After yesterdays ride I have some more comments to make.
I took my Carbon road bike out for a ride and added my seatpost pannier rack and my Ortleib rear panniers with 15kg of kit. Usually I only have about 5kg in my panniers and they are the much smaller front rollers.
The first thing you notice with 15kg on a very light bike is that as soon as you pick it up, it wants to fall over. The next thing is that you have very little heel clearance from the bags, if any. If the pannier rack is fastened at the bottom of the seat post, the ride is twitchy, but you get used to it. If it is at the top of the seatpost it is extremely twitchy and I struggled to manage it.
I managed 56km but had to regularly alter the load as it moved due to the fact that I didnt want to overtightening the pannier rack to a Carbon seat post. The bags were also too big for the rack frame and got perilously close to the wheels. you need front rollers on this rack. front rollers equals less weight. I made great time and covered the distance in 2.20 hours. Thats quick for touring.
In the end I got fed up of messing about with the load and returned home by train. A nice ride and I learnt a lot from the test ride.
I will get out and Tour on my Carbon road bike but I will change the whole luggage thing to the bare minimum. A bit on the lines of the Transcontinental race set up or credit card touring. Certainly no tent, as I had yesterday.
If I was touring on a lightweight bike I would set myself a limit of 5kg max to the rear end and that is not easy. I would also add a bar bag to counter balance the pannier weight. I think every little helps.
