Ultralight touring

Originally Posted by nun

I'm beginning to plan a ride across the US on the Bikecentennial route. I want to keep weight down to a minimum by carrying ultralight equipment, tent, sleeping bag, cooking pand etc have a total weight of 10 lbs or by just staying in motels along the way. Does anyone have experience and or comments about these two ways to travel.

My other method of reducing weight is to loose some flab before I start, I can easily stand to loose 20 lbs. I have a Bianchi Volpe, is this suitable for such a long ride?

Originally Posted by biodiesel

Nice to be able to dance up the hills when the other tourers are dogging it.

Originally Posted by Nick H.

Well, lots of pros choose to use (and pay for) these wheels because they're regarded as bulletproof. Unlike other carbon rims, these ones just don't crack when you ride through a pothole. The wheels are also virtually maintenance free - the spokes are incapable of going out of true. Erik Zabel has had his for 3 years and the only maintenance they've had is adjustment of the bearings.

Have a look at my post about my route and you'll see that I hope to be on paved roads for the whole trip. Barring a big accident, I'm really hoping that no part of the bike will break. I'm going to switch the carbon bars for alloy ones - carbon bars were a mistake because they could snap even in a moderate accident. Which parts do you think are vulnerable? I have total confidence in the frame, forks, saddle and seatpost. The thing I'm most worried about is the mounting bracket for the tailpack, which will be carrying more weight than the maker says it should. Everything else ought to be able to survive 18,000 road miles - and then some..

Originally Posted by philso

first off, sorry nun to use your thread for nick h.

nick - up front, let me admit that i don't have the technical data on carbon strength, fatigue resistance, etc. neither do i have anymore experience riding one other than taking a friend's out for a spin, so you're personal experience quite possibly outweighs what i'm about to say. in no particular order:

one thing is that you mention stuffing that rear bag full and strapping camping gear on the outside. even ultralight, it sounds like a lot of weight, unless you you mean a 1 lb. bag, 6 oz. pad and an 8oz. siltarp. if you're planning to usually find accomodations and only fall back on these on occasion, all well and fine. but if you're planning on such a set up daily, i know from personal long distance hiking, that it becomes psychologically challenging after a week or so. (well, the up-side is that, because of the constant exposure, you find yourself getting up and moving as early as possible and putting off stopping for the night as long as possible also, which makes for covering a lot of ground.) if you're planning on using a tent and maybe cooking gear, etc., i really wonder if that bag will hold up. a traditional rear rack would inspire more confidence, but i don't see that you have any braze-ons for mounting.

so... if you're going to be carrying any appreciable weight on the rear, the small number of spokes on your rims would also appear to be a weak spot, in spite of the structurally strong cross-section design. what things can handle from time to time with only the rider's weight can be quite different from what they can handle on a daily basis for months, and with "x" number of pounds centered over the rear and can't "post" when it sees a pot hole coming up.

my longest tour ever was about 2 months, of which about 3 weeks or so were spent riding in mexico. all kinds of things can (will?) happen. it's quite different from a week-end jaunt. washed out sections of roads, deep gravel instead of paved shoulders , big trucks on small roads forcing you onto non-existent shoulders, to mention only a few from personal experience. a bent derailleur hanger, having some of your strapped on camping gear get caught up in your spokes or something of that magnitude is not unlikely in a trip of the length you're planning. how would something like that affect your attempt?

i guess what i'm saying is that i personally wouldn't decide for the milage gained by a titanium/carbon bike over the many more miles lost when something goes wrong.

while i may not be that much of a gambler though, i can understand that in making record attempts, a gamble that pays off may be the only way to go.

best of luck!

Originally Posted by nun

I'm getting a new bike that will be very traditional and I'm choosing parts that are easily available anywhere, so basically its steel with Shimano on it. Gears will be 46-36-26, 11-32 on the back. I'm even thinking of going with a double chain ring at the front 36-26 to reduce a bit of weight as on a tour I have no need to pedal above 25 mph.

Originally Posted by philso

nun - if i recall, you're planning on going from west to east, right? in that case, i think you'd be doing yourself a disservice going to a double up front. sure you've got plenty of hills to climb, but you've also got a thousand or so (give or take) across the plains of pretty much flat open road where the wind will mostly be at your back. (i think the prevailing winds are from the west or northwest, but maybe someone from around there can correct me or you can check a weather chart) even with the 11t in the rear, i think you'll find yourself wishing for 52t or so up front too. i'd say keep your gearing options more open.