The bike and trailer look ultraheavy to me. All that climbing gear weighs a ton. Proper UL etiquette would have been to ship it ahead to the base camp. Unless you are referring to the weight savings by not wearing a helmet?

this is the last seatpost rack that I was around, used on the Tour Divide. It made it about 3 days into the ride.

every seatpost rack that I've known, ultimately breaks. My brother Dylan lives in LA, doesn't own a car, rides a CX bike, and used a rack like this, which broke within a year.
simply from the constant vibration.

That's my experience too. Two Frontrollers were the best option because of the stove and the pot, we use ETA MF from Primus as it's kind of childproof (large base, windscreen attached and no flames exposed when the pot is on top), but it's bulky. That way we could stay all together when cooking. A regular light stove just attracts too much of attention, kids want to play with it. That's the kind of compromise (weight/size vs overall usability) i am happy to make.

Looks like one that I have only I cut mine down to be shorter. I was going to use it for an ultralight road tour, but thought better of it.

Oh pardon me, I thought that every second post was analysing the how-to on this thread...packing water, putting stuff on racks or not, and so on.

This is the sort of comment that lends a bit of arrogance and elitism to the UL discussion.

And I didn't see the Crane brothers mentioned in the lists of UL achievers. Perhaps they were ahead of many of the others, certainly Jardine, as far as I am aware.

And the guy who climbed Everest? C'mon, it doesn't rate as lightweight bicycle touring, no matter what spin you put on it.

+1.--> 240 pounds of gear is not UL. He's actually practicing ultra-self-supported which is somewhat anathema to ultra-lighters. Example: Most UL through-hikers have supplies shipped to them at mail-drops. Most UL tourers will purchase what they need, beyond the minimum essentials, on an as-needed basis, rather than carry it.

Some inspiration.....Warning the Crane Bros were crazy.... please apply common sense and don't attempt to emulate them unless you are a lunatic. If you are a lunatic go ahead ride across the Tibetan Plateau without a tent and across the Gobi with a couple of litres of water.

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

https://pompinos.blogspot.com/

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

If you are going to be away from resupply for weeks at a time in I can see the need for such a setup if you have to carry large amounts of food, water and gear for extreme weather. However, I've seen similar setups on the roads in Vermont.

On my crossing between Perth and Adelaide I also saw photographs of men in the late 1800s who were riding bicycles on dirt roads across Australia with what would be very light equipment levels -- a blanket, a tarp, a pan maybe, and some clothes, plus matches.

I have little doubt that their bikes actually weighed more than the gear they were carrying. Likely, with a bit of research, anyone could toss up photographs of UL touring in North America from a similar era.

UL touring is not new, but like religious evangelism, UL evangelism is just putting a view on it.

This is Frank Lenz. That's a camera on his back I believe but otherwise his gear is minimal.

Yes, there are lots of sepia tone pictures of bicycle touring that look pretty light weight. The stuff was probably pretty heavy, there just wasn't much of it. Also we have this image of cowboys riding across the West with just a canteen, an actual "saddle" bag and a bed roll, how close to the truth was that?

I used to go touring with friends back in the late 1970s with just saddlebags and handlebar bags. We divide the tent between us and strapped anoraks to the outside of the bags. We'd pitch the tent and walk to the local pub because they had no problem serving 16 year olds. The nights were pretty ripe with 3 sweaty, drunk lads in a 2 person tent.....ahh happy days.

It would be interesting to investigate when and how panniers became the default and how their number expanded.

Here's one from 1898, but not sure where.


BTW: I'm quite sure they're fixed-gear.

Wonderful picture.. Look at those mountains, the gearing, the roads and the tyres! And has the guy on the right broken the UL creed by packing a box of cigars?? And what about the guy next to him with the cable TT AND downtube??? Isn't that taking UL touring to the next level?
All from 1898... just fantastic.

Love the ties, you just have to wear a collar and tie to be dressed properly for bike touring. And the 2 guys on the left are doing a nice balancing job.

Oh, and don't forget the wool. That new wonder fibre for bicycle touring.

Interesting article with the picture of the "4 horsemen" included.

https://www.outyourbackdoor.com/article.php?id=1939

and here's some info on the picture....it's taken in Norway and the bike is a Starely Psycho (great name)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/travelling_two/6754372139/

It used to crack me up as a kid when I saw a TV cowboy riding a horse with just a tiny bedroll in one scene and in the next he was in camp with cast iron skillet and pot, a big coffee pot, and who knows what all.

I can't get past the guy with the recumbent and the trailer. It's like... unbelievable.

Yeah, but there was always a burro the guy was leading along with an invisible rope.

I'm under the impression that most through-hikers have supplies mailed to them, not just the UL ones. The Appalachian Trail record is 47 days; I don't think I have that much food in my house. I'd be willing to bet that very few people decide to tour with everything they need, it honestly takes some of the fun out of it. I like eating in new restaurants, and wandering through small town general stores.

We always joked that there was a big pile of gear stashed behind every cactus.

Sometimes they did have a side kick that looked like his horse or mule was actually loaded with stuff, but the hero never seemed to have more than a tiny bedroll.

Maybe the guy with the bent and the trailer is someone's sidekick.

I was a kid/teen when the Cranes did that trip. I try not to bring them up all the time, but they were my heros. So much so that my first good mountain bike was a Puegeot like the ones they used on MT kalihari(Spelling?)

And I would love to have a raliegh with only one shifter boss for the rear, and use the foot and fingers to shift the front. I love reading about how in Katmandu they stripped thier already light stuff even further, tossing things and having holes drilled in everything. Problem is, I just got a new jersey in the mail, and my arms won't fit in the sleeves. As a non light framed guy, I try to keep things real. Having a front shifter is fine, untill I lose about twenty pounds. Then, lookout!

Oh, and for everyone with a hardon one way or the other about racks, they did have racks and I believe one pannier each.

They had 2 x karrimor panniers each and their description of the trip its excellent. Amazing how they often find a hut, yurt or tea house in the middle of nowhere.

Gonna have to read it again, its been some years.

The Crane brothers were pretty incredibly awesome. If you actually read the retelling of their Gobi Desert trip, it's pretty amazing. They just rode every day till they got dehydration headaches, cut their wrenches in half and discarded pictures of their girlfriends to save weight... It's inspirational and freaking cool.