Now, I know no one wants to be carrying a heavy load but just how concerned are you about weight? There's obviously a massive difference between carrying 5kg and 15kg but just how much sacrifice in terms of cash and comfort are you willing to make to lighten the load?

Is less weight your prime consideration when packing or buying new kit?

I don't necessarily have the lightest of everything in my kit list, though things have generally been selected on the basis of a offering the maximum in performance for the minimum in weight. Subsequently though, I've become increasingly aware of packed volume/ compressability as much as weight, as I like to be able to carry as much on the bike but without the bike being swamped with gear.

Having light kit is the aim for me but I do try to justify the extra spendy stuff for the savings in weight.
If, say, a sleeping bag was costing £180 and there was a better version saving 100g for an extra £20/30ish, thats fine but anything more than the £20/30ish and i start to struggle with the justification.
For me it's a compromise of cost, function, lightness and packability.

Somethings I won't compromise on are comfort like a regular neoair as opposed to a 3/4

I do still make impulse buys from time to time when I really WANT something.

Anyone else use the £1/gram weight saving threshold?

For example, I have a perfectly functional Integral Siltarp weighing 240g.

A Zpacks cuben tarp weighs 75g, which would save me 165g. It costs £125. Therefore £125/165g = £0.76/g. This is under my £1 limit, so its OK to buy it :)

Too concerned.

I swapped out my Leatherman Charge for a Juice, just to save weight. I was going to justify it by selling the Charge, but now Emily wants that so the plan failed :)

I try to be a little targeted. For example, synthetic bag and thermarest to down bag and balloon bed allowed me to go for a way smaller front bag. Which meant less hassle from the front bag and better handling.

And free weight savings are vaguely exciting e.g. instead of blindly carrying around the 1/2 of my multi-tool that is basically just blades and a chain tool, I just carry the chain tool bit.

Having said all that, I accidentally carried 200g of chocolate raisins 2000 miles on the Divide. I found them when unpacking the other day :(

Yea, I think food can be a real problem. On my last trip I didn't carry any real food and just picked stuff along the way / went hungry ... the difference in weight was a real bonus.

I only ever carry a single water bottle too, lugging around 3l of water (unless you really need to) seems a bit mad.

Now you've got the idea, Stu!

I lost 7kg of body weight out there by not eating enough. For free! Double win!

Aidan - 7kg?! Wow...

You did the TD with a balloon bed, too?

On food - a fairly significant proportion of my gear weight for the WRT was food. Leaving it out in favour of picking it up along the way depends very much on your route though. I am leaning increasingly towards a no-stove system and hoping from town to town to pick up food - not only saves a lot of weight but bulk too.

I carried a lot of food around the WRT from start to finish. Some of it is still packed in the framebag. I am a dumbass.

I don't really worry too much about weight, I like to know I've got reasonable gear, but I wouldn't ever consider swapping my ME Xero250 for anything else as it's light enough and does the job. Same with my full length NeoAir and Hunka XL.

They may not be the uber lightest but they are pretty good and for the amount I do this it's good enough.

My DD 3x3 Tarp has to go. Although it's not too heavy I'll have to swap it for something a bit more compact. For me how well it packs can be as importation as the weight.

Ian wrote:Aidan - 7kg?! Wow...

You did the TD with a balloon bed, too?

I am now eating like a champion to make up for it!

On the TD, I mostly just slept on the ground. TBH, unless it's going to be cold, I don't think I'll take a mat on future trips. I even slept in the dirt once I got to Silver City. It was too hot to sleep indoors!