Like the Alpkit Koala (Sold Out) or Revelate Viscacha (£££££).

Anything else on the market? Need around 10L.

I’ve got a Wildcat Tiger which works very well, and takes any suitably sized drybag. I note that others are coming up with similar designs now.

The Wildcat is very robust, easily adjustable and stable – even when I’ve rammed in about twice the recommended size kit!

i’ve got a revelate saddlebag and a wildcat framebag. the quality on the wildcat gear is great and the saddlebag looks a great design

Wildcat every time for me.

I’ve got a wildcat tiger on the back, It is great but I would recommend sticking with an 8L drybag rather than a 13L like I did initially.

You can put a 13L in it but is fiddly and if you get cold hands almost impossible.

Have got a revelate “sweet roll” on the front which is a great bit of kit.

I’d echo the 8L comment from Clobber too.

As above – the Tiger’s brilliant for light packers, really stable with an 8l bag. I have another MYOG job that’s more like the Alpkit bag type and though it’s not quite as tight once done up, it can be a more useable bag for the amount of kit some like to put in a saddle bag, or more regular stop-and-repack/faffers.

This looked potentially useful as a try-out idea – http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2597

My 8L Airlok Xtra seemed to have plenty of spare strappage room on my Wildcat Tiger. A longer thin dry bag would probably have been fine. My 13L is a bit too wide I think.

I was very happy with 8L though – I put a load of heavy stuff in it (as I don’t use a frame bag) and it was really solid.

3 trips so far – about a 40th of the mileage that Jameso has put on his 😯

Cheers. A few options there. 8 litres might be pushing it a little (It’s to hold 3/4 days worth of civilian clothing), but I might have a play and see.

bikepack.eu

http://bikepack.pl/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=20

I bought a large from them, used it a couple of times and found it too big, sold that and will be getting a medium for next year.

If you want a bigger volume, just get a Alpkit Airlock Extra Dual and strap it under your handlebars. I’ve done this with a standard 13l Airlock Extra and a couple of bungeys and works a treat.

40mpg – It’s for a roadie, so wouldn’t work with the drop bars.

Tempted.

https://www.alpkit.com/daring-deeds/diy-saddlebag

Or

Topeak beam rack

Why would anyone put one of those beam racks on a bike, they are an awful design.

Why would anyone put one of those beam racks on a bike, they are an awful design.

‘Tis true … there’s usually a few discarded/bent/broken ones make their way into the bin after the WRT 😉

Wildcat Tiger for me. I managed to squeeze my 13L drybag in it last weekend, with badly packed lumpy trainers, pair of jeans, jumper etc for a decent night in the pub. Panniers would have been more sensible in this situation, but meant I didn’t have to faff fitting the rack, and ultimately on the road bike it is a little more aero and lightweight.

i think they’re making a bigger version which is actually designed to take the 13L comfortably…

That’s my problem Bandito. It’s for my 130 mile ‘commute’. I’ve been using rack/pannier and the heavy bike, but it’s a bit of leg breaker. Lightened up by taking the roadie with a 14l Osprey bag, but having a pack on for that period of time isn’t the nicest.

Beam rack maybe ok for a roadie (apart from the weight) but I concur with the above when it comes to off road. Beam Rack dumped me in the poop on a 3 day tour….

NEVER AGAIN

My setup for riding the LEL earlier this year:

DSC_0135 by ir_bandito, on Flickr

DSC_0134 by ir_bandito, on Flickr

Bar bag contained coat, thick gloves, leg warmers etc
Jaand Frame bag had all tools/spares and food in it
Top tube bag has GPS, USB dynanmo charger and some more food in it
Dry bag in the back had complete change of clothes and “overnight” stuff.

even if you have to still carry a backpack, you can get the heavy stuff onto the bike. If I could only have one of those bags, it’d be the Jaand, its fantastic.

Wildcat Tiger here too, the larger one. Easily deals with 8 litre Exped bag. I can imagine squeezing a bigger bag into it at a push (as mentioned above). Stable enough to forget it’s there when loaded. Nice bit of kit.

Wildcat Tiger and Exped 8 litre bag by Jonathan Bateman, on Flickr

Why would anyone put one of those beam racks on a bike, they are an awful design

because i am carrying kit for me and two kids and dont have a dedicated tourer with eyelets.
Because those saddle bags are rather expensive for what they are if you are just giving it a try and I had one of those.
Your right though it is crap and i need a better solution

The bikepacking saddlebags are about 55 quid from the bikepack.eu link above.

Salsa (or maybe surly) do a seatpost clamp with rackmounts. But by the time you get one of them, axle fiitings, a rack and rackmount bags it is also getting (more) expensive.

Because those saddle bags are rather expensive for what they are if you are just giving it a try

You should keep an eye on the classifieds, I have been going through bikepacking gear like horra goes through bikes for the past couple of years 😉

^ yeah I think I’ve bough some of it : ) well-traveled kit now!

Now I know they are stunningly ugly but has anybody used the Carradice bags and supports? They make a rack type thing that you can use with their 16 litre bags but it looks as if you coul attach various types of dry bags to it. Oh, I think I said they were ugly but they do a q/r version so you can take it off as soon as you no longer need it.

A colleague has a humungous Carradice saddle bag with support thingy. It swallows tons of kit, but it also rattles and swings around loads. He loves it though 😉

I bought a lovely Reverlate one from Shaggy for my MTB..

But use a Caradice Nelson on my Vaya.

Having just made a frame bag, I’m half way through attempting to make my own out seat bag of 1000D PU coated fabric. I’ll post up pics and maybe some instructions if it works.

The DiY alpkit version looks like it could also be a good option.

have made diy seat bags for my two boys (had no problems until one of the ladder lock buckles i bought didn’t work properly – didn’t realise until it was actually being used :/ ) but always use a rack on my bike to take panniers if im riding with the boys or just with a drybag strapped to the top if its just me – not the lightest option but easy