Luggage - Panniers - frame bags etc

[mudsticks]

Stick with panniers for your setup. Far superier unless you are ridding technical singletrack off road.

These were my thoughts too - even just with my ordinary set up someone once remarked " i like your rig" - so I'm already half - accepted by the bike packing mob it would seem -

Tbh thats plenty enough for me its quite likely i do as much, if not more wild camping as they do - i just don't have to make it all seem soo darned 'rugged'

Only the first 24hrs.

Thank goodness - and I've already ticked no.1 most vital job off the list - on fire down here - i can tell you

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yeah, bike packing gear is crap if you want to access stuff during for your ride. It is only really for off road as indicated or bikes that were never designed with touring in mind.

 

[mudsticks]

Yeah, bike packing gear is crap if you want to access stuff during for your ride. It is only really for off road as indicated or bikes that were never designed with touring in mind.

New bike comes with pannier racks - which is reassuring for my needs - i do go off road - but more on tracks - not down stream beds

i quite like those bright and funky polka dot bags that you see on Instagram - i can just imagine the looks i'd get from the more conservative cycling set over here.

 

[mjr]

i quite like those bright and funky polka dot bags that you see on Instagram - i can just imagine the looks i'd get from the more conservative cycling set over here.

All the more funny if you manage to overtake one

I used Basil Mara panniers on my first tour, then a longflap saddlebag and a compression sack strapped to the rack top the second and third ones. I'm not sure whether I'll do that again next time or completely spurn bike-specific luggage and strap a large canvas duffel to the rack top! A medium-sized handlebar bag has held snacks and other quick-access things every time.

Panniers are great for shopping and load-lugging but a nuisance on trains and in some bike garages. I'm not camping and I'd rather keep weight down on tour so I don't currently want that much space.

 

[mudsticks]

All the more funny if you manage to overtake one

I used Basil Mara panniers on my first tour, then a longflap saddlebag and a compression sack strapped to the rack top the second and third ones. I'm not sure whether I'll do that again next time or completely spurn bike-specific luggage and strap a large canvas duffel to the rack top! A medium-sized handlebar bag has held snacks and other quick-access things every time.

Panniers are great for shopping and load-lugging but I'm not camping and I'd rather keep weight down on tour so I don't currently want that much space.

My luggage is probs about 1/2 the volume (and i imagine weight) of most of the cycle tourists that i see on the road .

I'm always curious as to what they've got in there - but i'm far too British to stop and ask them.

I do carry all my camping kit - tent, mat, s/b, stove, food, spare clothes etc etc - but it still doesn't take up that much space.

 

[Blue Hills]

[QUOTE="mudsticks, post: 5451002, member: 76432"
Any thing that totally must stay dry ( sleeping bag , spare clothes etc) goes in dry bags - I wouldnt trust any pannier 100% - [/QUOTE]

I trust my Ortlieb bikepacker pluses totally to be honest. So much so that I sometimes leave them outside the tent in the rain.

 

[Blue Hills]

These were my thoughts too - even just with my ordinary set up someone once remarked " i like your rig" - so I'm already half - accepted by the bike packing mob it would seem -

Tbh thats plenty enough for me its quite likely i do as much, if not more wild camping as they do - i just don't have to make it all seem soo darned 'rugged'

To be honest quite a lot of bikepacking stuff looks rather designer to me. Nowt so rugged as a set of old panniers and a motley collection of drybags.

Lomo Watersport

https://www.lomo.co.uk/

is a good source of economical drybags by the way.

 

[mudsticks]

To be honest quite a lot of bikepacking stuff looks rather designer to me. Nowt so rugged as a set of old panniers and a motley collection of dfrybags.

Lomo Watersport

https://www.lomo.co.uk/

is a good source of economical drybags by the way.

Thank you yes.. My sb currently resides in a lomo..

Tbh I've got rather an embarrassingly large collection of drybags.
It's almost like a kneejerk reaction, if I go into an outdoor shop, or if someone is having a sale..
Oh I'll just pick up a couple of dry bags..
I haven't got one this size / colour.

I keep imagining that one day I'll have a very thorough, and fixed colour coding system as to what I put in which colour.

And then what goes in each of the four quarter panniers.

Sadly I don't seem to be very systematic like that - or at least not until a good week into a trip.

It's like those fishermen with their multi pocketed vests.. Don't they spend half their lives searching through seventeen pockets to find the vital item??

But I'm on a shopping roll at the moment and my old front panniers won't fit the new bike so I've promised myself something a bit flash..

Which in my book constitutes spending more than 20 quid...
Maybe they can go on Santa's list.

 

[Blue Hills]

Thank you yes.. My sb currently resides in a lomo..

Tbh I've got rather an embarrassingly large collection of drybags.
It's almost like a kneejerk reaction, if I go into an outdoor shop, or if someone is having a sale..
Oh I'll just pick up a couple of dry bags..
I haven't got one this size / colour.

I keep imagining that one day I'll have a very thorough, and fixed colour coding system as to what I put in which colour.

And then what goes in each of the four quarter panniers.

Sadly I don't seem to be very systematic like that - or at least not until a good week into a trip.

It's like those fishermen with their multi pocketed vests.. Don't they spend half their lives searching through seventeen pockets to find the vital item??

But I'm on a shopping roll at the moment and my old front panniers won't fit the new bike so I've promised myself something a bit flash..

Which in my book constitutes spending more than 20 quid...
Maybe they can go on Santa's list.

Yes I'm the same.

Just avoid the temptation to go for the ever more super lightweight versions - I bought some kinda "premium" karrimor ones in Sports Direct recently and the clips are ridiculously lightweight fernickity. Ebay is a good site for perfectly decent lightish small drybags from China.

Blue for washing bag (so I needn't have bothered buying that barmy far bulkier heavier hanging washbag contraption.

Red for emergency food store atop the rack plus espresso pot and stove.

 

[mudsticks]

Yes I'm the same.

Just avoid the temptation to go for the ever more super lightweight versions - I bought some kinda "premium" karrimor ones in Sports Direct recently and the clips are ridiculously lightweight fernickity. Ebay is a good site for perfectly decent lightish small drybags from China.

Blue for washing bag (so I needn't have bothered buying that barmy far bulkier heavier hanging washbag contraption.

Red for emergency food store atop the rack plus espresso pot and stove.

Aha, I like red for panic !! .. Food is usually my first emergency too.

On my gravestone it will say -

"I'm sorry for what I said when I was hungry"

my wash kit is a smallish cube of solid shampoo bar, toothbrush and paste. And a microfibre towel big enough to use in campsite shower - on the mop and wring principal.

But it also doubles for drying the worst of moisture off tent in morning..This same water has been known to be used for rudimentary washing purposes then too

Multifunctionality being the essence of lightweight touring

I do take a lightweight meths cone and pan set up though .. Can't imagine getting going without tea... How do people do that ?? Weirdos.. :-(

 

[Gravity Aided]

I tend to use dry bags within panniers, especially on the distance events bike (Gran Fondo etc.) as it is a Trek from the mid-80's, and built with the randonneur in mind, so it really is quite set up for front low-rider racks only. Good for touring and such, and a little faster than a typical touring bike.

 

[mudsticks]

I tend to use dry bags within panniers, especially on the distance events bike (Gran Fondo etc.) as it is a Trek from the mid-80's, and built with the randonneur in mind, so it really is quite set up for front low-rider racks only. Good for touring and such, and a little faster than a typical touring bike.

Using dry bags also means you can just grab, such items as you need from your panniers and chuck em in the tent without anything getting wet - my shelter porches would be overfilled with all the pannier bags in there .

The panniers - (and bike) - have to put up with being rained on during the day - so i'm afraid they have to endure same at night - unless there is a handy barn nearby.

 

[Edwardoka]

Only had two issues with my Ortlieb front panniers. The rolltop instead of a zip meant that ants were able to find my delicious cake while I slept one evening and when I awoke the following morning, the entire pannier - still mounted on the bike - was a heaving mass of anthood. Luckily there was nothing critical in there and the waterproofing was so good that I was able to wash them out and the inside was dry again within a few minutes.

The other issue is that I kept my bike lock in one and as such could rarely be bothered to dig it out, with retrospectively predictable dire consequences.

 

[mudsticks]

Only had two issues with my Ortlieb front panniers. The rolltop instead of a zip meant that ants were able to find my delicious cake while I slept one evening and when I awoke the following morning, the entire pannier - still mounted on the bike - was a heaving mass of anthood. Luckily there was nothing critical in there and the waterproofing was so good that I was able to wash them out and the inside was dry again within a few minutes.

The other issue is that I kept my bike lock in one and as such could rarely be bothered to dig it out, with retrospectively predictable dire consequences.

hmmn ant attack - not had that before - or at least not cycling - the red ones bite me all the time in the summer - owsers.

I've had a mouse invasion of panniers after crumbs - but it was too cute to get cross with.

Time to go pannier shopping next week methinks

This is the other problem with getting a new bike - someone might think its worth nicking - and good locks are heavy or used to be - maybe its all changed since i bothered to carry one .