Fairly light... Cheap Nashbar or Performance Waterproof panniers. I like them fine and they have held up well so far.

Lighter... A saddle bag.

Another light option... Silnylon stuff sacks tried or strapped directly to the rack(s).

It is, assuming you're a lean person for all the hiking you've done you might as well look at the wheels and tires on your bike. If your Cannondale has wheels built up for a 200lb person carrying 40lbs of stuff they're heavier than they need to be if you're 150lbs carrying 15lbs of stuff. A regular road rim with 32 spokes is plenty and a rear rim like the Synergy OC with 32 spokes should hold up fine. Check the tires on the bike, there's a huge range and some can be 500 grams and some 300 grams of the same size. If you're closer to 200lbs then stick with the stock wheels which I assume are beefy 36spoke wheels.

I agree that 50 pounds of gear is far from necessary. It isn't all that hard to get below 30 pounds without resorting to ultralight backpacking gear and still carry some luxury items.

I will caution about the "you must pass stores along the way each day" statement. That isn't necessarily a given even in the US. Some places you can go pretty far between towns and maybe get to a town and find the store has gone out of business. Missing a store for at least one day isn't that unusual.

I agree that 15 pounds is certainly possible. That said, for me the 30 pounds or a bit less including panniers that I have managed so far, isn't bad and the benefits for lightening the load get smaller with the inconvenience going up as you go lighter. Because of that I think the sweet spot for me might be at 20-25 pounds although I have not gotten there yet.

A carradice saddlebag is your best bet.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

An $8 Nalgene flask (4 oz. of weight when empty) of reposado or Gordon's goes a long way.

I have been interested in using a large saddlebag and large front bar bag only. What is the largest capacity in a setup like this? What capacity can a bike tourer get away with? I am slowly evolving into an ultralight tourer so if volume is acceptable then this might be the way to go. I often read about folks using this setup but they seem to always be credit card touring. I am always camping.

I never felt comfortable trying to stuff all my gear into a carradice nelson longflap and front big bag when hauling just edge of ultralight tarptype camping loads. I know some have done it, i think forum user nun usually winds up strapping stuff on the outside of his bags.

I've ridden with junk all strapped cattywampus (see my pic of the offroad 520 above) but personally i prefer to have even light loads all stuffed inside bags and secure, nothing like getting to camp and discovering your sleeping pad has slipped off the bike!

I just can't get the carradice nelson longflap to provide enough capacity with carrying my tarp tent type loads, maybe i should try again and just go with a bug headnet and the small siltarp? but man. packing full ultralight camping kit into a carradice with clothes and food is tight IMO. i think only the camper longflap is bigger, maybe one other carradice.

I was thinking the same but thought I had read that others had done it. I don't want a lot of stuff hanging all over the place. I think you're right.

I don't use that set-up. Check nun's posts.

The largest Carradice are the super C (23L and 550 grams according to Wiggle) and Camper Longflap (24L and 920g) . The Arkel Big Bag is 10L (very sturdy and very heavy). So that's 33-34L. With a small front rack, you can put the sleeping bag or tent under the bar bag and it frees a lot of space. The picture below is 42L without any ultralight gear, 3 sets of bike clothes and 1 of "normal" clothes (including some warm clothes) and a Dragonfly stove plus large fuel bottle that wouldn't fit in the pot. The handlebar bag has only a SLR camera in it, which few people carry. Put the tent outside, use fewer clothes and an alcohol stove and I'm pretty sure it's easy to pull off. I ordered a super C from Wiggle so I'll find out.

http://www.borealphoto.com/Cycling/P...49_P7moU-M.jpg

Thanks, I just read nuns site/blog. He has really trimmed the weight, very impressive. I do think the Arkel Big Bag is way heavy if ultralight touring is the goal. It goes @ 3 lbs. You could easily put 2 small Lone Peak panniers and a Tubus Duo rack on the front and come in just over 3 lbs while picking up 1500CI storage in the process(total 2000CI=33L). The Carradice also seems a tad heavy but at least has a decent volume. I'm thinking the Tubus and LP front bags might be one of the lighter touring options. Use a tubus fly rear rack for an ultralightweight dry bag with tent, pad , bag etc. strapped down. Weights are almost equal and you have a lot more storage volume.
I do like the way folks are really looking into ultralight touring. I almost bought a set(4 bags)of pannier but now will wait. Please report back on how much the Carradice can hold. I wonder if anyone has determined the volume/weight numbers of many pannier/saddlebag system. A quick look at the numbers show Arkel/Carradice combo weighs 2180gm with 34L and the Tubus/Lonepeak weighs 1420gm with 33L. That's750gms difference(1.5lbs) which can be used for a rear rack,Tubus Fly(300gms) and a dry bag(wt??). Less weight and more volume. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but this seems to be a lighter way to travel. Charlie

I have a Carradice Camper which I used for commuting. I considered using it for touring and loaded it up as a trial. Found that yes, I could just squeeze everything inside it and a handlebar bag. But that left no convenient way to carry those temporary extras from the nearest town grocery store to the campsite and also required more careful packing than I cared to do on a regular basis. Decided that rear panniers were still a better option and left the top of the rack available for any extra items along the way.