X-LinkedRider

I am leaving for my tour across country in about a week and a half and I just went out and bought a new hiking pack. The pack is a gregory palisades 80 liter and I was just wondering if anybody else had any good ideas for mounting it to my bike on my tour. I using an inline rear rack with Treak Interchange I Pannier bags and the Trek rear trunk, but I may have to do without the trunk while the pack in on.

Has anybody done this previously and have any advice? Does anyone have any pictures of riders with hiking packs. 82 liter converts to just shy of 5000 ci so it is not a small pack, but not the biggest either.
Any help is greatly apreciated.

-holiday76

why do you need a backpack? Dont you have panniers or anything?

Hezz

I have found that sitting a pack on the top of the rear rack in an upright sideways position allows me to get things out of the pockets when needed without having to unsecure the pack. But of course you cannot use the trunk bag and it takes some creative lashing to hold it in place.

It is more aerodynamic this way and doesn't knock into your thighs when pedaling. But 80 liters sounds like too big a pack for this. What I described works well with a large day pack of maybe 30-35 liters.

Unless you are planning on backpacking I would leave the 80 liter pack at home. It is too big to fit in any way except to lay it sideways across the back of the rear rack and panniers.

A small day pack works better for off the bike errands than a trunk bag since it allows you to carry stuff around when not on the bike in a much easier way. For instance if you stay at a motel you can use it for day hikes or hauling groceries back to the motel were your bike is locked up or for urban exploring. It also makes for a larger place to store your extra walking shoes.

Niles H.

This has worked well for some of us: Put heavy, dense items in stuffsacks. Put the stuffsacks in the bottoms of the panniers to keep weight low when riding. Switch the stuffsacks to the pack as needed.

Secure the pack with nylon accessory straps. REIs (and other stores that cater to backpackers and rock climbers) usually carry an assortment of these straps. The ones with the side-press-release connectors are the most convenient. If you use two straps, you can usually secure the pack well and quickly. If you tie the straps to the rack (with a simple half hitch), it will make the whole thing more secure.

These straps do not loosen up like bungees, and you can cinch them down very tightly. They are much more secure.

The pack can be mounted in parallel with the rack, or at ninety degrees. For most touring, the aerodynamic penalties are minimal either way. When going fast downhill, it usually doesn't matter if you are slowed down a bit -- and it is only at higher speeds that the losses are more significant.

You can usually compress a large, minimally loaded backpack so that it is more compact and rides well.

You can wrap a tent fly (among other things) around the pack before strapping it down, to keep rain out.

jamawani 

If you flatten out you pad on top of the rack and rear panniers it will act as a platform and help keep straps, etc. from dropping down into your spokes.

I have travelled with a pack for years.

stevage

I had the misfortune to tour with a pack like that (no panniers at the time). Carrying it on my back was miserable for my back. Leaning it on its back over the handlebars, straps looped underneath, and waist clasp around my waist was manageable, but not great.

I have vaguely fantasised about a way of keeping it on your back, but having a support take most of the weight off. I don't know if there'd be anything very useful about such a setup.

Steve

BigAura

I never tried this but it looks interesting.

https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/tout-terrain.asp

arctos

On a tour in South America I toured with 2 front panniers and a Gregory Day and a half pack/50L sitting vertically behind the saddle with the pack's compression straps holding it to the saddle and the rack. This only worked on an frame where there was sufficient seat post exposed. Your 80L pack seems too big but worth a trial run.
On later tours I dumped the pack and replaced it with a dry bag stuffer on the top of the rear rack. I still use this system 20 years later. I carry an 8 oz daypack for my hiking and shopping needs.

stevage

Yeah, I saw that Sherpa thing, only looks like it works for tiny day packs like that? I don't see a huge benefit...maybe I'm missing something?

Steve

X-LinkedRider

Yeah, I was considering some kind of bracket with a back beg to keep it upright. I will obviously have to remove stuff from the back and fold it downa bit to make it as small as a 50 Liter or so. 82 is big but I am going cross country and will not be staying indoors to sleep very often. I am also going to be climbing and hiking for multiple days at a time, so the pack is necesary. That's a nicely loaded rig there jamiwani. I do have rain protectors for my pack and my panniers. I am thankful for all of the help thus far. I will get some nice straps and see what I can do. Unfortunately i will not be near my bike for another day or two to try this stuff out.

bokes

How bout just getting a trailer for the pack and strap it down?

positron

get a couple of helium filled weather balloons and a lanyard, and float it behind you...

paul2

I bungied mine sideways across the rear rack, resting on to of the panniers.

X-LinkedRider

If you read the original post, I said I do have panniers. But I am an outdoorsmen and will be doing much Hiking, Climbing, Kayaking, and other fun things along the way. I don't plan on staying in any hotels really and this pack will serve me well to be able to park and lock up my bike somewhere at the bottom of a forest and take everything with me and come back for it in a day or 2.

Bekologist

I've taken to incorporating a smaller backpack on tours, not a full size internal frame pack...

can you return the pack and get a very lightweight, frameless rucksack? easier stuffing it on the bike. There's an Outdoor Research one that is totally waterproof. You could use it as a waterproof drybag for your sleeping bag, etc, when you are on the bike, and use it as a backpack while off the bike.

Several manufacturers sell large, frameless packs that fold up quite nicely; if you are using modern, relatively lightweight gear suitable to bike and backpacking, a 3,000 + CU In backpack is a suitable size for trips approaching a week in temperate conditions.

Go Lite has some frameless 3000 - 4000 Cu In. rucksacks on Sierra Trading Post right now for about 60 bucks.....

I've done like Jamawani has on tours and strapped a loaded rucksack on the top of the panniers on the rear rack. perhaps ditching the racktop bag and using the backpack would be an option instead?

80 liters is a winter pack for a week IMO. bringing a full internal frame pack- some are 6,7,8 pounds - really overkill for bike touring.

X-LinkedRider

Once again, I am not JUST bike touring. I will be doing week Back packing trips easily. But yes, I was planning on ditching the trunk and just laying the pack sloping downwards towards the back. Directly on the back rack. I will be able to have the pack tightened to about 3500 CI when I need to on the bicycle, and expand it when I go to use it that way. Hopefully I will be able to take some pictures in the next 2 days and show you my setup.

Happy Pedaling.

Bekologist

right. it still seems like a lot of pack. YMMV.

wheel

I ran into the same problem with my huge 5,000 cubic inch.
I need 30 pounds of water to haul in to the back country so naturally 5,000 sounds right.

I myself got a BOB trailer. Solves many other issues.
My emergency is just to strap it on the side of the back rack with nothing in it.

X-LinkedRider

I pretty much figured it out. It's actually worked a lot better than I thought it would after hearing everything on here. Laying down horizontally across the rack and panniers was the best option.

MichaelW

You need a trailer such as a Bob yak. If you are carting around non-cycling outdoors gear such as climbing gear then panniers are just not big enough.

X-LinkedRider

Dood, I have a picture of it right there. It is already mounted and such. It fits just fine.

n4zou

I use PVC plumbing pipe available in any hardware or building supply store. PVC pipe is easy to cut and it's cheap. The frame should be made to fit your backpack allowing it to be strapped to the frame using Velcro ties' to secure the straps to the frame and keep loose straps from getting hung up in the wheel. I added a removable cap on a corner so I could haul extra water in the frame.

stevage

Whoa, storing water inside your rack structure - that's pretty cool

Steve

Bekologist

Xlinkedrider, best of luck with that setup. please tell us its not a seatpost rack on a CF bike. And Yeah, Scott, nice way to store water!! SWEET!!

The backpack on the top of the rack looks a little unweildy and prone to shifting, but you sound stalwart enough to make it work. I still think a Wild Things Andinista or a Golite bag would have been the trick, unstuffed and rolled up, but hey, to each his own.

My new 4,000 Cu in climbers' backpack (1 pound 12 ounces, ice axe loops, shovel pocket, daisy chains, compression straps, side mesh pockets,hydration compatible, extendable collar) for bike touring rolls up to the size of a one liter water bottle and cost less than 100 bucks. Did you ever see the Kelty Ghost/Spectre series backpacks made out of white dyneema? NICE....

good luck, have fun!

jim nelson at www.promountainsports.com has lots of good advice for hardcore, ultralite backpacking and climbers' kit.

Hezz

xlinkrider,

I think you are on to the right method. I would think if you are going to hide and lock up your bike for a few days while off on a backpacking and climbing adventure you will want the rig as simple as possible so as not to leave easy or valuable things for folks to steal off your bike. Of course one method would be to ride in to remote areas on the bike where no one is likely to be where they would find it.

One word of advise. While on the bike riding stages of your tour you won't need to take much food. Maybe a day or two's worth because you can cover so much ground on a bike you will always pass by some kind of store or gas station. Then you can stock up for the climbing sections of the tour with more food when you near the backpacking sections. That will save you a lot of weight.