staehpj1

FWIW, with credit card touring you are opened a whole new level of possibilities. It becomes entirely possible to tour with what you can carry in a jersey pocket, so you can manage some luxury with the bags you mention. Heck, it would be possible to head out wearing your riding clothes and carrying nothing but ID and a credit card. Buy a tooth brush, a pair of running shorts and a tech tee for when you are washing out your riding clothes at night, buy cheap rain gear if needed, etc. If you mostly just ride, eat, sleep, and enjoy the scenery you might not buy much of anything else that needs to be carried and that much can be managed pretty easily.

I think that is the Timbuktu bag my daughter has. If so it looks like a nice bag to me, and a good value. It would fit my gear for long tours (UL camping and cooking). With a few frequently accessed items in a tank bag or little backpack for easy access I could get by with no other bags.

It looks like it would be more than adequate for credit card touring with no need to pack super carefully to make stuff fit. I'd still go with only what I need, packing pretty carefully, but that is just how I roll. Depending on your packing style you can probably take some extra items and still manage nicely with the bags you are considering.

The caveat being that everyone is different. I know some folks who aren't comfortable going for a day ride without carrying as much as I might carry on a multi week camping cooking trip. So best to lay out your stuff well in advance to see what you need and how it fits.

GadgetGirlIL

@Tourist in MSN has seen what I carry for just 200K/300K brevets! I really only need to add a few more things over and above what I've carried for rides that have spanned wide temperature ranges, riding in the dark, and that also included rain. Primarily the basic toiletries, something to change into at the end of the day, and my charger/cables. I'm thinking those extra items will easily fit between the handlebar bag and the seatpack. I'll just have to experiment on what I want where so as to minimize unpacking in the event of a flat.

djb

and dont forget those new waterproof Carradice style seat bags by Arkel.
pretty pricey, but nice to have 25l of waterproofness in that style of bag.
add in a frame bag, and a handlebar bag, and you'd have a pretty reasonable amount of packable space.

GadgetGirlIL

Those Arkel bags are intriguing! I like their quick release mounting system.

I do think that my first step is to work with what I have (and am still awaiting - Dill Pickle handlebar bag) and figure out what I really need to bring with me. But perhaps I'll treat myself to an Arkel bag or similar (waterproof) when I go for my really long adventure in 2021.

Tourist in MSN

I had not looked hard at those before. Interesting bag.

Mine is much heavier, but I want a bag with a quick release bracket on it so I can take it off in seconds to take into a grocery store with me. But for your riding, I think the lighter weight will make the more time consuming attachment worth it.

I do not recall if you have older Shimano brifters or not. If you do and if your cables interfere with the bag, a friend of mine used V brake noodles to make his cables bend downwards so that they did not interfere with his handlebar bag, sorry about the poor photo as I cropped it from a much larger photo.

GadgetGirlIL

The bike I will be using for my touring is my All-City Mr. Pink with SRAM brifters so there aren't any cables to get in the way of the bag. I would have this issue with my other bike Litespeed Vortex, which is the one you have seen me ride on brevets, as it has Shimano brifters.

djb

Re those Arkel waterproof ones, having waterproof bags are simply nice. You never worry about stuff getting wet, in fact you just don't think about it, and to me that is worth it.
I have so many sets of panniers, including light weight waterproof arkel Dry-lites at around 25 litres, so I've never considered those seat bags-- But they are pretty neat.

Re brifters and handlebar bags, one other factor along with bag width, is handlebar width, so if you ride small or extra small frames, that might have narrow drop bars like 38s or something, this could be a factor too.
My tiagra brifter bike just works with my ortlieb handlebar bag, and my other touring bike uses that Gevenalle shifting system, and I purposely set it up with a bit longer shifter housings to fit over and around my handlebar bag.

Here's a photo too show how sometimes you can work around things.
I'm able to easily open the lid of the bag to quickly take photos etc, so while it looks like a spaghetti mess, it's perfectly fine in use, and have spent months on this bike and don't get teed off at it at all.

Tourist in MSN

Got it. I assumed the Litespeed would use that bag.

GadgetGirlIL

Thanks to all the wise advice found here in this forum as well as being pointed to bikepacking.net and other sources, I've completed the upgrades/acquisitions for my steel All-City Mr. Pink to become my credit card touring steed. Took him out fully loaded for a local ride and had no issues.

I used the B-Rad adapters to reposition my water bottle cages lower as well as switched to side loading cages. I can access my water bottles while in motion.

Total weight of bike and loaded bags is ~44 pounds. I'll have a couple more pounds in my waistpack.

Second picture is of the 3 Sea to Summit compression sacks I got (2 @ XXS, 1 @XS) which I fit into my seatpack. Tools, tubes, and pump along with my chargers are in the Revelate Designs Tangle bag. The Dill Pickle front bag has my spare tire (yes, I willingly carry the extra weight after my "Tales of the Tire" from September 2018 where I was going to have to walk 10+ miles to the nearest Walmart to get a new tire as I was otherwise stranded in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin.) as well as my toiletries, reading glasses, and a few other small items.

My eoGear top tube bag holds some food as does my Revelate Designs Feedbag. Rest of my food will be acquired at gas stations, etc. I'll plot my hotels to be near restaurants so I can have a decent evening meal.

I'm planning an overnight trip from my house to Oregon, IL on an upcoming weekend to give everything a real test. Bonus is that Oregon, IL is not that far from where a dear friend lives in case I get into some jam that I can't solve with a credit card.

Tourist in MSN

Looks great. I suspect I might see you using some of those bags on your Litespeed on a brevet some day.

If you wanted to hang a third bottle cage below the downtube, it is possible to strap a cage onto the tube with hose clamps. Hose clamps do not look very elegant, but it is functional.

Spare tire, I usually do not carry one, but when I carry one it is not a replacement tire of the same quality as the tires on the bike, instead it is the lightest tire that packed is the smallest volume of the tires that I have in a size that will fit. In other words, it is good enough to get me to a bike shop.

alan s 

I have a similar setup, except this is fully loaded touring. Went with smaller water bottles, rather than moving the cages. The center of gravity is fairly high, but once you are rolling along it is not noticeable. Keep in mind that the greatest weight is my body, most of which is above the bike, so raising the COG is not a problem.

nun

Of course it's possible to tour on a road bike, as long as you are ok with the gearing...look at the nice low gear I have on my bike, I needed it going up Loup Loup.

GadgetGirlIL

what is your gearing? I can’t tell from your picture. I just upgraded to a 11-40 rear cassette. I have a 34/50 in the front.

nun

I was alluding to the chain and extended rear derailleur in the photo, but the gearing is 46/34 on the front and 12/36 on the back. The bike came with a 50t big ring that was easy enough to swap out, but replacing the original 11/25 cassette with a 12/36 required a new SRAM X9 long cage RD. I find that the 46t big ring gives me a nice cruising gear when I'm near the center of the rear cassette and 103" as a top gear is just fine with me and I can also go up most gradual inclines and some short steep stuff without switching to the small ring.

GadgetGirlIL

Upgrading my cassette also necessitated a long cage RD. Might be the same one you have. I know it is SRAM.

djb

totally aside, but thats a funny name for a pass, funny as in curious. Loup is "wolf' in French, so I guess there were lots of "loups" up there when they had to come up with a name.
You don't pronounce the "t", so it sounds like "Lou" , like Lou Costello etc.