# How heavy is a touring bike before and after loaded..



## hotshot (Apr 18, 2008)

I am putting the Raleigh Sojourn together (pictures are coming) and I was wondering how heavy should a touring bike be with fenders,pump,3 water bottles, nitelight, racks front and rear and panniers front and rear before loading it up...Mine came in around 45 pounds. So if i put another 40 to 50 pounds of stuff on it..is that normal? Or is getting to heavy? Should I try to cut down on some weight somewhere off the bike?

Trying to figure out what is an average weight of a normal self touring bike....loaded..since I have never done this stuff before..

Also anyone have any suggestions of a kick stand that would work on this bike besides the click stand? The bike comes with spoke holder on the drive side stay and is in the way if you try to put a normal kick stand on it and with the disc brakes..you cant put one on the back end also?


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## hotshot (Apr 18, 2008)

*here is the bike..*

hope this works...


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## tarwheel2 (Jul 7, 2005)

It's all relative, but I hope you have some low gearing if your bike already weighs 45 lbs before loading. My Bob Jackson touring bike weighed in at 21 lbs built with front rack, pedals, cages. With computer, Carradice Barley seatbag and rack, tools and other gear, front and rear lights, and fenders it weighed about 28 lbs. With a rear rack and panniers, it would easily top 30 lbs.


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## BikeRider (Aug 5, 2003)

My Waterford Adventure Cycle with rear rack weighs 25lbs. My last trip up in Colorado I started out with about 40lbs of gear but after climbing a pass or two decided to shed some weight by mailing back stuff I didn't really need. I actually mailed stuff back a couple of times on this trip to get rid of weight. Nothing like some hard climbing to let you know just how little stuff you really need...


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## MDGColorado (Nov 9, 2004)

Tarwheel, that's a good looking Jackson (saw some pics on another thresd). 

I'm not sure what my touring Cannondale waighs as described, it was 77 pounds fully loaded with gear for a Trans-Am tour. My touring Mercian was 25 pounds with fenders, front rack and 25mm tires.

Just weighed the Cannondale: 30 pounds with fenders, front, rear, and handlebar bag racks, 3 bottle cages, pump, 35mm wide tires. Certainly could be lighter, but I have not tried very hard.


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## Lifelover (Jul 8, 2004)

I would guess that my Gary V tourer is about 25 lbs unloaded, but as soon as I sit my fat A$$ down it goes to about 275!


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## Henry Porter (Jul 25, 2006)

I have a Sojourn and it is heavy but the gearing is pretty easy, at least here in Omaha.


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## Henry Porter (Jul 25, 2006)

This might be able to help you with the kick stand but it says he's busy till late June.

http://www.click-stand.com/


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## BenR (Dec 14, 2001)

*reasonable*

45 pounds with rack, panniers, and filled bottles probably isn't that far off depending on the size of your frame and panniers. Regardless, it is what it is. Not easily changed. Most of my tours are 3-5 days. If I did it all the time, a more expensive, lighter bike could be justified. As it is, I just deal with Bertha's mass (a bastardized LHT) and still enjoy the tour very much. Less weight would be nice, but a solid frame with balanced handling and adequate gearing, along with appropriate gear to be well-fed and comfortable, is far more important.

Also don't think you're that far off on gear weight, especially if you're going on your own (can't split tent, dishes, fuel, water pump, etc.). If you need it, then you need to bring it, know what I mean? It really depends on the climate and terrain of your tour. My past two trips were in pretty isolated areas with potential for cold, wet weather. It was sort of like going on a solo backpacking trip and essentially added a 35lb. bike (without panniers) to my typical 50 pound backpack, resulting in an 85 pound bike. It's not so much fun to pedal up a 7 mile grade, but neither is shivering at night because you only brought your summer bag and not enough clothing, or being stranded on an old rail grade with a shredded tire and no spare, or stumbling around in the dark because you crashed on your bike light and didn't bring a flashlight, or being thirsty overnight because you didn't want to haul those two extra Nalgene bottles up to a dry camp. Obviously, consider every item carefully (do you really want to haul it?), but I'm firmly in the "be prepared and grow stronger legs" camp. It doesn't help that my trunk bag holds a 6 pack of tallboys quite nicely.

If in the summer, might consider the bivy sac and summer sleeping bag route, instead of a much heavier tent. Depending on route, could cut down on the amount of food and water you haul at any given time if always near towns. Large bike bottles are, what, ~2 pounds each??? Might also be able to cut out stove, pots, and fuel on a short tour if you're okay with granola bars and grocery store food, and maybe an occasional restaurant meal. Keep in mind that a bunch of fresh food can weigh almost as much as the stove with pasta/freeze dried food. If you'll be in a spot where you can get home easily without actually riding the bike (worst case scenario), probably don't need spare hardware or 500 gram tires, or 4 spare tubes, especially if you have patches and boot material. All that stuff adds up. There's a lot of different packing lists and philosophies written out there - see what appeals to you and go with it. Go on an overnight tour to better differentiate what you're going to use regularly, what would be nice to have sometimes, and what is really worthless, as well as figure out exactly how much weight you are willing to tolerate. 

A kick stand strikes me as worthless extra weight, IMO. All loaded touring bikes are relatively heavy; any kickstand that can hold them up will also likely be heavy. It always seems like there is a tree, fence, or building available anyway


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## BikeRider (Aug 5, 2003)

BenR said:


> A kick stand strikes me as worthless extra weight, IMO. All loaded touring bikes are relatively heavy; any kickstand that can hold them up will also likely be heavy. It always seems like there is a tree, fence, or building available anyway


This reminds me of a trip I did in Colorado. I was going from Golden to Idaho Springs one day and going along Hwy 40 which is a side road to I-70 I was riding along in the dark and had to stop to look at my map. There was nothing to lean my bike against, no fences, no tress, no nothing. So I just laid the bike on its side on the side of the road. So while I'm there looking at my map with a light a motorist stops because it looked like I had had a crash. After I convinced him that I was alright he left. Right as he left another driver stops because she thought that the first driver had run into me!

This is one of the reasons why I like doing tours in Colorado, you can't even pull over for a moment without someone offering to help you out!

You're right about the kickstand though, it's almost always possible to find someplace to lean the bike against.


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## muscleendurance (Jan 11, 2009)

are you weighing the water in the bottles too? that sounds awfully heavy for such a 'lite' lookin bike!
my tourer (albiet a specialist touring bike) is about 32lbs inc front+rear racks, 32c tires, sks chromo fenders, heavy pedals 1lb, computer and sensors and 3 cages and bottles.
and I carry about 50lbs of luggage with me (and small gears for the mountains!)

oh right you included pannier weight (when empty!)
mine are about 10lb so that brings the total to about where your at so


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