The art of packing light

So , my personal diet is reducing more weight than any lighter weight camp setup could have. I'm down to 186 lbs from 201 lbs back in Feb. Combined with 1 lb 14 oz pulled from my gear weight, I'm now carrying 16 lbs 14 oz less than my last long trip!

Edit: Wanted to add that the weight change is noticeable enough that I had to adjust the suspension settings on my WR250R.

GB, I think it was you that mentioned Parmesan cheese being a staple for Roman soldiers because it's stable in hot weather instead of getting all greasy. I tried it this summer and it's true. That's a game changer.

May have been me but I don't recall. Works great on the bike though , doesn't it ?! A chunk of parm, some cured meat and a small loaf of sourdough can survive for days on a bike.

I can't remember if this has been posted before but the Rolling Hobo always has lots of good, detailed information posted on his site. This one details his under 10 kg expedition setup.

https://therollinghobo.com/2019/06/under-10-kg-enduro-expedition-gear.html

His expedition reports are outstanding.

If we had only known that someday, we would live past 40...

Happy Thanksgiving all you gram weanies!

Well it certainly wasn't from a lack of trying to free my ghost!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gram weenie indeed. Guilty as charged.

I hope others appreciate the wisdom and knowledge you have provided to Advrider forum. I got my flu shot last week, first one in decades, based on what I've learned from you. Not so much to protect me but to contribute to general public health.

You rock!

Nice, just simple diet changes or more than that?

First bit of improvement was dietary. I cut way back on drinking, cut out my midnight ice cream raids and no longer eat meals until I'm stuffed.

The second part is exercise. I've been a competitive athlete since I was very young and have always pushed my limits. It's been a lifelong addiction that has really caught up to me in terms of bodily damage. *Cue the song and dance about injury and recovery. The last 2.5-3 years I've been forced into recovery mode and the result has been a 35 lbs weight gain and it has made me miserable. I've slowly returned to doing aggressive inline skating and some light MMA training exercises, including lots of stretching.

This is what got me into my mess of weight gain and it's also what's getting me out.

Absolutely, people will drop thousands on titanium, carbon fiber, and lithium batteries to take 5 lbs off their bike while cramming a greasy burger down their throat with a case of beer. I took a similar journey, career military guy was fit, got a desk job and bad diet next thing I knew was wearing 38 pants. Got my shit together hit the gym daily and ate right back in a 32 pant and turning heads of girls in their 20's, not to mention I feel way better.

lol, so true. awhile back, i was cycling with a group and one of the Fred's was extolling the virtues of a lighter wheelset..."blah, blah, blah, you'll save x00 grams...". I looked down at my pizza pouch and his tight club cut jersey and remarked that we'd each likely be better served by losing 5lbs of body weight. He frowned and pedaled away.

I've never been able to understand the quest for a lighter bike. Presumably, most of the riders I see are bicycling for fitness, so wouldn't a heavier bike be more effective? Lighter makes sense for actual touring, of course.

My thoughts exactly. The guys I know who are the most enthusiastic about riding a bicycle for fitness all seem to be equally eager to shed ounces (at great cost) in pursuit of a bike that's easier to ride, which seems the antithesis of riding for fitness. I have a mountain bike I ride on the road and am constantly being told that I should be investing in a $1000+ carbon-framed road bike so I can go faster. As I pretty much always ride alone, never with the intention of actually going anywhere and I'm not racing anybody, this makes no sense to me at all. Most of the people advocating a faster, lighter bike don't go anywhere on their bikes either.

If I actually want to go faster, I ride something with an engine.

It's all relative, and there are diminishing returns at the extreme end. Riding a 40 lb POS road bicycle isn't nearly as enjoyable for me as riding a 20 lb bike. I can increase the intensity of the effort by going faster on the 20, and still enjoy the ride. The 40 is dreadful at any speed, and there's no hope of riding it nearly as fast as the 20.

Going from a 20 lb bike to a 15 lb bike isn't worth the cost to me, but it is for some, even if they aren't racers.

You're not considering the other reasons why people partake in physical activities beyond fitness, namely fun and enjoyment.

A person gains the same level of fitness benefits by riding either a light or heavy bike for an hour at the same metabolic output.

For those of us who enjoy speed, responsiveness, and a connectedness with our bike, a lighter bike with well functioning components is much more fun. It's about the acceleration from pushing on the peddles, precise response from steering inputs, and the simple joy of going fast.

There's no right or wrong just different strokes. Some riders are completely happy with what a KLR has to offer. Others will gladly pay the extra cost, along with the extra maintanance, to enjoy the higher performance of a KTM 500.

all I know is that when I bicycled all over Colorado. . . I prayed every day for a lighter bike. Even though I could afford to lose 20 lbs back then, losing 5lbs off the bike had a greater effect. But we are splitting hairs now because fat is bad. Light is good. both on the rider and the machine.

Had a coworker who was telling me about his bike when I first came to the section. Carbon fiber this titanium that was super proud it cost $10k so I'm thinking cool yamaha, Honda, etc? It was a pedal bike for triathlon. Imagining him doing triathlon was just laughable big out of shape dude. So I asked do you race? Got a very quick no in response. He had deluded himself into believing losing 2lbs on a pedal bike was going to transform his experience as a 250 lb guy.

All that being said I'm seriously looking at middleweight sport tourers because wrangling a 600lb Super Tenere with 100bs of hard cases and gear is getting old. I dream of a 450lb sport bike every time it gets in odd angles at low speed.

Before you totally blow off your coworker's aspirations you might give Heft on Wheels by Mike Magnuson a read. In the space of three months, he went from the guy on the cover, quit smoking, stopped drinking, lost seventy-five pounds, and morphed into a lean, mean cycling machine.


I've been jonesing for a light sport touring bike myself for a few years but the lack of budget and free time are a detriment. Lots of options for a 450ish pound sport tourer without the discomfort of a true sport bike. They include in order of weight Aprilia's new 400 pound RS 660, 450 pound Honda CBR650R ABS, 460 pound Ducati SuperSport 950, and to fudge a little the 490 pound Yamaha Tracer 9GT. Add some soft luggage and away you go.

The point some here are making is that the fat guy would lose more weight and get a better workout on a crappy 40lb mountain bike than on a $3k 20lb bike. Nothing wrong with being motivated to work out and lose some pounds but don't be an ounce counting titanium pedal clips dweeb talking about "I saved 120grams" that is carrying around an extra 70lbs of blubber on your gut. Shit, they should try bragging about having a cheap heavy single speed bike and getting a better workout than the douche canoe bragging about their $20k unobtanium carbon fiber frame and wheels Ironman bike.

Not sure how that works. Two overweight identical twins ride hard at 85% of their maximum heart rate for an hour, one on a crappy 40 lb. mountain bike and the other on a $3k 20 lb. bike. They both expend the same amount of energy because they rode at the same exercise intensity. You're saying the twin on the mountain bike lost more weight and got a better workout?

What some that appreciate the art of travelling light would propose is that the guy on the crappy mountain bike didn't have much fun, put his bike in the garage, and it's sitting there collecting dust. The guy on the sweet, lightweight performance bike was impressed with how much fun riding could be and enjoys getting out regularly.

As for motorcycling goes, my experience is that fitness and strength mean more that simple rider weight, even though they are usually adversely related. Once a rider is off his ass and on the pegs their weight has little effect.