I think you mean taking NO cargo Dan
Well...I was thinking of Danneaux's Cargo Conundrum, a frequent topic of my on-bike thoughts while riding.
At any given time while touring, I *don't* use better than 90% of the stuff I've taken. It is there for *when* I need it (i.e. sleeping bag, pad, and tent for night) and *in case* I need it (jackets, fleece, first aid kit).
Right now, the livingroom floor looks like an outdoor store exploded in it. I've laid out a lot of my stuff and am reorganizing it in a modular fashion so I can quickly assemble a kit for the next tour of whatever length. For example, there's the stoves: Coleman Multi-fuel for my desert tours when the only possible fuel resupply is unleaded pump petrol. My beer can penny stove and ultralight pot kit for overnighters and hot lunches on long day rides, and a sub-USD$17 very compact iso-butane burner/pot setup with an all-season fuel mix for in-between uses. There's the Mini-Trangia setup for as well. Sleeping bags are divided into warmish and coldish, with one bag down bag good down to freezing, the other to -15°C comfortably. Big and compact first aid kits (needed the sewing kit for Danneaux repairs on the last tour, so a modest version will be incorporated into each), big and small liquid-fuel bottles for white gas/naptha/petrol/meths, etc.
The trouble is, if one is touring for an extended period in all seasons (or something that simulates it, like desert travel with wide variations between day/night temps or big changes in altitude or on different continents/latitudes), you almost certainly must carry for the extremes...and that's too much when you don't need it. Depends on proximity to population and resupply as well. Through-hikers handle such things with mail drops for send-home and resupply. That should work for cycling as well, but at US postal rates, it might sometimes be better to abandon or give away small things that could be repurchased almost as cheaply later.
A major advance for me was to go with the smartphone. It effectively replaced a lot of stuff -- the cameras (didn't use my Sony travel-zoom or the GoPro), radio (Internet radio when near wifi), netbook/laptop, books (used e-reader apps), and data backup (spare 64GB SD cards and 3TB portable hard drive. Its GPS was more often handy on roads than the dedicated Garmin I brought for what was mostly an on-road tour rather than cross-country through roadless terrain. No need for my 4G LTE portable hotspot or for tethering without wifi. Charging became a non-issue at standard USB supply rates.
I'm still working at trying to make the light/compact "warm weather" sleeping bag work in colder conditions by piling on the clothing, but it isn't the same as having a warm bag to begin with when the temps really plummet toward 0°F/-18°C. I've got my clothing pretty well dialed in, and have managed to recently find a source for traditional wool cycling tights without chamois. Joy! That'll help a lot toward extending my temperature range. Sometimes, adding things can save weight as well. For example, by adding lightweight underwear I can wash out under a water bottle and air-dry in 15 minutes, I can wear my cycling shorts for as much as two weeks (cue the collective "Ewww!" chorus) when drying the shorts chamois is impossible/impractical overnight. Alternating riding shorts and airing them wrongside out in the sunshine eliminated or prevented any odor. This means fewer clothes overall. Quarter-socks (running socks) take half the room/weight because I'm not packing the shaft of the sock. Last summer's tour was generally warm enough to forego dedicated rain gear in favor of a lightweight wind jacket so I got wet but didn't chill while riding; I changed to dry clothes for sleeping in the tent at night or rode them dry after the rain stopped. The alternative was to get as wet from sweat inside my rain gear in the wet and humidity of River Country. I still used the rain gear on cold 3°C mornings.
One thing I added promptly on returning home was an Ortlieb exterior folding mesh pannier pocket, so I could store my wet things outside the dry interior of my bags until I could wring the clothes out at camp to dry or put on wet the next day. There's no point switching to dry clothes for riding if they're only going to get wet again. I save the dry ones for sleeping in at night or for dry weather the next day while the wet ones dry atop the rear rack or on a line in camp or over a tub/in a shower at lodging. Both strategies reduce the number of needed clothes, also saving weight and bulk.
The nice thing about lightening overall weight by lightening load is I can usually do it cost-free and fairly easily by leaving stuff home. *Must* I take it vs *Might I need it* becomes the determining factor. Still, compared to my lighter bike there's a 5.5kg difference in bike weight to make up for in cargo before I break even. A person can go ultralight like my long-admired Iik (
http://ultralightcycling.blogspot.com/ ), or go the other way and take the lot, which in turn requires a sturdier bike to carry it all. In my case for desert touring, water is the deciding factor, followed by extra food stores. I'm away from commercial resources, towns, stores, people, and in a harsh dry environment without much in the way of available potable water. Gotta carry more in water and food weight than what the lighter bike could manage...and would overtax it and its much lighter, narrower-tired 700C wheels.
Richie, if you could keep your Nomad and go with something lighter and more portable and could have someone ship you the bike and kit you need for your next tour leg and store the ones you don't...that would be the ideal, I think, in terms of use. Trouble is, it incurs extra expense and a host of other problems, including finding what you need was left in "the other place, with the other bike". It could range from merely annoying to neat agony if that happened.
Maybe the most effective way to save weight is to go with a partner. Tools and lodging (tent, anyway) can be shared as well as cooking gear, stove, fuel and even food, cutting the weight for each by a substantial amount. I was looking at the lot on the livingroom floor and thinking, "Hmm. All someone else would need to bring is their own clothes and toiletries and sleeping bag and pad; the rest of the lot is already here". That gives either the option to split equally or for another, less well-equipped or less-experienced/less fit person to enjoy touring at minimal effort and expense, the weight difference serving as a fitness equalizer. It's a great solution if you find someone compatible and don't kill each other.
Lots to think about here, Richie.
All the best,
Dan.
