Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
My wife and I have done "fully loaded touring" on our tandem, 42 lbs. of gear total, including all the bike tools, pumps, bottles, bags, all that stuff. Very comfortable rain or shine, good times, though we were only out for a few weeks at a time. Our non-bike gear is the same stuff we use for long distance backpacking. We do take only minimal civvies, just enough to hike, eat out, explore towns, etc. So 50 lbs. apiece is a heckuva lot of gear. That's more than we take on a 10-day backpack including food and water.
absolutely, especially with 2lb-3lb tents and everything nowadays.
clothes arent especially heavy, thats a given, but one can see how it would be easy to add on weight for one person bit by bit depending on diff things--carrying some extra warm clothes, maybe full rain gear that isnt all lightweight (my better rain jacket is a bit heavy, didnt want to spend 300 bucks on a lighter one), maybe a heavier tent (mine is more like 5lbs and a bit, didnt want to spend 400 or 500 bucks for a 2.5lb one person tent) , add a camera, a laptop or a tablet, chargers for them, a cell phone, and you end up with X more pounds too, add in a spare tire and extra tubes if going somewhere where it might be really hard to find replacements-add a few more pounds, a water filter or whatever is a bit of weight also, maybe extra spare parts and or tool kit if going off somewhere far off and want to be really independant.
its that what I was getting at, that yes its easy to pack light or lightish depending on the situation, but sometimes the situation ends up being diff and its fairly easy to find 50lbs on the bike, especially for a longer trip with a wide range of temps and or more unknowns making it wiser to take extra stuff.