TiHabanero

I have decided to go with two sets of panniers of 2000 cubic inch capacity each set. Handlebar bag of 400 cubic inch capacity, enough for a DSLR. Will have tent and bag on the back. I do travel light and think this will provide enough storage capacity for a cross country trip. I am open to anyone's advice on this topic. Thanks.

Andrew R Stewart 

Just make sure you have extra space when you leave. Food and such tend to increase. If you're going through water wanting stretches then include space (and bags) for that. Last reason to have more space then you initially pack is because when things get tense (like when it's raining in the am) one tends to not pack so diligently. Along that last bit I initially pack my tent in one bag (poles excepted). But I have a second nearly equally sized bag for the pack up, body goes in one bag and fly in the other. Since it will all compress down soon enough into about the same space having the ease to pack a wet/floppy tent body in a loose fitting bag makes that go so much easier/quicker.

For me on a week+ long camping tour your volume would be a bit small. Not by much though. If you run ft low rider positioned make sure you have cornering on crowned roads clearance under the panniers Andy

Tandem Tom

Andy, I solved the food space prblpro by eating as much as possible before I go!!😁

TiHabanero

Good advice, Andy. Food, food related items, and clothing go in the panniers. Tent and bag go on the rear rack. Repair items will also go in one pannier. Gotta come up with a water carry solution. Have 5 bottle boss locations for H2O bottles on frame, can put extras on fork, however I want to avoid that. I'd like to carry two 1 gallon jugs if I take the southern route cross country. Will think about this for a bit.

gauvins

Very true. And to decrease as provisions are consumed. This is why we store most food items on the rear rack, in a bear bag.

We prefer to have a stable set of items going into the panniers, which greatly facilitates the packing/unpacking ritual. The bear bag goes through cycles as we grocery shop. We store a couple of emergency meals (dehydrated -- i.e. no scent) in our paniers and typically return home with them.

WRT water -- one or two bladders come in handy. Very rarely used as frame-mounted water bottles typically provide enough liquid between two resupply points.

Andrew R Stewart 

All really good ideas. Andy

Doug64

4000 cu. in. should be fine if your tent, and maybe your sleeping bag are on top of the rack. I've use less capacity for 3 month tours. My wife rode across the U.S. using a pair of Ortlieb front panniers (1831 cubic inches) on the rear rack. She carried her camping gear on top of the rack.

You might want to look at a couple of collapsible Platypus 2L bladders. They don't take up much room, and are very light. My wife and I each carry on on all our trips in case we have we need to carry more water. We also have cages for 3 water bottles, with a capacity of 66 ounces. I almost always have room in one of my front front pannier, which is insulated to carry another couple of bottles of water if needed.

saddlesores

you might could rethink your bag sizes. you have 2 pairs of 2000 cubic inch bags.....which would be about 15 liters per bag. that's a normal sized rear set, but front bags i think are usually smaller. for most tours, traveling light, more than enough space.


i did a similar ride with a medium-ish pair of front bags and a bob trailer. sleeping bag in a dry sak lived on the rear rack. trailer dry sak had a capacity of 5600 inches.


two water bottles on the frame, with 4-6 2-liter soda bottles for water in the trailer.

Tourist in MSN

4000 cubic inches is, ... that is roughly 65 liters. My Frontloaders are 25 liter and Backloaders are 40 liter, which is 65 liters, without handlebar bag or any other bag on top of the rear rack.

A DSLR is a good chunk of weight, make sure your bag brackets and support system of the bag are up to the task. For bike touring I mostly use a point and shoot (a waterproof Pentax) camera and leave the heavy camera gear at home.

Instead of gallon jugs of water, I prefer more smaller disposable bottles. Smartwater and a few other brands make a one liter sized bottle that fits in most cages, I have switched to those bottles for touring. They are unlikely to leak and weigh almost nothing. And they are easily replaceable at stores. On one trip I carried a two liter water bottle in a rack top bag for less than a day before putting that in a recycle bin. Some people have had good luck with collapsible bladders, but I have no pertinent experience on bladders.

When I did the Pacific Coast, I had a Carradice Nelson Longflap saddle bag. It usually was almost empty as we were approaching grocery stores, but reasonably full when leaving the stores. Photo is at lunchtime one day when we stopped to make a lunch.



Second photo is from near the end of a five day trip, did not need to carry much capacity for food, but it was cold and wet enough we needed good clothing and camping gear. At the time of the photo, the only bag on top of the rear rack was the tent pole bag. But earlier in that trip the dry bag strapped on top had about 15 liters of food.

Andrew R Stewart 

Since a camera has been mentioned I thought I'd tangent and mention batteries. For various reasons I use a DSLR for my extended tours. One strong reason is that it uses AA batteries available from nearly any road side store or even gas station. I have gone a few days with no stores or electrical outlets and carrying a spare set of batteries that can be used in a camera and/or light is helpful (and taken advantage of once). For the credit card tours that have electricity every night I use a compact camera with it's rechargeable battery (and associated charger). Andy

indyfabz

4394 cu. Sleeping bag and mattress inside. Pretty extensive cooking equipment, including 32 oz fuel bottle and nearly two-weeks worth of ground coffee. Cold and wet weather clothing, including bulky rain jacket and pants. Still plenty of room to spare for stuff like food. Volume-wise, the left rear bag is maybe half full.

Doug64

My setup is similar to some of the other ones shown. It seems like a good way to go for extended tours. It has similar pannier capacity as indyfabz and Tourist in MSN, but I carry my camping gear in a rackpack and camera in the bar bag. The weight of gear and panniers come to about 35-40 lbs. There is extra room in all of the panniers.

My wife's setup has expanded to full size Ortlieb Packer Plus. Her panniers only look huge; that is only a 47 cm frame.

fietsbob

Ortlieb's handle bar bags , as an option have a padded camera bag insert
with a lens cradle for DSLR, with movable dividers..

fietsbob

70L https://www.ortlieb.com/wp-content/t...arge/f5251.jpg

pdlamb

It's going to take a LOT of self-discipline to "travel light" with 4000 cu in panniers. Just saying.

indyfabz

True. Having that much space (4,400 cu if you count the bar bag) and being a "stuffer" can lead to some bad results.

fietsbob

Yes , "the load expands to fill the space available" is a consideration..

Wilfred Laurier

Holy smokes that looks a lot like my bike at first glance! Main differences seem to be lugged fork (compared to my welded aluminum fork), dt shifter braze-ons (compared to my welded on cable stops) and red bags (compared to my black Arkells).

indyfabz

Stock Surly LHT (decals worn off from locking the bike to poles, etc., when commuting). Original (crappy) seatpost was immediately replaced. Headset, stem and chainrings were replaced over time.

Wilfred Laurier

I thought the ruins of the decals looked like Surly, but the welds look fat enough that I thought it was aluminum.

My bike is based on an aluminum touring frame imported by a now-defunct local bike brand called Eclipse. I would like to go to disc brakes for my next build, though, and the disc trucker frame is a prime candidate.

Tourist in MSN

On most of my bikes I keep about a 6 inch long piece of foam pipe insulation on the top tube and a piece of two sided velcro. When I lock the bike up to a pole, I like to use the foam to cushion it and use the velcro to attach the bike top tube to the pole so the bike does not roll and fall over.