Originally Posted by
USAZorro
My personal opinion is that once you've moved beyond a rando bag in the front and a seat bag in the back, you've entered "touring" territory.
I picked up a too big Fuji America recently that came with a set of small Cannondale front panniers on a Blackburn lowrider rack. I'd say the volume of the bags is comparable to a rando bag and saddle bag combo. The first owner had gone one way across country with it. The second owner put a couple hundred miles on it. I didn't see any evidence of a rear rack or handle bar yoke mounted. One of the panniers has a "Bicycle Tours USA" patch on it, which may been a supported tour, but that's out of my generational radar. Its only one bit of the historical record, but performance wise putting everything in a set of small front panniers is an advantage over the handlebar bag seat bag combo, particularly if you don't have a low trail bike. Of course that's all sorts of inconvenient compared a handlebar bag for tooling around day rides. Apologies for the thread drift.
