What constitutes light touring?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
Remaerd
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Joined: 18 May 2015, 6:55pm

What constitutes light touring?

Post by Remaerd »

What weight of cycle touring kit means I should buy a tourer rather than an audax bike?
Should my own weight be taken into account?
Also does being "vertically challenged" and having a smaller, less flexy frame make a difference?
beardy
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Joined: 23 Feb 2010, 4:10pm

Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by beardy »

My luggage for light camping touring is 9Kg .

So around 10Kg to give a ball park figure. It is nearer 5Kg if not camping.

Though I would not feel the need for a tourer until around 20Kg.
tatanab
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by tatanab »

Define tourer and audax bikes. It is a real problem.

I've been cycle touring 50 years and I use normal clubman's club run type bikes. Probably what are Audax bikes these days but with 28mm tyres. A tourer these days can mean anything including the clubman's hack right up to a something suitable for crossing deserts - not that it ever stopped Ian Hibell.

Lightweight touring to me is hostel/B&B/Hotel touring where I can get all I need for a month in a large saddlebag quite easily, probably weighing 15lbs. When camping my load is about 30lbs - this too is done on club riding machines. This includes tools, waterproofs etc.

A smaller frame will help you use an audax style machine because you do not need the thicker walled tubing of a very tall or large person. So you would not need a 531ST frame but would be fine with 531C - talking old tubing types here. My ex was 4' 11" and certainly had no issues with a 531C frame.
iviehoff
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by iviehoff »

Light touring means whatever you want it to mean, and luggage habits vary. Some people do cycle-camping with less luggage than others manage for B&B touring. Google Igor Kovse for some great travelogues of extreme light touring. A friend of mine once went cycle camping in the Alps with sufficiently little luggage she held on to the peloton of an amateur race she met while they ascended a pass.

It does seem logical that the increased stiffness of a very small frame should enable you to carry larger loads than larger frames with that tubing gauge would usually permit. Ultimately its up to you to find out what works. I realised I was overloading my light tourer when my chain rubbed against my derailleur cage intermittently when cycling up hills, because of the flexing of the rear frame triangle.
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honesty
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by honesty »

Personally always defined light touring to mean credit card touring or B&B touring rather than carrying the full camping caboodle. So rather than light being a statement of the weight it indicates less equipment being carried.

So camping kit etc. is full touring, B&Bing is a full touring light. (or lite if you really want to...)

That's just my view though.
mercalia
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by mercalia »

YHA touring or similar where u just need to take change of clothes and toothbrush & lots of money :lol:
pwa
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by pwa »

For me "light touring" does not include camping gear, and keeps other clobber to the essentials. The sort of load you could get into one large pannier (or, better, two small panniers).

My wife (5ft4inch) used to tour on a Reynolds 753 framed road bike (51cm or thereabouts) with two large panniers and a bar bag. It sounds wrong, but it worked okay. She got through the Alps (including the Stelvio Pass and the Cime de la Bonnette) with that set-up. These days you might call that bike an audax bike, having as it did the ability to take guards and a three point pannier rack. And the cycle camping gear she carried was hardly light. So I think a small rider on a small frame can probably carry baggage that would badly affect the handling of a large frame. Perhaps it would be best to make sure the wheels are fairly strong, though.
whoof
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by whoof »

It's a bit like asking what speed constitutes cycling fast? Every person will have there own idea.

Every year I do a two week cycling/camping tour including cooking stuff. I don't know the weight but between two of us we carry a TOTAL of two rear and two front Ortleib panniers, two bar bags and a tent. We do this on 'touring' bikes which weight about 14 kg.

I also do a week long B and B/ hostel tour and we take one rear pannier each . We do this on 'road' bikes that weight 9 -10 kg with a rack. I personally call this light-weight.

I have seen someone touring through the Alps with a spare pair of shorts in a bottle cage and some stuff in a small saddle pack. We saw them a few times and in the evening the wore a pair of nylon football type shorts, the jersey they had worn all day and a race cape. I've also seen some Dutch tourers who were camping and they carried folding chairs (not little stools but full chairs) with them. Each to their own.
Tangled Metal
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by Tangled Metal »

This is interesting thread. If you were talking what lightweight backpacking means this is easily found because there has been a consensus formed courtesy of the American cottage industry and MYOG attitudes to long distance trekking. IIRC lightweight starts at about 9kg (because that is the nearest metric to a whole imperial weight 20lb). It is about the weight that you cease to really notice the load on your back and start to walk a bit more like someone with a light day pack. then the next weight is about 6.5kg I think. You can ultimately get down to sub 2kg loads (excluding food and water) to get into the ultimate of reduced weight backpacking. Basically the scale goes down from sub-20lb, 15lb, 10lb to 5lb or less for the lightest category. The Americans do like their precise categories though.

For cycling i have no idea. For me on my own I would consider 10kg as the goal for me. Backpacking I can get down to below 6kg and my base load (kit without fuel, water or food) is nearer 4kg). For cycle touring I think my load would go right up though because I have no real experience of it and that usually results in carrying excess kit. Also camping might actually not be too much heavier because if I am hostel or hotel touring I would be tempted to carry a lot more kit in the way of off bike clothes. I did that when I went hostel/bunkhouse backpacking with mates along the Hadrians wall once. My pack was about 20kg when I was normally camping at 9-10kg with 1 litre of water included in that.
beardy
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by beardy »

The OP did define what they mean by light touring, to paraphrase them, how much can you comfortably carry on an Audax bike?

At 5 Kg, I can pretty much forget it is loaded. At 10Kg, I may have worries about doing any rapid tricky manoeuvres but generally OK. Somewhere before 20Kg, I would wish for sticking weight on the front too or a tourer.
pwa
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by pwa »

Apart from weight, another limitation to what you can carry on a bike is heel clearance. Chain stays on tourers are longer to allow racks (and, therefore, panniers) to be a little further back than on a more standard road bike. Large panniers may not fit on an audax style bike without being clipped by heels. And the weight might be too far back, in relation to the rear axle, making the steering feel too light.
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al_yrpal
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by al_yrpal »

Heres my list about 8kg for light B&B or CC touring and an additional 6.5kg when camping. I like to have a change of clothing to wash and something decent to go down the pub.

ImageWeight ist by Al, on Flickr

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
Remaerd
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by Remaerd »

My set up is 2 front panniers, on the rear, of about 15L, my list Iis a bit shorter than al_yrpal's. 2 dry bags 8L and 5L with sleeping bag and camp mat on top of the rack and my 2kg tent strapped to the handlebars. Or I can throw the whole lot in 2 Super C rears.
The frames I was looking at are the Spa Audax or Tourer.
Last edited by Remaerd on 22 May 2015, 6:10pm, edited 1 time in total.
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foxyrider
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by foxyrider »

Light touring = not camping in my book. When i camp i have @ 12kg all up on the bike, for CC/light its @ 5kg of mostly clothing.
Convention? what's that then?
Airnimal Chameleon touring, Orbit Pro hack, Orbit Photon audax, Focus Mares AX tour, Peugeot Carbon sportive, Owen Blower vintage race - all running Tulio's finest!
ChrisF
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Re: What constitutes light touring?

Post by ChrisF »

I 'light' toured (no camping) last year for 2-3 weeks on an 'audax' bike (titanium frame; 25mm tyres). About 10kg spread two small panniers and a bar bag. Generally got by OK but I could only ride on the hoods, using the drops or the tops led to too much shimmy a lot of the time. For my next tour I've reconditioned my old Galaxy tourer instead.
Chris F, Cornwall
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