Originally Posted by
rivers
Bikepacking style bags is the way to go. My first bikepacking trip was road based and we stayed at B&Bs.
Carbon bike with carbon seat post. Gearing was a bit high however. I also overpacked.
Now I use my gravel bike, venture off road, and do carry my camping kit. It also has much lower gearing. Still carbon though
Nice setups, both. When my wife and I were in California we ran into a group of guys on carbon road bikes, outfitted much like yours, riding from Portland all the way down to San Diego. There was also a guy that had joined up with them riding a Surly LHT fully loaded, and he apparently had a hard time keeping up. They pointed out that it's a lot more fun riding a road bike, just like it's more fun to ride down Highway One in a convertible Corvette than it is in an SUV. The roads there are generally very smooth and these guys didn't even have fat tires - they were running on 24 spoke wheels with skinny road bike tires.
I've only done solo fully-loaded touring, a long time ago on my '83 Trek 720. It's easy to see that if you take away the need for all the camping/sleeping/cooking stuff, and if you have access to laundry facilities every few days, it would be very possible to travel pretty light.