Polaris OBark

My bike (Soma Saga) with front and rear racks, pedals, bottle holders, etc., but unloaded, weighs in at just over 30 lbs.

This makes me a bit worried that I may have over-done it. Is this atypically heavy, or about normal? Is it silly to even worry about weight before I start to load it up?

If it is not too personal, where does your racked but unloaded bike tip the scales?

(The main contributors in my case include robust wheels, Redshift stem and seatposts, and Tubus front and rear racks. I think the extra weight in each of these cases is more than justified, but it does add up.)

Tourist in MSN

My lightest touring bike (Lynskey Backroad) with no gear on the racks and no handlebar bag is 34.8 pounds with front and rear racks, water bottle cages, fenders, pedals, leather saddle, bracket for handlebar bag, pump, dynohub, dyno powered lights and USB charger, and touring weight tires. I do not remember if that includes a heavy lock, it is a titanium bike so the lock (Abus Bordo 6100) has to be heavy to offset the lightness of the bike.

There is light, and there is toooooo light. On touring bikes you need robust, reliable, easy to replace components, ease in repair, etc. I could have built this bike with fewer spokes, lighter rims, lighter tires, lighter saddle, etc. But I want a bike that will last and be comfortable to ride for the distance.

Photo includes handlebar bag (not included in the weight) but is missing the front rack (Tubus Tara that is included in weight total). And looking at the photo, that is not my touring wheel that has a Dyad rim and 36 spokes, a lighter wheel I sometimes use for riding around near home is on the bike in the photo.



Photo below is five years old, a few things have changed since.



My other two touring bikes are heavier. But I am going to get enough grief about saying what the bike above actually weighs, so I will stay silent on my other bikes.

Polaris OBark

Thanks. That is a good reality check/calibration. What is hanging from the top tube in the first pic? Do you prefer the sprung saddle?

indyfabz

I’m sure it’s over 35 lbs with the relatively heavy wheels I had built for it and the non-standard seat post. Also, it’s a 60 cm frame, and I have a platform front rack.

Tourist in MSN

The sprung saddle smooths out vibration a bit when riding on rough chip seal, but the springs are really stiff so you do not compress the springs much and when you hit a hard bump, it is just as hard with a sprung saddle. And yes it is heavier. I have that saddle on most of my bikes, have the non-sprung equivalent to it on my road bike and on a vintage bike.

The bracket for the lock is hanging from the top tube, that is the bracket that came with it. The lock in the bracket vibrates a bit and make some noise, so I added the velcro strap to reduce any vibration noise.

10 Wheels

Just The bike 35 lbs

Steve B.

Miyata City Liner (I know it says Peckham, story behind that). Lugged steel, had it 25 years now, am finally about to start actually touring on it, having purchased Axiom and Roswheel racks and Ortleib F & R panniers. Weight with the F & R racks is a reasonable 31.1 lbs.

billridesbikes

My "light weight" touring bike.
Dynamo, lights, fenders, pedals, and racks it comes to 29.5lbs.
36p wheel in back and 32p wheel in front, making the wheels a bit 'robust' maybe.

andrewclaus

I think the bike should match the load. My bikes weigh a little less, in the 24-25 pound range, but I only use a rear rack and seldom pack more than thirty pounds. I weigh less than 150 pounds. I use lighter-than stock wheels and skinny tires.

Tourist in MSN

That is a very nice looking Pass Hunter. I have one of the same frame but slightly larger size, I built it up for randonneuring. One of my neighbors is a bike mechanic, he was admiring it and I said it was one of the last rim brake models and he said he wished he had stocked up on some frames like that before they were all gone.

Almost everything that you have that is silver, I have in black.

Bearhawker

My bike (daily driver, tourer, grocery-getter, commuter, etc) with the rear rack and front cargo cages installed but no computer, panniers or even a water bottle weighs in at 43 pounds.

GhostRider62

18.5# but it is for a big rider and I use bikepacking bags , which I have not included in that weight

stardognine

Disc or pre-disc? I have no idea if there's a difference in weight, lol, but I have an early pre-disc Saga. But it came to me with Paul touring cantilevers, so I forgave it for not having disc brakes. 😁😉

​​I 'm not sure what size it is, either, probably a 60cm, but maybe the biggest 62cm. 🤔

The crazy thing is, it's unrideable right now, due to the rear wheel. It has XT hubs with 36-hole Velocity Dyad rims, which was one of the reasons I bought it, but the rear hub happened to be FH-M770, which was a rare Shimano "lemon", that I wasn:t aware of. 😟

I rode it from Sacramento to Seattle last year, then back to Sacramento this year, and it was fine till I came into Lincoln, a suburb on the Northern end of Folsom Lake.At least it didn't die up in the mountains. 🙄😉

Polaris OBark

Mine's disc. I built it up from the frame.

staehpj1

It is kind of funny, but I am a weight weenie with my gear and don't usually weigh my bikes. I am just not inclined to mess with too much upgrading so I don't stress over the weight much once I have bought them. That said of the bikes I have toured on I do have a good idea of the weight on a couple. I think my loaded touring bike was 32# with racks, It was a 2007 Bikes Direct Windsor Touring, Essentially the same as a Fuji Touring. My light semivintage road bike about 24# with rack and cages and stuff. It was a 1990 Cannondale Crit bike. I usually include a 1# tool bag in bike weight since they live on the bike whether touring or not. I do not recall if those weights included that or not.

djb

My touring bike with racks is very similar to yours, as is the vast majority of proper touring bikes. Yes there are lighter bikes out there, but somewhere around 25 is probably on the lighter end--- but as said, it depends on how much stuff you're carrying, and of course the cost of the bike.
Ultimately, we aren't racing, and yes if you're going to be carrying very little, a lighter bike with a lighter wheel set is fine, and will be nice to ride. You'll be faster, travel farther with same effort etc, but for typical touring, the 25 to 30ish weight is pretty much what you're looking at with a lot of bikes.

Put more effort of thought into paring down your load weight, this makes a real noticeable difference.
If I had money coming out of my ears, it would be fun having a real light bike for light touring, but at it is, my bike is what it is and with a change of tires, I can ride it pretty much anywhere, lightly loaded or heavily.

Tourist in MSN

Yeah, the early aluminum axle rear hubs had problems. Smaller ball bearings were one problem. Some of them had a freehub attachment to the hub shell that came loose. All of my rear Shimano hubs are older steel axle ones with quarter inch ball bearings.

When I built up my Lynskey five years ago I ordered an older style M756A.
https://www.treefortbikes.com/Shiman...-Rear-Disc-Hub
https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-FH-M756-A-3295.pdf

I do not think you can find 36 hole rim brake hubs anymore, you might need to get a disc one if you have a rim brake bike.

staehpj1

Yes I concur. You can typically make some real difference in your gear without spending any money. Then you can usually trim a lot more by spending a modest amount. Of course you can also spend a bundle, but lots can be done fairly cheaply.

With the bike itself that is way less true. Often I think the wallet gets light faster than the bike does.

Polaris OBark

Thanks, everyone.

Mine does seem to be slightly on the lighter side (which surprised me), but I have yet to add in fenders (CA doesn't have rain in the summer, usually, but if I go anywhere else, I will want them). I've had two previous touring bikes, and although I never weighed them, I think they might have been lighter (or maybe I was just younger.)

Tourist in MSN

Usually when the topic of weight comes up, we see lots of people with claims of super light bikes, but I never see such bikes in the campgrounds so I often wonder if they exist or not.

That said, I do trust Staehpj1 numbers, I saw a photo of his bike on Crazy Guy. And his descriptions of how light his bivy and other things are, with that much detail you have to trust it. .

This couple I did meet in a campground on a bike tour, they were from Utah, I met them during my Iceland tour. I am still amazed when looking at how light they packed, I really do not know how they did it. Both bikes were Ritchey Break Away frames, so they did not have airline oversize fees on their packed bikes. He had lost a water bottle, was looking for a replacement.





Ok, I will divulge how much much my expedition bike tips the scale at with racks, bottle cages, handlebar bag mounting bracket, pedals. I think this does not include the lock. Tips the scale at 47 pounds. But I think that includes fenders that I do not bring on tours, as the fenders do not fit in the case, so maybe drop 2 pounds?

But the frame is rated for 60kg of luggage capacity (excluding weight of rider and bike), so it has a really solid frame that won't fail. Rack bolts are M6 instead of M5. Rims are over 1.6 pounds each by themselves. Had about two weeks of food on the bike in the photo.



I used to complain about how heavy that bike is, but the bike handled that much weight so well that I no longer complain, I just acknowledge that it is a heavy bike. When I was in the interior with that bike, I met several other cyclists, three of which had a variety of mechanical problems with their bikes on such rough terrain, but mine felt right at home.

Polaris OBark

Just to clarify, none of my bikes (or me) are weight-weenie by any stretch!

GhostRider62

It is easy. And I reckon, Mr. Google would have the answer in under 5 minutes.

Yan 

I've never seen a real touring bike that weighs less than 30lbs. You need certain parts to provide the mandatory capabilities. None of the weight is optional, and it all adds up. You can save some weight by using light weight components, but at the high end, parts become very expensive. Group set alone costs an extra $1000 to save about 1 lb of weight. When you add carbon fiber bars, stem, and seatpost, you'll end up spending $1500 to save less than 2 lb of weight.

GhostRider62

My real touring bike and complete kit necessary to cross the united states weighed 38.5 pounds. Total. So, I disagree. Start with over 30 pounds and you end up with 70 pounds to haul up and down the mountains.

Polaris OBark

My custom steel all-road/gravel bike with carbon rims, fork, stem, and seat post comes in at slightly over 20 lbs, so please forgive me if I find this implausible.