touring over 35 years ago each tour has been progressively lighter in terms of equipment. Once the equipment weight reductions leveled off then I looked at the bags for carrying the equipment.

Instead of rear panniers I use a large dry bag stuffer on top of the rear rack for bulky and light items like clothes,rain gear, sleeping bag, pad and tent. This change saved me five pounds of pannier weight. I next dropped the handlebar bag saving an additional 2#. I use two panniers only up front.

Once I settled on this configuration I found more and more reasons to like it. As I began touring more often off pavement I found that going over obstacles was easier and wheel damage and truing has disappeared even for a Clydesdale like me. The Divide Ride, Baja and South America and even local single track proved to me that this particular type of equipment lightening works very well for me. My total equipment weight on the Divide Ride was 18#. Bike and equipment 43#.

John Nelson

I'm impressed. No spare parts. No sleeping pad (you're tough). No street clothes. No camera. No cell phone. No chain lube. No light. No socks. No notebook. No pen. No wallet. No towel. No drugs. No first aid. No dishes. No maps. No cord. No sunscreen.

I like light, but I don't think I could go that light.

Does your mini tool kit include a tube, patch kit and pump?

rodar y rodar

WHOOOOHOOOOHOO!!
What else is there to say? That`s perfection in a nutshell.

wheel

bug spray
sun screen
goldbond
first aid kit

I reuse small bottles (depending on supply needed), when I refill on tour I just give away the bottle I bought.
You can repackage lots of things to reduce.

cupsal

Where did you find the fork?

burtonridr

How are you guys weighing your bike?

The only way I can think of is to weigh myself on a scale, then pick up the bike and stand on the scale, then subtract to get the difference. Is that how you are all doing it?

staehpj1

I have a fish scale that goes to 50 pounds. I weigh the bike and the panniers separately.

ted grant

"I'm impressed. No spare parts. No sleeping pad (you're tough). No street clothes. No camera. No cell phone. No chain lube. No light. No socks. No notebook. No pen. No wallet. No towel. No drugs. No first aid. No dishes. No maps. No cord. No sunscreen." someone wrote



I had some of that stuff, cell phone/charger, notebook/pen, mini towel, lube is part of my tool bag, 2 little lights ( front doubled as flashlight/reading light), small aluminum cup (Im ditching the entire stove/ cooking idea on next tour, cold food/ takeout/ taquerias were fine). California has a million cheap good restaurants. I will consider a sleeping pad next trip, but they are so bulky. No spare parts except a couple chain links and a couple bolts and zipties, I personally built the bike and barring a crash, nothings going to break ( its all shimano XT), and if it did, i would figure out a way to overcome it. my packing list doesnt include every single item, but one can guess the missing pieces

drugs is another story, I would take either a vicodin or codene 3 every day at around mile 30, washed down with a cold beer, which really helped the last half of the day go by easier. (pills dont weigh much, do they?).

having said all that, I rode with a guy I met on the road who was 20 years my senior (im 40), was riding an extracycle partially loaded (day trip) and i was having a hell of a time keeping up with him, so it goes to show that its the engine thats the important piece

rodar y rodar

That`s what I do. Except that the battery in the scale is usually dead- Thank God for modern technology

I`m all packed up to leave tomorrow morning for four days. At 32# for the bike and 24# of gear (including food but not including water), it`s by far my lightest trip yet. Going from Coleman to alcohol saved a lot, riding where there are services every ten to twenty miles helps a lot too. My downfall this time is that I`m carrying a two-man tent. I can`t deal with a single tent- it`s either none or the double for me. Oh, my weight is aout 140.

ted grant

found it on ebay for about 120 bucks brand new, uncut, it had a 13" aluminum steering tube , I only cut a little bit to get the bars up where I like them for touring, search for bontrager satellite, some of them do not have the rack eylet in the middle of the fork, the best thing is that it has a 50 rake to streach things out a bit, very compliant as well. paired up with the aluminum cross frame, it was much stiffer than my old trek lugged 520 ( I like that). when i would stand up to power over the tops of grades , the bike would simply go forward, very solid platform for power transfer. its my only remaining aluminum bike (the rest are carbon, or steel). i dont ride it that much and I remember now why sprinters love aluminum frames.

ted grant

i went with the msr hubba tent, its single but tall enough to sit up in easily and doesnt seem claustrophobic. good luck on yer trip

rodar y rodar

Thanks. Quarterdome T2, here. Not TOO awful big or heavy. Since my rack sits up so high, I strapped the poles and my plastic ground sheet underneath and was able to stuff my sleeping bag into the tent bag.

John Nelson

I've use four different techniques:

(1) Ride the bike into a bike shop and weight it there. Most of them have a bike scale.
(2) Use the technique you mentioned, but it can be really hard to read the scale with 80 pounds in your hands.
(3) Weigh one wheel at a time. First, put the front wheel on the scale. Then put the back wheel on the scale. Then add them up. I have found that this gives me the same answer as (2) and is a lot easier to do. If you want to get just a bit more accurate, put the wheel not on the scale on a block of wood the same height as the scale, but I doubt this makes any significant difference. Be careful no neither add or subtract load as you hold the bike while it is on the scale. I've found it useful to let go of the bike for about a second, read the scale, and then catch it before it falls.
(4) With any of the three techniques above, it's easier to weigh it unloaded. I then weigh all my gear on a kitchen scale one piece at a time, add it up and add it to the weight of the unloaded bike. I'm a bit anal about this and I weigh everything to the gram. It's the only way I can make the trade-off as to whether or not a piece of gear is really worth those extra 300 grams. The "it's only one more ounce" philosophy can kill you. If you know the weight of all of your gear one piece at a time, it's really easy to put it in a spreadsheet and add it up differently for different trips and gear combinations.

dogontour

I bet I've got everyone on here beat. My Trek 520 with all it's accessories (not counting the panniers) weighs 40 lbs. I tour with my dog Jasmine. She's 60 lbs (though she doesn't always ride in the trailer). Her trailer is 25 lbs. So before I even load a single thing, I already have 125 lbs to pull! Light weight...I couldn't even figure out a way to get near that.

Tiff )