I've never bothered to weight my bike when loaded for an all night
brevet or similar ride. I suspect that with lights, extra batteries,
warm clothes, rain gear, a bit of food, water, 2- tubes, patch kit,
pump, a very few bike parts and tools, a few first aid items (ibuprofen,
band-aids, chamois butter, bit of tri-antiseptic ointment, mole skin,
suntan lotion-2 wipes-all in a baggie), zip ties, a bit of tape, cell
phone and then of course a large seat bag to carry the stuff, I'd assume
that those components must all add up to at least 12 pounds. If you are
a bit more conservative it could quickly get to 15+ pounds and if you
cut out some of my "extra" stuff, you might get it down to 10 pounds.
On the brevet's and PBP, you'll see people with almost nothing to
carrying seemingly full panniers.



Are you hauling too much? Perhaps so, if you're trying to complete PBP
in 60 hours. If your goals are more modest, and you want to relax and
not worry so much about what you might encounter, your weight sounds
pretty much in the normal range. If you ride a bike with componentry
any different than the most common stuff out there (ie, contemporary
Shimano or Campy 9-10 speed stuff), I'd encourage you to carry a few
more parts. The less common the stuff you ride, the less chance there
is that someone else will have what you need. Some older components
even require tools that don't come w most groupo's these days, so if
you're using any of that type of thing, be sure to have the tools you
need with you.



In any case, after you've completed your brevets, ie, a few weeks before
PBP, I'd encourage you to change out your cables, chain, cassette, tires
and maybe brake pads. Most of these items can be put back on the bike
when you return home in order to get full use of them, but why risk a
hassle with any of those items when you've gone through so much (and
spent so much) to get there? Who wants to deal with a broken shifter
cable out on in Brittany at 2am while the clock is ticking? For what?
Lastly, I'd encourage you not to wait until just before you leave to do
these things. Get in a couple of hundred miles to be sure everything's
working well.



Bruce

________________________________

From: sfrandon@yahoogroups.com [mailto:sfrandon@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of jim g
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 2:00 PM
To: sfrandon@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [sfrandon] Typical loaded weight for a brevet bike?



I've currently got 3 bikes I'm considering for riding brevet(s) this
year. All are similarly-equipped with steel frames, SKS fenders, and
unladen weights of around 24-25lbs. Last weekend I went on a longer
ride on one of these bikes (my Fuji Cross, newly reconfigured for
brevet use, viewable at http://flickr.com/photos/jimg/332116664/
<http://flickr.com/photos/jimg/332116664/> ) and
on a lark I weighed the loaded bike after I got back home. I was
fairly astounded to see that the weight was 36lbs with empty bottles.
Figuring that full bottles would add 2-3lbs bringing the total weight
to 38-39lbs...is this typical of a brevet bike, or am I lugging far
too much crap around?

--
from jimg via jimg at yojimg dot net





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