I fancy some kind of bag that can strap securely to a rack and be compressed, rather than a tradition pannier which would bounce ask over the place off road...
Sort of like front low-rider racks, but for the back wheel with a brace over the wheel to hold the two sides together.
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- Fern bags. Micro-panniers and racks getting more attention, good to see these guys working on it. Porcelain Rocket micros look good. Still, an aero advantage to a bar and seat bag and if you're only carrying a couple of kg per bag the weight location makes little odds on a road bike.
Personally I'm a huge fan of Wildcat seatpack and bar stystem, simply a better design for how I want to use this sort of kit. Miles ahead, even.
Do you get by with just the seat pack ans bar bag?
i must admit that i see little merit in concentrating all the weight over the back wheel like that - the bike will ride horribly and jar you over bumps.
as per james O i use a seat pack and bar harness from wildcat(holding my sweetroll - which although is a "harness/bag combo" its got some design flaws and works better with a harness) - in conjunction with the ocelot that lives on my MTB perminantly carrying my essentials.
When im doing multi day or long distances between food i take my camelback blowfish for reserves - although i like gregmays packable ultra vest idea.
Do you get by with just the seat pack ans bar bag?
Have done but usually use a small frame bag (Alpkit Possum S, or M size for MTB trips) so that the seat pack is packed smaller + lighter, better to pack denser items within the frame. I have a gas tank to hold USB charger and snacks etc. Packable rucsac for carrying dinner to bivi spot if needed. No need for it all to take up much space or be much over 4-5kg in total.
i must admit that i see little merit in concentrating all the weight over the back wheel like that - the bike will ride horribly and jar you over bumps.
I'd do it with something on the front as well, to balance out. With 5kg or so I think it would work well and be a nice tidy solution. Not sure about jarring - the extra weight would force the wheel and tyre to take more of it and send less of the shock up the seatpost into you.
For up-front usage, I'm interested in Salsa Anything cages since I have the mounts on my fork.
The blackburn cage and gorilla cage seem like good (and cheaper) alternatives to salsa hd cages.
are the salsa mounts on the back of the fork leg or the side ?
some of the folk ive ridden with recently have had anything cages mounted on the outside of their forks which in some of the singletrack ive taken them down has caused them issues - iirc some of the salsa forks have them behind which eliminates that issue
Surly mounts are also backward facing
are the salsa mounts on the back of the fork leg or the side
Sort of at 2 o'clock/10 o'clock position on a carbon Firestarter. You could hit things, yes.
Heres a pic of my CXer in Gravel Touring mode. Taken a couple of weeks ago before the start of my C2C via the NCN72.
As mentioned above I use Apidura Compact Seat and Bar. In the seat I pack overnight gear (for hotel restaurants/casual stuff) and in the front all my cycling gear, tools, lock, charges etc.
Obvz this is all weather dependant on what you take, but if got it down to a few key items that I always take and just add/takeout stuff I need/don't need.
I'm off doing the NCN2 tomorrow, as the weathers nice I've plenty of room in the rear, then off to do a tour of the Netherlands in a couple of weeks and expect both bags to be rammed..
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bikebuoy - do you find the Apidura seatpack swings around a lot ? A few guys on our Cairngorm 3 dayer the other week found them like big pendulums, albeit on fairly rough singletrack on mtb's
I reckon pretty much any seat pack will do that if you load it wrong Iain. There's always a temptation to put one more item in there!.
I've got the smaller of the Apidura seatpacks and as said above it only swings about if not loaded/tightened very well. Having seen pictures of the bigger version with the two seatpost straps, I can imagine that moving around as it sticks out so far to the rear of the bike.
Nobeerinthefridge - Member
I reckon pretty much any seat pack will do that if you load it wrong Iain. There's always a temptation to put one more item in there!.
actually, the consensus was that the straps don't tighten up enough nobeer, so almost the opposite. Comment was also made that there is too much of the back end of it behind the compression straps, hence the pendulum analogy. My Revelate Pika was solid, but it's a fair bit smaller in volume than those big Apidura ones, so I have a 20L Evoc on my back too, in conjunction with Revelate Tangle frame bag for the heavy stuff 🙂
The seat pack does wobble around a bit if you are honking out of the saddle yes. But you have to pack all the heavy stuff at the bottom near the post, that way the CofG is lower. You'll not eliminate it from " swinging " but it's not like a clock pendulum no, just a slight weight feel. I'm used to it, it's no bother. Even on some rough Gravel (The Ridgeway for instance) it's still fine and I over packed for that trip.
But yes, the straps whilst good enough, don't tighten the whole bag down since there is only one either side of the rear opening that you can pull down hard, the other straps go under the seat rails and as much as you tighten them there is a bit (tiny) slack..
You see the bungee cord on the front pack? I've concocted that to keep both roll ends in, without that the roll ends expand out and catch the bars which annoys me.. Easy fix though.
That swinging motion is what wears through the rail straps eventually. Killed my first bag that way. Worth trying to minimize it, which is were the Wildcat bag wins for me. It's not immune to the same issue but it took me a lot, lot longer to start to wear the Wildcat rail strap, at which point they just sewed a new one on for me. Brilliant kit with service to match.
Wildcat and Revelate do seem to suffer less from the swinging.
I guess in a year and a few K's off-road/touring and I'll think like you guys, but for now the bags are great.
Gets me out in the open air whilst sporting a toothy grin any ways...