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Bike Packing Weight

Old 12-01-22, 11:48 PM
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MattyWillPDX
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Bike Packing Weight

Hi,
This has probably been discussed many times, so sorry for the repeat.
One of my buddies I camp with is super focused on the weight of his bike often opting for carbon components to shed ounces. I'm starting to build a new Crust Bombora (with the steel fork) and am looking at components I like the aesthetic of rather than weight and he's lecturing me non stop (love him though). Specifically Paul Component disc brakes,leather saddles, and the myriad of other "heavy" stuff vs. the lightweight composites and carbon out there.
I'd like to hear opinions on the weight debate regarding bike packing. Does the combined ounce addition of non carbon parts really matter on a fully loaded camping bike? Obviously length of trip and gear weight changes per trip but is it as crucial as you would apply to like setting up a road bike? I'm conflicted
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Old 12-02-22, 08:15 AM
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I am firmly in your camp of trading some weight for comfort and durability. The durability aspect is becoming less and less important as carbon production methods have matured and are very reliable. What has not changed much is cost. Carbon is still expensive. For example - a salsa Firestarter steel fork weighs just under 1,200 grams and costs $130. The same fork in carbon weighs 730g but costs $600.

most of the people I know who count grams also ride with clip-on fenders and anemic lighting solutions. It just isn’t worth it to me (and it sounds like you’re in PDX).

The same arguments apply to gear. I am willing to carry a couple of extra pounds for comfort - I will gladly carry a pad instead of sleeping directly on the tent floor. Where I find real weight savings is in planning. Before a bikepacking trip, decide who carries what and eliminate duplicates where possible. Carrying one stove and one cooking pot instead of two saves a lot of weight. Same applies to other camp items. If you are both running 650b wheels, both of you don’t need to carry two extra tubes. You don’t both need a chain tool, which is likely the heaviest and least-used tool in your kit. Instead of both of you carrying backup pumps, only one you needs to do so. You get my point.
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Old 12-02-22, 01:52 PM
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Carbon can be expensive, yes, but there are also bikepack/gravel carbon frames that cost less than a Crust Bombora. If a fork will be cherry picked to prove a point, I can easily oull up a handful of frames to disprove the point.
Let's set cost comparing aside, especially since the OP asked about weight and not really cost. Doubly especially since Paul brakes will be used on the Crust.

Between bike and gear, I wouldn't care if I had a 5# heavier setup overall. I think I would care if it were a 10# difference though. So if you use a bike that's 5# heavier than a reasonable alternative, get some lighter gear so it doesn't balloon to 10# or more.

Of course this is a generalization because if I am going to ride 50mi with 3000' of climb on an unpaved rail trails where incline almost never exceeds 2% grade, weight is a lot less important than if I am riding a route with the same stats, but with a bunch of short steep climbs.
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Old 12-02-22, 08:42 PM
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Originally Posted by aggiegrads
. Instead of both of you carrying backup pumps, only one you needs to do so. You get my point.
So you're saying hide my heavier gear in my friends bike bags when he's not looking since he's got the uber svelt light weight bike? mstateglfr makes a good point to quantify it in limits. I've never weighed my stuff before bike packing rides. My method has been to pay more for compact gear the compresses. I pack once then edit several times over the course of a few days. There's great packing lists on Bikepacking.com that I should use next trip. Five to ten pounds sound like a realistic difference that can be felt while climbing for sure. Like the difference felt with a full water supply on a desert trip.
Bottom line is I want to pick out components I like vs. limiting my selection on what is lightest by a few grams. The steel fork was forced on me as the ENVE carbon fork version was out of stock. That could have been a significant weight reduction. Just don't want to go gram by gram while I understand they do add up
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Old 12-09-22, 05:09 PM
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Assuming same quality of parts ( usually heavier bikes have cheaper components and tires. ) say both bikes have grx drive train, same hubs tires, yadayda
It does make a difference but you have to decided if the money is worth it.



light bike ( atheos ) about 10k for the 16lbs version
you 170 lbs + bike 16lbs + gear 50 lbs = 236

alloy topstone $2300 ish but several more thousand to upgrade compents to similar level of the aethos
you 170 lbs + bike 22lbs + gear 50 = 242

go over to Bike Calculator and run some calculations on the time of riding you think you will be doing.

I plugged in 200 watts; 1 mile hill at 10% grade
aethos bike 3.84 mph at 15.65 minutes

topstone 200 watts; 1 mile hill at 10% grade
3.67 mph at 16.36 minutes

or for the topstone to keep up with the faster lighter bike
it would take 209.5 watts


How fast can you spend?



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Old 12-10-22, 12:09 PM
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Is it common for people to see 10% grade 1 mi long climbs on their rides? 10% climbs around me are rarely even more than 0.25mi. Wasn't sure how often other see such gravel roads.
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Old 12-10-22, 03:28 PM
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There's a lot of 15% + grade for short distance in the bay area. There's a few hills that avg 10% over a mile but that's not that common.


https://www.strava.com/segments/120709?filter=overall


https://www.strava.com/segments/636296?filter=overall


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Old 12-10-22, 04:02 PM
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May be interesting for the OP..other's have likely seen it before:

https://www.cyclingabout.com/why-we-...d-gear-weight/
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Old 12-10-22, 08:09 PM
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Originally Posted by MattyWillPDX
Does the combined ounce addition of non carbon parts really matter on a fully loaded camping bike?
No. Of course you want the bike and gear to be as light as you can reasonably make it, but once you strap on a tent, sleeping bag, food, water, etc., the meager weight saved by a carbon fiber stem, seatpost, or whatever is meaningless. Frankly, I think they're meaningless even if you aren't bikepacking, but that's me. I have zero tolerance for gram-counting nonsense. Ride, camp, have fun.
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Old 12-11-22, 10:44 AM
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Originally Posted by mstateglfr
Is it common for people to see 10% grade 1 mi long climbs on their rides? 10% climbs around me are rarely even more than 0.25mi. Wasn't sure how often other see such gravel roads.
On the trip i made over the summer, days 2-4 were lots of 15%-20% + downhills, followed by the same uphill (some road, some off-road), usually over a mile long. And there wasn't really anyway to avoid it. That's just the terrain on Exmoor. There was quite a bit of hike a bike (I had Covid less than 6 weeks before this trip and my full fitness hadn't quite returned).
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Old 12-11-22, 12:45 PM
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Originally Posted by rivers
On the trip i made over the summer, days 2-4 were lots of 15%-20% + downhills, followed by the same uphill (some road, some off-road), usually over a mile long. And there wasn't really anyway to avoid it. That's just the terrain on Exmoor. There was quite a bit of hike a bike (I had Covid less than 6 weeks before this trip and my full fitness hadn't quite returned).
Don't know what Exmoor is, but that terrain sounds like both a fun challenge and also not typical riding- whether it's daily rides or tour/packing trips.
20% grade for over 1 mile is crazy terrain.
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Old 12-12-22, 04:08 AM
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Originally Posted by mstateglfr
Don't know what Exmoor is, but that terrain sounds like both a fun challenge and also not typical riding- whether it's daily rides or tour/packing trips.
20% grade for over 1 mile is crazy terrain.
Exmoor is a national park in the southwest of the UK- bit of a hilly area. Beautiful scenery, fantastic cycling, but definitely tough. My friends and I have stayed in a bunkhouse for a long weekend of road cycling, which was a tad easier than off-road.
some of my routes:
https://www.komoot.com/tour/76298706...rpe80KefDjwESD
https://www.komoot.com/tour/762290392?ref=aso
https://www.komoot.com/tour/758417942?ref=aso
https://www.komoot.com/tour/75841666...m7J8QE2pY3DgQQ
Day 1 was crossing Dartmoor (another national park, and while hilly, has longer/gentler climbs. I'm hoping to do 4-5 days just on Dartmoor this summer).
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Old 12-12-22, 07:11 AM
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But to stay on topic, the total weight of my bike + gear was just shy of 20kgs. Bike is an Orro Terra C running 40mm Hutchinson Touaregs and weighs 8.5kgs. Gear weighed in at just over 11kgs. Drive train is a "double mullet"- 105 brifters, brakes,and front derailleur (was originally full 105), with a 46/30 chainset, a deore 6100 rear derailleur with a jtek shiftmate to make it play nicely with the shifters (similar to a wolf tooth tanpan), and an 11-42 cassette for a gear range of 19"-115".
Saddlebag (15 litre topeak backloader)- Tent, cooking supplies, thermal baselayer, down jacket, and spare kit (all clothes were in a separate, compressible dry bag). Coffee bags and spare hydration sachets were also in there.
Frame bag (custom made, approximately 3.5 litres in size)- 3 litre hydration bladder (apidura frame bag specific), spare tubes, and any small bits of food I could cram in there.
Alpkit Deluge handlebar bag (13 litres fill capacity, approximately 8 litres useable due to handlebar width): sleeping bag, mat, inflatable pillow, charging cables, head torch, power bank, food/snacks. Tent poles strapped to front.
Alpkit Roo Pouch accessory bag- gilet, hat, arm/leg warmers, smaller powerbank and charging cable, snacks, other bits I needed easy/quick access to.
Tools in bottle cage tool case under downtube.
phone, snacks, hydration sachets in pockets.
Hip pack with a water filter, first aid kit, and a few other small bits in it.
In the future, I would probably get rid of arm/leg warmers (we were in the middle of a heat wave), pair of spare over shorts (I could have just worn the same pair the entire trip. I had spare bibs). And most likely a few other small bits. I may also take my hooped bivvy as opposed to one man tent. I'm sure I can probably lose another kilo to 2 kgs by re-evaluating my kit list.
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