The point of a bike tour if you won't live without?

Really and truly, what is the point of traveling by bicycle if you won't endure living without all the luxuries of home?  What does bike touring mean to you?  Is it seeing places at a slower than automobile pace and getting a little closer to living on the bare minimum?  Is it a test of how much you can mimic your home setting while rolling on two wheels?  I've presented a few things to think about here.

Two days ago my guest (Mr X) told me at 3:00 PM that he'd be staying in Montesano, which is only 10 miles away.  I suggested he just ride to Aberdeen.  He said he hadn't ridden his bicycle for a while and that he had heavy gear.  When he came to my door, his kit looked bulky, but I hadn't been weighing anyone's kit up to this morning.  I weighed the bike.

Today, after he loaded his 37 pound bicycle, I placed first the front tire, and then the rear tire on my scale.  47+98=145 lb.  108 pounds of camping gear.  This is the second cyclist in two weeks with too much camping gear.  On his last tour of foreign lands, he stopped his trip in Kazakhstan because of severe knee pain--same gear.  Well, of course!  What's in the bags?  I didn't pry, but I did eventually see a laptop computer, a nine ounce language translator for Japanese to/from any number of other languages, a carton of ramen noodles and an MSR alpine multifuel stove.  How can you even keep track of all the gear you're carrying?  What is it like to pedal up a hill with that load?  What kind of brakes can stop 145 pounds plus your own body weight of 160#?  Disc brakes, for certain, but he doesn't have them.  I can see him descending some big hills on the Oregon 101 and trying to stop that thing.

37 pound bicycle with 108 pounds of camping gear.  Handlebar bag (not visible) is part of that.

That spare Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire weighs 980gm 2 lb. 2 oz. 

I lifted that light blue backpack atop the rear rack--it felt like 30-35 lb.

The other heavily laden cyclist had broken a chain three months ago crossing Canada.  Then she broke a second chain on the way to my house--after sending 10 kg home.  She pushed her bike up the 300' hill to my house. Her gear also looked like a mountain.  Would she have broken a chain if she'd had only 20kg of gear?  Nope.

A Frenchman coming through fit all his gear into four panniers, a medium dry bag and a front bag--well done, Swann!  See him below:

The kickstand won't hold the bike--it'll go to a landfill soon.  I gave him the yellow cord that keeps his front wheel from pivoting away.  He got lucky when his MSR canister stove died just before getting to my house.  I gave him a 12 gm alcohol stove, a 12 gm fuel bottle, a 20 gm windscreen (aluminum foil) and 300 ml of fuel.  We lightened his load by 5 oz. significant for the cooking system, but without great impact on the big picture.  I haven't tried to take over people's gear choices, but will make suggestions when the need arises.

What are they thinking?  Do they have something to prove?  No wonder they cover so few miles per day.  I would never take such weight without an electric motor to help me up the hills, etc.  But that kind of weight would go on a trailer rather than on my bike.  When I rode the Pacific Coast Hwy in 1981, I had 40 lb. on my 23 lb. bike, between rear panniers and a front bag, and that was awkward and dangerous at times.

These people desperately need someone to tell them, "you're the dumbest ass-cyclist in the galaxy if you take all that stuff!"

All the information on the Internet and these people could find nothing on lightweight bike touring?  I'm shocked, absolutely shocked that this could happen.

These people are capable of intelligence.  "capable" is the operating word.  Come on!

Should I demand that my next guest submit a gear list and justify each piece?

Bottom line:  I can backpack the Pacific Crest Trail with 18 lb. of gear--pack plus camping stuff.  I'd need 2-4 lb. of extra gear (tools) to go on a bike tour.  Take your emotional baggage along if you must, but leave the laptop computer, the French press and coffee grinder, the alpine camp stove, the car camping mattress and the mountaineering tent, etc.  Don't take a hammock if you're not going to sleep in it at night.  All that physical stuff is what you're trying to escape, when you travel.  Take enough to be safe and comfortable, but not too comfy.  Less is more.  Lighter is safer.