>>1038600I broke the hose clamps holding my lowrider racks after a week on the road and paired down from a carradice nelson, 2 back roller classics, 2 front panniers & a basket zip tied to a nitto m12 to just the saddlebag, the basket, and one front pannier as a rack top bag.
I left the majority of my stuff with a guy i met at a pub and came back a week later for it.
I kept my tent, cooking equipment and everything essential. Credit card touring it'd be even easier. After another week i broke a weld on my nitto rack, but that was only because i was carrying a huge box of food, enough for around 4 days, with a lot of water weight in fruit and vegetables, maybe even like 25kg.
The classic 4 pannier, handlebar bag & saddlebag is basically overkill with modern gear. Shit is SO much lighter now than it used to be, if you're willing to pay for it. Some people just enjoy suffering i guess.
Any piece of clothing that doesn't layer effectively for warmth, or gives you more than you need, is superfluous. People carry so much stupid shit. I met a guy with a new rig, custom canada built frame, ss couplers, full ortlieb pannier setup, atleast 5k into this setup, beer belly, and he had 5 tubes and 2 spare mondials, or some heavier bullshit tire with a dead ride. I got 1 pinch flat that i deserved in the last 6 months on my 300gram cheap paselas and this guy had over a kg of SPARE tires, for a first world country full of bike shops.
Bikepacking is an absolute meme but so is the traditional touring kitchen sink approach.
