Let's start with two naked (at least conceptually) aging cyclists, and see how much weight it takes to gear them up for a six week tour.

The weight of the actual naked cyclists is something we will not go in to! We'll start by dressing them. It takes about 3 pounds of clothes each to get them going. That includes (for the lady) sandals, tee shirt, shorts, bra, underwear, socks, gloves, and sun sleeves. If you remove the bra and replace it with a with a safety vest you have the fellow dressed. Give them some protective outerwear - rain jacket, windshell, rain pants - that's about 1 1/2 pounds each. Oh, and let's put helmets with DaBrims on each cyclist - thus adding 1 pound each. Each cyclist is "wearing" 5 1/2 pounds of clothing on a cool rainy day.

For them to get anywhere, they will each need a bike. Bike Friday New World Tourist is their choice - that's about 27 pounds, with a good stand and heavy duty tires and wheels. Put some racks front and rear, and fenders, plus (empty) water bottles in holders on that, throw in a mirror, and you have added 6 1/2 pounds. Now supply some quality Ortlieb panniers front and rear, an Ortlieb rack top bag, plus some quite light under seat and under rack bags, and you have added 11 pounds. So here are the bikes, actually ready to load with useful gear and get pedaling. They weigh about 44 pounds each!

To actually succeed with the trip, our cyclists are going to need some quality gear. Let's supply them with this (figures are pounds):

A tent (REI Quarterdome T3) with fly, hammer, and groundsheet. 6.8
Sleeping bag, Neo-Air mat, pillow, pajamas (for two) 11.3
Cooking gear (stove, gaz, windscreen, pots, bowls, etc.) 4.3
Some dry starter food 4.6

Spare clothes, warm clothes,bathing suit, soap,
towel, sunhat, (for two) 7.9

The tent, camping, and cooking gear total 27 pounds, and we have included almost 4 pounds for each person in additional clothes.

But still more stuff is needed. These folks will need maps and electronics, to stay on track and keep entertained, pharmacy stuff to keep their skin smooth and bodies patched and running, plus tools to do the same thing for the bikes. That is:

Maps 2.0
Electronics and lights (tablet, smart phone, headlamps, bike flashers and headlights, bike computers, GPS, backup power batteries, charge cables) 5.7
Pharmacy stuff (toiletries, sun screen, insect repellent,cold tablets, pain killers, etc.) 4.3
Bike tools and lube (enough to fix flats, chains, tires, cables,adjust everything, but not headset, bottom bracket,or broken spokes.) 3.6 

So there is another 15.6 pounds.

Let's take stock. We have two naked cyclists of unstated weight, with 44 pound bikes. They have 5 1/2 pounds of clothing on each of them, and about 4 pounds each of spare clothes. After that, they have a communal pile of 42.6 pounds of other gear. The whole show, minus the base naked cyclists, weighs
just under 150 pounds, or 75 pounds each for an even split between the two mules, err, adventurers.

Is this too much stuff? Well it comes out of a few basic principles or desires:

1. We like to camp
2. We like to cook
3. We may ride early or late, in the dark; we like to do this blog; we like to listen to bedtime stories, and we do not want to get totally lost too often. All this takes electronic or electric gear.
4. We want to deal with sunburn, insect bite, rashes, colds, scrapes, back pain, joint pain, heartburn, etc. without having to find a clinic or pharmacy right away.
5. We would hate to be stranded somewhere with a bike problem.
6. We are averse to getting very wet.
7. And we are averse to getting very cold.

Maybe some of the things on the list mean we are too young yet. And maybe some of the things mean we are too old and soft. But when we think about saving further weight, we know we could try to cut a little here or there, or find a lighter piece of this or that. But really, to save big time, we would have to give up substantially on one or more of these seven principles.

Of the seven, camping and cooking top the hit list. But it's not just that we like these two, they can also save large amounts of money, and give food and shelter when none seem to be available commercially. Would it be worth it, though, just in terms of weight, to give up on these?

Here is how they rank in the weight game:

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Clearly camping and cooking are "fat" targets, and of course we would never, ever, give up on blogging, playing with smart phones, riding after hours in the rain or cold, or any of the other fun things that we need all this gear for!

We have, however, dreamed up some changes and strategies while writing this. Stay tuned for the next installment, and see what we are changing, changing, as we wait for that start date, now just about two weeks away.