Steve B.

It begs the question, what kind of tourer ?. Folks get away with 22 lbs gravel bikes, and 25 lbs mt. bikes with no suspension forks, then go the bikepacking route with a preponderance of light camping gear designed originally for lightweight backpacking, plus smaller bikepacking bags with no racks. Pretty easy to see how they end up with bikes whose total weight is maybe 30 -35 lbs, vs,. an honest to god steel or aluminum "real" tourer with front and rear rack, F & R panniers, full fenders, where the bike alone weighs 30-35 lbs, then you add the not so light camping gear and all the other "quality of life" accessories and the next thing you know you are at 50 lbs. To each his own is my attitude.

Polaris OBark

I've (short) toured with my 21 lb all-road/gravel bike, which is what made me decide to invest in a purpose-built touring bike (I have had two previously, in succession). I get the attraction of minimalist bike-packing, but for on road long touring, front and rear racks and panniers have significant advantages. I have an ultra-light tent, sleeping pad and bag, but for me this is more about volume than weight per se.

Steve B.

I purchased the Miyata pictured in previous posts, 25 years ago. I had never really loaded it with front panniers (recent purchase), The fork on this bike is most likely ridged gas pipe, and when I would use this bike for JRA or for commuting (never with a front load) if I hit a hole or bump, the fork would give me a BAM, very hard hit. When I did a test tide with loaded Ortlieb's, I was pleasantly surprised that the fork smoothed out and the ride of the bike was remarkably pleasant and well mannered. It was truly designed to be a loaded touring bike and was finally in it's elements and being used as designed. Glad I held onto it all these years.

Polaris OBark

My first touring bike was a Miyata 1000, purchased in late 1981 or early 1982.

Tourist in MSN

I think that there is a lot of comparing apples with oranges in this thread. The OP asked (I added underline for emphasis):So, with front and rear racks, and the question is what did a bike with racks weigh, for the majority of us that use panniers, comparing this to riding a racing bike and using bikepacking gear is not really applicable.

Yes some people do it. But less than 10 percent of the people I see out bike touring are touring without panniers.

Some would consider someone doing a three day mountain bike ride on single track with bike packing gear, a bivy, no cooking gear (eating ready to eat stuff they made up at home), no spare clothing, etc., to be touring. I am not going to argue about whether or not that is touring. That is a different topic.

Polaris OBark

Thank you for that!

Polaris OBark

Here is what this ~30lb non-weight-weenie build looks like:

Yan 

You bicycled domestically across your own first world country with good roads, plentiful bike shops, and three day USPS parcel delivery to anywhere in the country; during a mild season of the year. Anyone can do that on a 15lb bike plus an ultralight kit. That doesn't make the 15lb bike a touring bike. Take that kit to Asia and you'd be singing a different tune by the second week.

Here is Myanmar.


Here is Mongolia



Here's me in the morning melting my water that had turned into a solid block of ice. This was the beginning of October and it was -10F overnight. The stove is burning gasoline. The cooking kit weighs about 3lb. Want to guess how much my sleeping bag weighs?



Here's a Mongolian truck mechanic welding my fork back together.


This is why touring bikes weigh 30+ lbs.

pdlamb

Looks like it's ready to tour! (Are you?)

GhostRider62

You can go back to the OP all you want. 30+ pounds is way too heavy for any touring bike.

I responded to the "real" touring bikes weigh 30 pounds, I should have said hogwash.

The bike that I do most of my touring on has 17.5 inch chain stays and 43 inch wheelbase and 71mm trail. Hardly a racing bike. I would never ever again use front and rear panniers, I have several sets. They simply are unnecessary. I also would not backpack with a 30 pound base weight although many will. My base weight is under 10 pounds. If anyone wants to cut their burdensome weight, check out lighterpack where there is a lot to be learned. For the record, I have toured New England, Colorado, Cali, crossed the USA, tens of thousands of miles in Europe, England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Both North and South Islands of NZ plus 3 weeks in Oz. A little in Mexico. All on four different bikes from 100 pounds total down to 38lbs. I will take light any day of the week....the question of the thread...."weight of your touring bike"......I answered.

GhostRider62

You have the wrong bike, wheels and tires for those conditions.

Yan 

I've biked across Asia twice. I know what bike I need for what conditions. I had the correct setup for that ride.

Would I have been more comfortable with an off road optimized bike for the Mongolian steppe? Definitely. But when your tour spans months and crosses multiple countries, you pick a setup that makes the most sense across your entire tour. If I had gone with an off road setup, I'd have been **** out of luck when I crossed into China and started riding on their insanely smooth built by God perfect roads. So unless you want to spend the big bucks FedExing a different bike to yourself from America every other month, you ride a 35lb steel touring bike, because it handles everything in the one bike. It's not light. It's not fast. It's not cushy. It just works. End of story.

The fork damage was airline damage, not ride damage. The cantilever stud took a hit in transit.

Tourist in MSN

I see the problem with that touring bike and the weight. No fenders. No rear flasher. No third bottle cage under the downtube. That is why you have a bike that is too light, you need to add at least two more pounds to it.

Tourist in MSN

Somebody is back on my ignore list again.

Yan 

I've been eyeing the Redshift suspension seatpost and stem. How are they? Do they bob too much when you're riding on good roads? That's my main concern about them.

Polaris OBark

Mine are set up quite stiff, so no bob. It definitely helps, although I could live without them. The tires help more.

Yan 

There is a mechanical engineering paper, which can be found via Google, that studied the dampening ability of this stem and concluded it was the equivalent of reducing tire pressure on a road bike tire from 110 to 75 psi. Pretty amazing in my opinion. I think I'm going to pick one up before my next tour.

GhostRider62

I have two redshift stems. One on my randonneuring bike and one on one of my touring bikes. I love them. Combined with a flexible bar, they add more comfort than tires or about the same.

Polaris OBark

Maybe I should play around with them more. I got these mainly for my wife (who used to ride this bike); she is on a different one which also has a Redshift stem and a Kinnetics post.

Steve B.

Kind of a dogmatic statement. At least 6 or more of the posts here are from people who have old school touring bikes - I.E. racks, fenders, etc... and all weigh 30 - 35+ lbs. Obviously these folks all seem to tour and without issue about the weight of the bike. So stating that 30 lbs is too heavy is kind of silly. Heavy for you, is all that matters and good for you. Many folks as well do not feel it necessary to invest a lot of cash into the very lightweight minimal camping gear needed to keep the load weight down, and that stuff IS expensive, but as many find, they can get away without spending that. And FWIW, a Trek 520 might be the most common production touring bike you can find. It weighs 29 lbs with the racks. It's certainly of the old school design and is one a lot of people end up buying.

Yan 

I think the bike packing style is great for its intended use scenario, but the main thing that prevents me from adopting that style for extended touring is the inconvenience of loading and unloading, believe it for not. I'm taking stuff on and off the bike everyday. Often when I get to a hotel I have to haul my bike and gear up and down stairs. I can't carry a loaded bike up stairs, so I have to unload and make multiple trips. I'm removing my stuff every time I lock my bike and leaving it unattended. I cycle to Beijing and pass by the Great Wall of China. I want to lock my bike in the parking lot and hike up the wall for a couple of hours. I walk into a restaurant and ask if I can store my panniers behind their counter. They say sure. With panniers I just lift them up and sling them over my shoulders to move them. With bike packing, I have to remove up to SEVEN individual bags, each awkwardly shaped, which do not have shoulder slings, and are held on the bike by a bunch straps??? I'm supposed to move through the airport juggling all this crap in my arms? Are you freaking kidding me? You need a shopping cart for all this ****. After three days this is getting real old. After three months, forget it.

Bike packing is great for traveling in lily-white America where you just prop your bike against a wall, walk away, and come back hours later and everything is still where it is. it's great in rural and suburban America where your accommodation is a drive up motel where you just wheel your bike straight into your room. Try that in New York City or Bangkok. It is a major pain in the ass. Good luck.

Tourist in MSN

I see your point, but for me the volume is the issue. My back loaders at 40 liters, front loaders at 25 liters, handlebar bag about 9, that is roughly about 75 liters. I might walk out of a grocery store with 12 to 15 liters of supplies and not all of that will fit into the panniers, need another bag on top.

It depends somewhat on the trip, when I rode the pacific coast, we probably shopped every two or three days so did not have a lot of volume of groceries, but several of my trips have had segments with no grocery stores for a week or more.

I could see bikepacking gear for someone credit card touring, not much volume is needed then but you do raise a good point about convenience. I carried a Carradice type saddle bag on one trip, my touring partner was quite impatient every morning when I was threading the little leather straps through to attach it to my bike.

Yan 

I did a trans-Taklamakan tour where I had to carry five gallons of water. That's 20L of volume, 45lb of weight in just water. That was the entirety of two panniers. Third day in we caught a sand storm, but we had to reach our water resupply point that day. Ended up cycling from 9am to 7am the next morning to get there. 22 hours.

stardognine

Dang, now I feel like a wuss, complaining about carrying 7 liters, lol. 😉 That's the main reason I've been considering a BOB trailer, or something like it. Water just gets too heavy, for panniers, and you can damage them, even being really careful. 🙁

Plus with a trailer, you can carry a lot more food. 😁

Yan 

Thankfully that road was absolutely diamond smooth, like all roads in China. I don't think my panniers would have survived rough roads carrying that much weight.