Sully151

Hi,
I am getting a steel gravel bike built and I have the option to put routing points on the top tube and in the main triangle for packs. Is this a worthwhile expenditure? The bike will be used mostly for day rides and a couple of weekend trips a year.

Are bolt on bags more secure? better for the bike? Are there any cons to mounting bolts?

Rolla

Braze-on mounts have no cons that I know of. Your packs will be more secure and less prone to movement, rubbing, etc. If your weekend trips aren’t fully loaded, you might be fine with straps, but the more you carry the more the mounts make sense. I’d buy for the rides you might take later, as your interest in bikepacking grows with your new bike.

Steve B.

The assorted bikepacking bags I've looked at are typically very well designed to strap on with no built-in mounting points. Rear seatbag as example mounts to the seat rails. Front bag mounts to the h-bar. Frame bag velcro straps to the assorted down/seat and top tubes. I don;t know of any bikepacking bag designer that requires or uses eyelets. Except a top tube design that has eyelets on the top tube for a small bag. I would not bother with added on eyelets, etc....as the bags work fine with the designed in straps. There might be some fork mounted bags that could use eyelets, that's very manufacturer dependent. Adding eyelets makes sense if you intend to add racks and panniers. Kind of your call as to what method you see yourself using. Panniers using racks allow a lot more stuff to be carried, that adds weight but also allows you to maybe use existing camping gear that would not otherwise be compact enough to fit into the bikepacking bag system. Again, this becomes your call.

M Rose

There are a lot of full and half frame strapless (bolt on) frame bags out there. In fact, most of the high end frame packs are bolt on.

OP, think of it this way… if the company is offering to add braze-ons to any part of the frame now, would it be cost prohibitive to do so now, or wait and do it later… personally I would rather have the provision for something I may never use than find out down the road I wish I could have this but can’t.

Elvo

Bolt on is cleaner, reduces strap rub, but sometimes your bags might not have the right holes for the bolt spacing and you would have to modify them.

Koyote

Sounds like you're having a custom frame built, in which case I recommend that you get everything you might ever want added to it. Those extra mounts weight practically nothing, and the cost is trivial as a % of the entire bike's price.

Maybe you've thought of this, but -- if not -- consider a third (or fourth!) set of water bottle mounting bosses. On a bike like that, you can't have too many. I had a third set put on my custom gravel bike, and I use the third cage a lot.

Sully151

Thanks everyone. I decided to get some mounts put on. I probably won't get the bike until sometime in the Fall, but I am pretty excited.