After I return from a tour, I try to evaluate the gear I took (and didn't) to see what I can learn from my most recent trip. Primarily, I am trying to determine if there is any "wasted weight" I was pedaling around. Also, I want to determine if there is some piece of gear whose utility "outweighs" its cost, so to speak.
I have done enough bicycle tours to solidify my basic gear list (near the bottom of this page). I add or delete items based on what kind of tour I am doing (Credit Card, self-supported, etc), where I will be riding and when. For the most part, I try not to add any more weight, if I can help it. In addition, I feel particularly virtuous if I can remove something from the list!
My most recent tour (journal here), was through the Big Bend area of West Texas in late April. This is a sparsely populated area with few towns and no services between towns. In one section, I would have to carry enough food for dinner, breakfast and all biking food for an entire day. In addition, I expected it to be hot, mid-90s and there was some chance of rain.
As a result, I added a couple items to my gear list for this trip. I took an additional, synthetic, bike jersey in case the wool shirts I normally wear were too hot and I decided to take a goodly amount of dehydrated food to handle the long stretch without supply stops (more detailed article about my experience with dehydrated food). By my calculation, this added 4 pounds to my panniers.
The main motivation for this review is that in July I will be riding a much longer tour in the Canadian Rocky Mountains from Missoula, MT to Jasper, Alberta, Canada (touring plan here) and I both want to apply what I learned in Texas and insure that I've squeezed out all the weight I can.
Let me start by saying that I am not a minimalist when I tour. I use Ortlieb panniers carried on two racks and a large handlebar bag to carry my gear and the weight of these, alone, is close to 20 pounds! Given that my bike weighs around 25 pounds, I am starting off at close to 45 pounds without any gear at all!
While I am comfortable with the amount of weight I carry, I often have to stop when riding up serious grades. So, I do want to make sure that I can justify every pound in my panniers!
To simplify this discussion, I've broken my list down into these categories:
Camping Gear
Cooking Gear
Tools
Clothing
Toiletries
Miscellaneous
Camping Equipment
Primarily, I see camping equipment as safety gear. Thus, I take it should my tour go through remote areas with limited services. On tours where I will be able to find shelter every night, I leave it at home. On tours of England and Switzerland, I didn't bother taking it. In France, I carried it, but only used it twice in a month.
I don't particularly like sleeping in a tent on tour. My first choice is stay with a couchsurfing or warmshowers host. Second would be a cheap motel. Last, I find a campground and sleep in my tent. Thus, if I am carrying all my camping gear, it is because I plan to camp several times. In the Texas trip, I camped 4 of 9 nights and didn't get a good night's sleep on any of them! Twice it was all night train horns, once it was snoring in another tent, once it was gusty winds. But, in the places I camped, there was no other options and it was good to have this gear with me. I have never stealth camped and don't plan to.
The total weight for my tent, sleeping bag, Thermarest pad, blow-up pillow and chair frame comes to 11 pounds, broken down to about 5 pounds for the tent, 3½ for the bag and close to 2½ pounds for the pad, pillow and chair frame. I don't have a lot of options with this gear, as it is either all or nothing. I could buy a lighter, smaller tent and save 2 pounds, but it hardly seems worth it. A newer bag might save me half a pound (and lighten my wallet several hundred dollars, too).
The only comfort option is the chair frame. I could camp without it, but then, I'd have no back support in camp, which is unacceptable. Plus, it only weighs 11 ounces.
All of this gear will be going with me on my next tour, which will include several nights of camping.
Cooking Gear
I use a Trangia alcohol stove that weighs 6 ounces. To save fuel, I also carry a pot cozy made from heater vent insulation that weighs 4 ounces. My titanium pots weigh just over 1 pound and the aluminum fuel bottle is 7 ounces. Plastic utensils and a wooden spoon are 2 ounces. This comes to about 2½ pounds.
While the stove, pots and utensils are light, the food and fuel quickly add up. Cooking alcohol is usually purchased at a hardward store's paint section. My fuel bottle is 24 ounces, which is about 1½ pounds just for the fuel. On the Texas tour, I used about half of the fuel, carrying 12 extra ounces of (undrinkable) alcohol.
Almost as important as fuel is my kit bag of spices and oil. On my Texas trip, the oil, soy sauce and other spices weighted about 2 pounds.
In reality, I took too much oil, soy sauce and spices to Texas, most of which I didn't use. I probably hauled 12 ounces more than I needed. Since all of these things are readily available in any grocery store, I need to do a better job matching my amounts to my actual needs.
But, this stuff is of no use without food to cook and here is where things can get out of hand. In addition to the ½ pound of food I dehydrated, I was also carrying dehydrated refried beans, oatmeal, raisins, and peanuts.
The dehydrated refried beans are somewhat heavy and weigh in at about 6 ounces for 2 cups, which is a reasonable sized serving. I carried about a pound of refried beans. Oatmeal weighs about 4 ounces a cup and I had close to a ½ pound of oatmeal. As both snack and emergency food, I carried a pound each of raisins and peanuts, mixed together.
I ate most of the refried beans and oatmeal, returning with about 2 cups of beans and about ½ cup of oatmeal. I ate maybe half of the raisin/peanut mix and gave away other half. That was another pound of dead weigh!
I carried other food for daily consumption on the bike. I purchased that food on the day I ate it so its weight is hard to know and, since it was consumed every day, not really relevant to this analysis.
In the end, I carried close to a pound extra in oil and spices, a pound of uneaten raisins and peanuts, and about a pound in unconsumed dehydrated foods. This means of the 9½ pounds of cooking gear, fuel and food I had on the bike, about a third of it was unnecessary and simply went along for the ride!
Tools
Tools are the only things I pack hoping not to use! Further, I don't choose the lightweight alternatives, either. I used to pack plastic tire levers but one broke while I was fixing a flat and now I use metal ones.
I carry two things I've never needed on the road. One is a fiber-fix spoke replacement and the other is the Hypercracker for removing the lock ring that holds on the rear gear cluster, often required when replacing a broken spoke on the drive side of the rear wheel. I haven't used the fiber-fix because I carry extra spokes (zip-tied to my rear rack) and I rarely break a spoke. On my current bicycle, I have never broken a spoke on the rear wheel! Together, they weigh about 2 ozs, so no big deal.
I carry a bag of replacement parts: brake cable, shifter cable, rag, a few extra chain links and pins, rubber gloves, tire boots, and a bottle of chain lube. Total weight is 10 ozs.
My bag of tools consists of the, above mentioned, Hypercracker, a multi-tool, a metal bolt wrench, 2 aluminum tire irons, a spoke wrench, and the S&S coupler wrench, which is needed to tighten the couplers on my bike (and also as a pedal wrench). Total weight is 1 pound.
I also pack a patch kit (½ oz), two spare tubes (3 ozs each), a mini-pump (½ pound), several zipties and a length of rope, which I didn't weigh.
Total weight of my tools is about 2 ½ pounds. I plan on carrying all these supplies on my next tour so there is no way to save any weight in this area.
Clothes
There are two kinds of clothes that I pack: on-bike and off-bike.
When I ride, I wear biking shorts (6 ozs), a jersey (8 ozs), reflective vest, head covering (1 oz), helmet, kerchief, sunglasses, full-fingered biking gloves, socks (3 ozs) and biking shoes. When I am off the bike, I wear nylon pants (15 ozs), a biking jersey, and trail running shoes (2 pounds). I also carry a cotton over-shirt (1 pound).
The issue isn't what biking clothes to take, it is how many of each. On the Texas tour, I could have carried just one pair as the dry air meant that washed shorts were ready to wear the next morning. But, there is no way I could wear the same pair of shorts for an entire bike tour, even if I could wash it every night and it would be dry the next morning. The main reason for this is that "hot spots" develop if I use the same shorts too many days in a row.
In addition, it isn't always possible to wash clothes every night. Primitive campgrounds without running water are one example. Even if shorts can be washed, they may not dry overnight. What if it rains? To deal with all these issues, I generally pack 3 pairs of biking shorts (1 pound 2 ounces).
I've reduced my biking jerseys down to two; both wool. The long-sleeved one weighs 10 ounces and the short-sleeved 8. I also carry two pairs of wool socks.
I carry a nylon rain shell and pants that double as both rain wear and extra layers should it get cold. Note that the rain pants double as an extra pair of pants and can be worn while my other pants are being washed.
The only clothes I carry for off-bike wear is a light pair of pants, a wool t-shirt, a cotton overshirt for cool mornings and evenings, and shoes.
Considering only the clothes I wear and not the safety gear (helmet, sunglasses, reflective vest, biking shoes, rainwear), the total weight is about 7 pounds. I could save some weight by taking only 2 pairs of shorts (saves 6 ozs), leaving the t-shirt at home (another 6 ozs), and finding lighter shoes that I can hike in (say ½ pound). While it would narrow my clothing options, it saves 1¼ pounds, about a liter of water!
Toiletries and First Aid
I am very careful about extra weight in my toiletries kit. I repack all lotions into smaller, lighter bottles and try not to take any more than I need. Instead of taking lots of something, say toothpaste, I try to take just enough. Some items, like sunscreen or butt cream, I start with a full bottle and then slowly use it up.
I don't shave every day but my face is sensitive when I do. A dull razor is painful both when I shave and afterwards when I sweat while riding. As a result, I take 2 disposable razors when touring at a cost of minimal weight. It is hard to see much other savings here.
I carry a small first aid kit that is stuffed full of band-aids, gauze, alcohol wipes, Q-tips, and a few other odds and ends. I have fallen off my bike on tour and needed all the items in this kit (and more!). I always look through it before I pack it for a tour to make sure everything is within its use-by date. But, I don't see this as a place to save any weight.
Miscellaneous
There are various other items I carry that don't fit in any of the above categories:
AAA map of local area
Rear blinking light
Front blinking light (also used as night light in tent)
Headlamp for use when cooking or reading
Extra camera batteries
iPhone
iPad
While I rarely refer to the AAA map, I find it useful to take a paper map with me and I get them for free.
It may be excessive to take both a headlamp and a front blinking light, as they both do essentially the same thing. On the Texas trip, I didn't use the headlamp much as I only used the iPad for reading and a light isn't needed for that. I will have to think about taking it on my next trip.
It is very useful if I am cooking in the dark, as it frees me from having to use one hand to hold the light. It weighs 3 ounces.
I don't like using a camera that has to be recharged. Instead, I carry a camera that uses 2 AA batteries. I always carry an extra set at the weight cost of 1 ounce.
I put all my music and books on the iPhone, along with several apps I use both when biking and in camp. I can't imagine not having it with me when I ride.
The iPad is pure luxury. It is heavy, valuable to theives, and completely unnecessary for bike touring. But, it has many uses and I have come to rely on having one.
Conclusion
So, what have I discovered with all this weighing? Given my bike, racks, panniers, and gear, I am pushing close to 75 pounds when I ride on tour. Note that this doesn't count water or food!
While there are some opportunities to save weight by being better at estimating my need for food and spices and by narrowing my clothing choices, much of the weight I carry is dictated by what things I will need on a particular tour.
I now know that camping is an 11 pound decision and cooking costs me about 6 pounds. In total, camping, cooking, clothing, and miscellaneous items I am carrying weigh close to 30 pounds.
For some bicycle tourists, this is way too much weight. Here are links to several articles about ultralight touring. Previously, I wrote an article on taking less weight on tour that also contains several additional links to lighter weight touring.
But, thanks to this detailed look at my current packing list and the demands of my next tour, I hope to save a few pounds without diminishing my touring experience. |