The art of (bike) packing?

Thread derail but is no one going to mention whatever is going on with OP’s front logo and valve?!? I’m so confused right now… 😉

Not my fault! My LBS set it up tubeless when I bought the bike about two months ago. I’ll fix it when I swap out the Minions…consider myself told off

I’ve just bought a bolt-on cradle for the bar bag. Absolutely rock solid, and puts the bar out away from the controls and headtube.

Realistically you’re looking at extra luggage capacity given that you’re effectively trying to carry two sleeping bags and a not very compact shelter. I went the fork cage/bag route last year because I could no longer stomach the failure rate of airbeds, but needed extra capacity for a durable but bulkier old skool Thermarest. Five litre bag each side: Thermarest (and stuff) in one, shelter (and stuff) in the other. Wednesday evening (for reference, that’s a Lamina 20 sleeping bag in the Topeak Frontloader barbag; not compact, rock solid, and I see no reason why it wouldn’t work with 35mm bars):

I was using that sleeping bag because I don’t like down bags in a potentially damp bivi bag. I’ve had the Lamina 20 for 10 years and been very happy with it – to the extent I’ve just bought a lighter, more compact Lamina 30, which you can currently get for £99 if you look around.

You get mounting fittings for forks without bosses with some cages but I can’t comment on their effectiveness.

This was my first bike packing set up. A mixture of bags from different places/manufacturers: Alpkit tail pack and top tube bag and a Blackburn Outpost bar bag.

The bar bag held my tent, down quilt, inflatable mat, down jacket and a thin fleece sleeping bag liner, all rolled tightly together.

The tail pack held a change of clothes, waterproof jacket, cooker, food, pillow, towel, head torch and a first aid kit. Snacks, tools and a few spares went in the top tube bag.

Having kit, especially tent and sleeping bag/quilt that packs down small is the key to maximising what you can pack.

This is everything (except food) that was in those two main bags:

That set up worked pretty well but I had too much stuff/weight in the bar bag. It was fine on the road and flat off-road but any climbing that was slightly technical/rough meant the high centre of gravity badly affected the steering.

I have gone through several combinations of bags, including panniers over the last 5 years or so and have now settled on a Tailfin Aeropack, 5l fork bags, a top tube bag and a stem bag. This set up works well for me for a 2 – 3 night trip.

(The Tailfin kit is expensive but will hopefully outlast me. Most of it was bought by asking family to chip in for Christmas and birthdays.)

@dove1

Any reason why you don’t use a (more obvious?) frame bag??

I’ve got a couple of frame bags – a small Restrap one (2.5l) and a larger expandable Blackburn Outpost one (5.25l/6.95l).

I sometimes use the Restrap frame bag instead of a top tube bag and the Blackburn frame bag for longer trips or if the weather is colder and I need to take extra clothes. The problem with the larger frame bag though is that it means bottle cages can’t be fitted so then you have to use an alternative method of carrying water.

There’s quite a lot of compromise in bikepacking depending on how long you’re going for, the terrain (road or off-road), weather/temperature, whether you’re going to cook or not, which bike you will use

Slight thread hijack … how do people mount lights on the bars when a bar bag gets in the way? Specifically, the bracket for my Exposure MaxxD doesn’t lift the light high enough to give a full beam over the bar bag. I’ve got the aero spider bracket, so not possible to drop it lower/out of the way.