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  • Seatpacks and bikepacking luggage
  • bikebouy
    Free Member

    I use these. Apidura compact bar and seat.
    I haven’t filled either bag full yet but for me these are just great.
    2 things to watch:
    A) if you pack the bar bag with not a lot, then it’s a bit wobbly and the fold in (roll ends) stick out a bit which is a bit annoying. To fix this I’ve mocked up some more bungee cord and do a sort of end 2 end wrap to keep the ends in.
    B) again withe the rear if you don’t load it fully it’s a bit baggy, but it does fold up nice enough and I’ve never caught my legs on it (yet) also if you do overload it and honk out of the saddle it can swing around a bit, not a lot but you do feel the weight.
    Oh, C) I use an inner liner bag inside the seat pack because it does let a bit of water in if its torrential, fine in drizzle and such but watch for that.. And no, I don’t use guards …

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Tbh on leisurely tours at the expense of looking like one of the cool kids I just throw on panniers.right tool for the job n all that

    “Anyone have the means to bend alu tubes? Or lay up carbon fibre?” Both. What you thinking

    Singlespeed_Shep
    Free Member

    I have the alpkit kanga handlebar harness (used for commuting 3-4 times a week) also their £18 dry bag/seatpack. I’m really pleased with both. Service from appkit has also been really good.

    I also use a salsa minimalist rack on my road bike occasionally which is pretty similar to the PDW rack. Especially if you remove the support bars and strap it to the rack.

    I really like the ease of use from the harness as i can just whip the dry bag out and leave the harness attached, When i look at a new seat pack i will certainly be looking for something like the wildcat or the restrap that use dry bags,

    benp1
    Full Member

    Full set of Revelate kit here – seat pack, harness, dry bag, front and rear top tube bags, frame bag

    I like it!

    molgrips
    Free Member

    “Anyone have the means to bend alu tubes? Or lay up carbon fibre?” Both. What you thinking

    Sort of like front low-rider racks, but for the back wheel with a brace over the wheel to hold the two sides together. Each side being a square-ish frame you could then sew a square ish bag to fit each side with compression straps to keep everything really secure. Weight would be low down, to reduce impact on handling, frame would be free to fit bottles, and you might even not need a big thing dangling off your handlebars.

    Better still if we could somehow engineer a rubber bumper of some kind to iron out some vibrations on the load – I think that’d make the whole thing ride better, rather than for protecting the load.

    jameso
    Full Member

    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.

    – 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.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Do you get by with just the seat pack ans bar bag?

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    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.

    jameso
    Full Member

    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.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    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.

    faustus
    Full Member

    The blackburn cage and gorilla cage seem like good (and cheaper) alternatives to salsa hd cages.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    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

    faustus
    Full Member

    Surly mounts are also backward facing

    molgrips
    Free Member

    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.

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    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..



    iainc
    Full Member

    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

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free 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!.

    steezysix
    Free Member

    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.

    iainc
    Full Member

    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 🙂

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    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.

    jameso
    Full Member

    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.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Wildcat and Revelate do seem to suffer less from the swinging.

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    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…

Viewing 23 posts - 41 through 63 (of 63 total)

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