FreddyV

My commute is 16 miles one way. I try to ride as often as possible and have recently done a few weeks where I commuted 5 days a week. Over the past 2 years I have become totally addicted to cycling, and have fallen in love with it. Though, for 2 years I have been riding with backpack on a road bike.

I want to keep the bike as light as possible, so no racks and no fenders if the weather allows it. For wet days I have a set of SKS Raceblades which I recently tested and seem to work quite nicely for the purpose.

For at least one day a week I need to bring my clothing and towels into work. This would be Monday. On Friday's I would have to take home my dirty stuff. Technically that would allow me to ride packless for 3 days.

Even though I should be able to ride packless for 3 days at least, I haven't been able to actually do so. I don't know what it is, but I always end up riding to and from work with a backpack.

Any of you have an idea on getting rid of the pack and commute as light as possible?

ryan.karr22

What i do is keep extra cloths at work. If they get dirty i have an extra pair or two and i always have extra for Monday in case I'm running late and don't have time to pack. I have also run arons with my family, in the car, and drop off the weeks cloths at work on the weekends. and if you have the luxury wash your cloths at work and just leave them in your locker. other time i find myself needing to carry books, papers, small shopping ect. so i will ether have my bag at work or just carry it empty to work. last one: my buddy has a trailer that works good for him. i dont know if that works for you.

good luck!

xtrajack

I can't be much help. I generally tend to go to the other end of the scale.

no motor?

How about a removable trunk rack?

agarose2000

I'm pretty near packless now. I carry my stuff in a small bag which gets stuffed into my jersey, and that's it. Yep, including lunch. And I commute 18 miles one-way (36 total).

Key thing: Shower BEFORE bike commuting, use CLEAN bike clothes and then don't shower at work. You then can use a small hand towel at work to pat dry or do as I do and use paper towels after cooling down. The sweat isn't what smells - it's the bacterial buildup. If you shower, even if you sweat, the bacterial buildup will be minimal given you dry off and have been wearing clean clothes on the bike.

I work in suit/tie at work all day long and nobody has ever commented, and I've always gotten extra marks for professionalism.

You do have to leave clothes at work. Don't need to go crazy here, but you will need to plan and bring multiple outfits when you can. For guys, it's often easy, meaning one pair of pants and several shirts. Shoes are left at work as well. Leave everything you can at work. Including your bike lock, which is left locked to the rack at work.

Then on the way home, get used to the fact you'll be riding with damp clothing from the morning. Not a big deal.

I do occasionally miss bringing books, laptops, etc., but I generally plan my commute where there are no such needs required. I'll still use a big backpack from time to time to shuttle stuff back, but most of the time I'm not loaded.

And yes, planning for bike commuting can be a pain. Not difficult, but takes some forethought compared to just throwing all your stuff into a car and rushing out the door.

FreddyV

I have the option to shower at the office, so I don't need to worry about that.

Though, I need to bring my repair gear including an inner tube, a multi-tool and some tire levers and a tire repair kit (you never know). Next to that I eat one banana, a few cookies and 2 sandwiches at work which makes me pretty sure I don't have enough space in my back pockets. Need to bring 2 cellphones as well, a pair of glasses, a wallet with id and such, keys (and on late shifts or Saturdays I bring a harddisk with my favorite tv series along with me as well as I get bored by being alone in the office without any sounds or movement around me).

The lock will from now on stay at the office, which was quite an obvious step actually.

During days like these it's hard not to take a backpack with me. In the morning it's too cold to wear shorts, and in the afternoon it's too warm to wear long pants. Same goes for the jacket I wear in the morning.

As you said, planning can be a pain, but I might as well give it a try.

coldfeet

Yup, me too. With a Big Dummy, seems kinda pointless to bother much about a few extra clothing items.

MK313

3 things that I can think of.
Your stuff doesn't look too heavy, so you may want to look for one of those bags that hangs off your seatpost like the detours Hightail. They only hold a few pounds, but when you get to work you remove the bag & there is only a small bracket left on your seatpost. There are other brands, but here's the link to the detours site https://www.detours.us/product_info.p...2he1dumin1cu10

I use a cage rocket (they look a little silly, but they are storage pods that fit in a water bottle cage). I can fit a flip phone, iphone, slim wallet, ipod nano & a few other small items in there. With a small seat bag for your repair tools, you should be able to get everything except for the food into the cage rocket (depending on the size of the wallet).

The other thing might be to bring your stuff in a fold up backpack like the Mountain Hardwear Scrambler. These bags fold up into one of their pockets and are very small. When you are riding home from work and your food is gone, you can fold the bag up into itself & stuff it into a pocket.

1 last thing, are there items you can make smaller or get rid of? (Slimline wallet, smaller phone, maybe a flash drive instead of a hard drive)

Noobtastic

If you've been riding this for two years you should be used to the weight, I think your issue is simply that you have the weight on your body. Sans clothing, I think a large frame triangle bag will fit everything you carry to work well and won't weigh any more than the backpack. The only disadvantage is that most of the larger designs will require you to remove water bottle cages in both positions.

FreddyV

@ Noobtastic: The backpack differs in weight all the time. One time it weighs kilo's, and the next it weighs next to nothing. Besides that, riding with a backpack for 16 miles per ride isn't fun either. Makes my back sweat like crazy.

@ MK313: That's some great advice you just gave me. I'll have a look, and see what can be made smaller in my 'collection' of stuff.

Standalone 

lighter work clothing is an option. I've tried to start using my north face pants at work. I can pull off a tie with them, and as a teacher, I can get away with plenty. My backcountry camping hobby meshes nicely with this, I have some light clothing options.

I think it's better to have a medium light bag all the time rather than a super heavy bag on Mon and Fri.

My commute is 16 miles o/w, unless I truncate the ride with a train, then it's 5 miles.

agarose2000

You've got an easy one with the shower at work.

Stock up on cookies and stuff before your bike commute so you don't have to carry it.

Put all your repair stuff in a medium sized seatpack, and you're set.

Pockets still free, and if you need more pockets, wear a jacket with more pocket room.

FreddyV

Today I just felt too crappy to ride the bike to work, so I took the train/subway. Gave me the option to stuff even more in my backpack than I usually do and bring loads and loads of clothing to work. So I'm set for the upcoming two weeks and basically don't need to bring a backpack with me anymore for now.

I took my lock with me as well, will be locking it to the bike shed during lunch break, which saves me even more weight.

Tomorrow I'll try to ride packless and see how that works out.

zeppinger

Find a Laundromat or dry cleaners near your work. Don't ever take your work clothes home, just wash them on your lunch break or whenever you can run out for a minute. Thats what I do.

chipcom 

Oh for chris' sake....stage your food, clothing and toiletries at work on the day you drive, taking your old/dirty stuff home the same day. That leaves you 4 days to ride with nothing but your spare tube/patch kit and other repair stuff in a seat bag and everything else in jersey pockets. So what's the problem?

Steely Dan

i'm the type of person who sucks at planning things out, so i just ride with the backpack everyday with my change of clothes for that day. i have a pretty kickass REI backpack that really conforms well to me and it now just feels like an extension of body, so i really don't mind riding with it every day at all. trying to plan out things for a whole week ahead of time would require more brainpower than i possess. i'm pretty much only capable of living in the moment and taking care of one day at a time.