bjjoondo 

My wife and I will again be playing at "touring" this summer, ie: (we take some days and just head out, then go as far as we can and hope we get back in time, LOL), Our bent's have the "rear racks" at the moment. Is it ok to put the "panniers" on rear rack on a bent, it seems that even our Sun Bent's have a "optional" rack that fit's "underneath and forward" of the rear wheel. Which would be the better racks to use and why, thanks!

JanMM

The advantage of using a mid-ship rack, either by itself or in combination with a rear rack, is better weight distribution. More of an issue with heavy touring loads.
I use panniers on a rear rack for commuting on my V-Rex.

Jeff Wills

Same here. Midship racks are great for carrying stuff, but they're harder to get into when stopped.

bjjoondo 

I guess I should add that we will be doing, "motels" and not "camping" so we don't need to carry "lot's of gear". We did our 4 days last June, (on DF's), with just panniers and tail pack. With having Reiter's Syndrome, I have a real hard time being in any state of comfort in a tent/pad/sleeping bag, (it's a bummer!!). Just wanted to know if it "really" effected a bent's "handling" to have "panniers" on the rear rack. (Note: We will be riding the EZ-1 SX's as it would be very unfair of me to ride my EZ-Sport AX, while the wife is having to ride a EZ-1 SX, jmho). Thanks again, all opinions and comments welcome!

charly17201

Choices, choices.... a lot of options. I will say I just got a set of the 54 liter Ortlieb recumbent panniers - and they are honkin huge. And they are specific to recumbents, which also means not cheap. But they will work well for me.

Wilbur Bud

Rear rack is very common, I commute daily with two Arkel front pannier on the rear. Weight-wise, it will make more sense to put on a front rack and keep the weight forward and you'll still have the mentioned convenience of easy access, compared to mid-ship mounts. One test to try . . . put your rear wheel on a scale, with and without loaded panniers and see what the weight distribution is front to rear in both cases. Then try same with the cyclist in place. While 50-50 could be ideal, with an LWB anything approaching 35/65 F/R should be good. If you find the front wheel is only seeing 20-25% with cyclist in place, then I'd consider moving the weight forward.

The defects I think you'll experience with a severe rearward weight bias are that you may do a wheelie on some steep uphills (never done it myself), the front tire will wash out more easily on loose surfaces like gravel or snow/ice (have done), and if you have a midship mounted kickstand then you may get a wheelie there too (have done).

bjjoondo 

Thanks for the info., well at least the kickstand won't be problem, they changed the "frame" design from the older model EZ-1's for our 2010 version EZ-1's and the ONLY kickstand that will work is a "SUN" product that fit's in the drop out so it's at the very END of the frame!