Originally Posted by
MarcusT
Greetings all
I understand how "bikepacking" has taken off. The minimalist baggage with out the use of racks or panniers.Yet as time continues, I see more and more bikepackers keep the 10 litre saddle bag, yet have heavily loaded handlebars, forks and frame, where it looks like if the rider brakes too hard they'll do an olly. Seems, in order to call themselves bikepackers, they must avoid rear panniers at all costs.
Or is it just my perception?
10 L is kind of small in the bike packing world. 14 to 16 L is closer to what is mainstream. Loading the handlebars and frame isn’t something that happened after the seatbag came out but was part of the whole system all along. Fork bags and some kind of rear bag are more recent developments as people have discovered that the minimalist way is too painful.
That said, bike packing bags have their place, however that place isn’t on the road, in my opinion. Bikepacking bags solve the problem of touring in rough roads but are of little utility on smooth pavement. They work better than panniers when the going gets rough. I’ve used panniers in the past (1985) and they were less than ideal, especially the panniers of that era. The Nashbar panniers with shock cord or, worse, spring tensioners on the bags and simple hooks were prone to flying off if you hit even a rather small bump. I had to chase panniers down hills many times.
The age of off-road touring with trailers was short lived…thankfully…no problem with losing luggage but…damn! They were heavy. All of them pushed the rear wheel in odd directions and some were very adept at lifting the rear wheel during braking. That’s not something that you really want on a rocky steep downhill.
DSCN0027 by
Stuart Black, on Flickr
You aren’t wrong about bikepacking bags making the bike top heavy. When bikepacking…true bikepacking not riding a road bike with bikepacking bags…, I just accept that I’m going to end up on the ground at some point.
Since the bags are well attached to the bike, the yard sale isn’t too large.
Bikepacking bags are good enough for a nice short adventure of up to about 5 days. I can carry enough freeze-dry meals to last that long. More importantly, I can tolerate freeze-dry meals for about that long…as long as they don’t have zucchini in them. Trust me, you don’t want to eat freeze-dried zucchini!
For longer trips where I actually have to cook food, bikepacking gear is less desirable. I tried a trip on the Cowboy Trail in Nebraska. I chose the mountain bike because the trail is softer. But the load was equivalent to want I carry in panniers because of the need to actually cook something and it just wasn’t all the pleasant to ride. I managed about 100 miles before I bagged the ride as a bad job.
1500 miles on this setup is dead easy. Plus it is way easier to pack and/or move around off the bike. Bikepacking bags are odd shapes. Nothing fits in a logical manner because you have to put something where there is space. Your fuel canister may be in one bag but the stove is in a different bag. Cooking utensils are in a fork leg bag but the cookware is in the frame bag and the food is in the micropanniers. Every night is an exercise in unpacking and repacking.
If you have to move the bike around without the bags…loading on buses for example…carrying 7 bags of different shapes that don’t have handles and don’t nest together well is only slightly less difficult than dealing with a trailer.
When I see some of the people with bikes with overloaded bikepacking bags doing road tours, I just shake my head. There is a better way of carrying stuff on a better bike.