donoharm

Hello everyone, I'm in the process of retiring my cyclocross bike as my commuter and moving towards a Priority 600. I'm re-evaluating how I store my stuff and have heard a lot about how front storage is better for the balance and handling of the bike. I'd be curious to hear about what you use as your front storage system when commuting. Ideally some of you would have worked out a great way to transport a small laptop or iPad on the front of the bike in a waterproof way.

Colorado Kid

I use a Wald front rack on my bike. Not fancy but wears like iron.

Germany_chris

I have a low rider front rack with a set of panniers I put all the heavy stuff like groceries up front and keep the light stuff like clothes in the rear.

Sardines

Priority has a Porteur rack which protrudes quite a bit, but will take a flat backpack, which you can tie down with a mesh or bungie. I put a Tubus Tara instead to use with panniers and backpack panniers.
Personally I use a Green Guru highroller pannier backpack for commutes. It's not padded but I have my laptop in neoprene sleeve anyways. It isn't water proof, but resistant to light rain, as the stitching is where it leaks. My wife uses a Rhinowalk, which is waterproof but isn't recycled materials.

overthebars

I briefly tried a porteur style front rack on my commuter and didn’t care for how it affected the steering and handling of the bike. And it was not especially heavy, was a quality rack that cost a fair amount. I ended up sticking with a rear rack and a backpack, much better. I’d recommend putting a laptop or other electronics into a backpack where they’re isolated from vibrations anything in a bike rack will be subjected to.

zygomorph

For everyday commuting, I use a Velo Orange randonneur rack (cantilever version without a decaleur) with a Wald rack. That's rated for about twelve pounds. There are tons of Wald specific bags now, but I use a more exotic one from Fifth Season that's a simple waxed canvas roll top.

I went with a non-dropout rack so that I could add low riders for touring. For that, I went with the Tubus Clara, and those fit my Ortlieb back rollers (full sized) fine.

I love the feel of front loading on my Miyata 615gt, which is a touring specific bike. The steering becomes less squirrelly and shocks from the road are dampened.

It was never particularly easy to ride the bike hands free (I don't like doing it besides) and the more weight there is in the rack the harder it gets. But it's doable between 5-8 pounds I'd say.

tyrion

A Timbuk2 medium messenger bag fits perfectly in a Wald 137 basket.

sdimattia

I use a food storage / bus bin. Fits the dog. Fits the groceries.

Calsun

One of the hairest experiences I have had on a bike was on my first long distance ride of 800 miles from university to my parent's home and I mounted a handle bar bag on the bike. At any speed going downhill the bag caused the front wheel to oscillate severely. I emptied the front bag of gear and only put in gloves and raisins.

Best to put weight into panniers at the rear and keep the center of gravity of the load as low as possible. And affect from the load is much easier to manage when it is affecting the rear wheel.

sdimattia

Putting any weight on the handlebars will always affect handling, usually not in a good way. If there's going to be substantial weight at the front of the bike, why would you put it on the handlebars and expect it to handle properly? If you want a front loader, put a correctly mounted front rack, load it smartly, and you can put the same 30lbs front or back.

Darth Lefty 

Quite some time ago I was using one of those Walmart (Schwinn? Bell? one of those) bags that works kind of like a stuff sack on a plastic hoop with a mount that clamps to the handlebars and braces under the stem, and it was... fine, for lunch and a sweater. If I'd had a heavier load I'd have wanted it lower.