https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2818/...4511cda3_b.jpg

My current touring setup.

- Surly Krampus w/ 29 x 3" tires and Rohloff
- Porcelain Rocket bike bags
- 28L Camelbak pack

I haven't weighed my gear, but it's good for 3 season travel in Canada. I would take the same stuff on a 1 week tour or a 2 month trip.

I'm working on lightening my bike and gear over this winter as my trips are involving more and more challenging terrain that requires man handling the bike and gear up and down over mtns on marginal trails.

Last trip I ended up loaning out some critical spares to other riders with a lot more gear than me. I often tour solo so I get it done with what I have.

Ultimately it's not how much stuff you have it's what you brought combined with testing/maintaining your gear and planning your trip that equals success.

Interestingly when I look back at my 4 panniers and tent on the rear rack days I'm no less comfortable and I have no less fun. In fact I like riding my bike more since it retains some maneuverability compared to the boat like handling of a classic fully loaded touring bike.

I'm also able to cover more and varied ground making things possible that weren't with a ton more gear.

The one challenge with taking less is figuring out what "I" really need. I still have a tent in my bags. A tarp/bivy would be lighter, but I appreciate my bug free cocoon and storm ready shelter.

There are always folks with less gear. Don't just copy their lists as you may find you need different items to keep smiling.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7440/...135f512d_b.jpg

Touring is part of ma life!

Seven year old thread.

5 meaningless posts in about 15 min. yesterday, all in old threads. Probably trying to get to 10 so he can post spam links. Same thing happened with a different profile a few months back.

There has been the same crap on the ACA forums for months. New users posting to very old threads with nonsense. Other new users posting more nonsense with spam links that may or may not have some very tenuous connection to the subject. Some of them looked like they might be a bot. I hope the mods here will stay on top of it better than they do over on the ACA forums. I try to report them when I see them and hope the mods will remove their posting rights.

Personally I'd really like to see a freeze of posting to old threads. If someone really wants to refer to one for a legitimate reasons they can always link to it. At least that way it is immediately obvious and we don't get sucked into commenting on ancient threads without realizing it.

I think a year is good. But I would have an exception that allows the OP to continue to post later if they have an update. I appreciate someone later responding with an update after we have provided advice and suggestions.

I would also allow someone to edit a previous post that they made, but that is not a new post and does not show up as such. For example I had a suggestion that I made on maybe four or five posts on some equipment. And then a few years later had a catastrophic failure, so I went back to my previous posts and added an addendum. And also private messaged those that had responded to my posts where I had a bad suggestion.