Doug64

My wife used a pair of Ortlieb Packer Plus small front panniers on her rear rack and her sleeping bag and Therm-a-rest pad in a dry bag on top the rack for a 74 day ride across the U.S. She probably had 30 lbs of gear. Both of our loads combined weighed less than 70 lbs. I'm sure you could pare your load down, and still be comfortable.



P.S. She also carried a bar bag.

Tourist in MSN

In some of my previous posts above, I showed my bike quite heavily loaded. But some of my trips I carry less. In the photo below we probably had only one day of food remaining, I carried the food for two people. Thus most of the food volume was gone and I only had a tent pole bag on top of the rack, everything else in panniers or handlebar bag. (Total roughly 75 liters of volume.) It was chilly out so more than typical amount of clothing was also worn. Since then I have cut tent poles that are short enough to fit in a front pannier, no longer need a tent pole bag.



This was a five day trip.

denis_987

Only with a brief look at my stuff, I can already say I will cut on the number of towels, I always bring two books (big bricks - so will cut on those), cut on the jeans (replace by convertible pant), cut on the number of bungee cords (I bring to many without using all of them and they are quite heavy ), cut on the cookset (I never used all of it), maybe also on the number of drybags or at least cut the protective sacks for my camp chair, cookware, tent... all the double protection. By exemple, my sleeping pad is in a sack which is in a dry bag containing my pillow, sleeping bag and sleeping bag ( all of those items have their own sack). Not heavy items, but it adds up... Any way, I will put them in the rackpack which is a drybag. Could you imagine the rackpack containing drybags containing protective sacks! And it's just a glimpse... I will question every items later...

I forgot to mention that part of the 70 lb is my tools and spare tubes (two), portable computer, external disk and cables, solar panel, battery packs

Tourist in MSN

I pack heavier than most on this forum. And I carry two inner tubes with a patch kit. There are times when you can't patch a tube, thus I always want to have a spare for the spare.

When I was in my 20s I did a lot of backpacking in the rockies, that was in the late 70s. Used to carry two pair of jeans, one was a backup. After a few trips where I never needed the spare, decided not to carry a spare. And on the next trip I reached a bit too far with my foot and tore the jeans out in the crotch. That was before noon on the first day. Lesson learned, sometimes you really do need that spare and when you are over 10,000 feet up and above timberline, it is hard to go to the store to buy another. At that time I was in college, had no money, could not afford the good camping gear so wore jeans that are heavy, stay wet when they get wet, etc. Now, my clothing that I take on camping trips is specific for those trips and is lighter weight, dries quickly when wet, etc. I almost never wear that clothing at home, it is for trips.

I wanted a towel that dries fast and towels that dry fast can do that because they are thin and do not absorb much moisture. My camping towel (bring only one) was two smaller towels that I bought at Dollar Tree, sewed them together to make one bigger towel that is still compact and very light weight.

If your books are novels, bring one and if you need a second one, buy it then. But if you need them for work or school, do what you have to do.

Some trips I used a compression stuff sack to compress my clothing before packing it. I always use one to compress my sleeping bag. I do not use one to pack my tent, I can usually pack that small enough but some people use compression stuff sacks to try to make their tents smaller when packed. I probably have at least a half dozen compression stuff sacks of various sizes that I have accumulated over the decades. More recently I have bought a few that are waterproof.

Some of the extra bags are worth it for organizing, and I think you should always have a protective bag over an inflatable pad or air mattress to protect them from puncture. Last summer, someone started a thread on how he was going to cut way back on the number of stuff sacks he was using. Soon after that I went on a back packing trip, and I counted up how many I was using. After that trip I did not reduce my number, there are advantages to having them for organization, but you need to balance weight/volume against how useful they really are. This thread is on stuff sacks, and I wrote up this post after that backpacking trip, this has my inventory of such sacks.
https://www.bikeforums.net/22241200-post18.html

Here is another thread on this topic that I ran across while looking for the above link.
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1...king-list.html

General philosophy is that I want to get home with almost no left over expendables. I usually try to end a trip with a toothpaste tube that is almost empty, when at home when my toothpaste tubes get down to make only a few weeks of toothpaste left in it, I will put that with my camping gear for a future trip. Never carry more than a 3 oz bottle of shampoo, etc.

I pack very little additional stuff if I am camping for weeks or months than I would pack for only a week long trip. Usually only pack two shirts, two pair pants, four undies and socks, plan on doing some sink laundry when I can find time to dry things out. If a longer trip, I might carry clothing for a wider range of temperatures and weather, ranging from sub-freezing weather to shorts and short sleeves. The orange thing on the far left in the photo is my towel that I previously mentioned was two towels sewn into one.



I carry a 25 foot length of thin non-stretchy cord and a dozen small clothespins for clothesline, 3 oz bottle of laundry soap that on most trips will start out half empty but I need the full bottle for a month and a half trip.

Some people carry a lot less and buy what they need when they need it.

And on longer trips, some people will plan on receiving shipments from home or sending excess home from wherever they are at the time. But that is on longer trips. My longer trips are usually in foreign countries, shipping across borders is a bigger cost and hassle that I do not put up with.

Good luck with trimming your gear list.