Touring on a road bike… Luggage?

Hi all,

I’m planning on doing some touring but only have a lightweight road bike to use. Planning on getting a fairly large handlebar bag but am going to need some more luggage.

What options do other people go for? Thinking of opting for a rack that attaches to the seatpost and fitting another bag to that but a little concerned my carbon frame and seatpost aren’t really designed for carrying that kind of load?

Cheers
Ben

Cheap option is to use Alpkit drybags attached with straps to bars and saddle and they now do a frame bag as well. A bit posher, so a bit more expensive is the Wildcat gear:

Wildcat[/url]

Partial frame bags can be got off Ebay. Loads of options really depending on your budget and how much you are planning to do.

Largely depends what/how much you plan to carry. Toothbrush + credit card or kit for trans China trek? I’d be wary of putting any significant load on a carbon seat post rack in any event.

Even on long trips, if you’re reasonably disciplined, you should be able to get everything in two rear panniers and a handlebar bag. A four point rack (+ p clips) and a couple of Ortleibs may well save you a lot of faff in the long run.

A friend did it with a BOB traier on a raceign bike.

Meant he could carry everything, the bike handled normaly and he could leave it in the tent and go for a ride (as there was enough space for a propper tent).

Perhaps a great big carradice saddle bag would do the job, on a cheap steel railed spoon saddle of your choice

Carradice bagman support and bag? I’ve got a Barley but they do bigger ones. Strapped a Alpkit drybag with my shoes in it to the top in this photo.

Might be cheaper to buy a tourer second hand, with a rack etc, then sell it again after?

I have an idea to do this at some point. I’d planned on a seat pack for clothes and a bar bag for wallet, phone, cables, toiletries, spares, food etc. Rain coat can go in the jersey as usual along with pump.

Scott from Black Rainbow Project recommended:

http://www.porcelainrocket.com/
http://www.revelatedesigns.com/
http://www.carouseldesignworks.com/

and some other one that I can’t remember right now

Carradice SQR Tour

Excellent piece of kit.

Saw a rack in Leisure Lakes (Blackburn?) catalogue that mounts to your rear axle rather than having to have rack mounts. Would be strong and presumably then can attach to seatpost. Most of the load will be through the rear axle then. HTH.

I think you’d find towing a trailer a horrible experience. We’ve done it and find panniers much better!

Alu post? Travel light. This:
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/carradice-slim-saddlebag-c-w-sqr-16ltr-prod3695/
.

I’ve done 4/5 days using an Altura seatpost mounted bag. There’s enough room for tools, bars/gels, a change of clothes for the evening plus wash kit. I also pack some travel wash to clean my riding gear each night, which dries enough overnight to use the next day. Eeveything else can go in your pockets.

Depends how far you’re going. I’d probably opt for a pannier rack. Plenty of options there.

I’ve done full on camping kit towing a trailer (I did swap the crankset for a touring triple before hand though!)

Cheers for all the suggestions, lots to consider there.

It will probably be for about 7 days and I won’t be camping so can travel pretty light. Will let you know what I opt for.

Ben, where are you? If you’re in the south you can test my caradice.

Thanks for the kind offer fourbanger but I live overseas.

Ben – I rode from Exmoor to the Peak District on an S-Works Roubaix… I replaced the seat post with an alloy one and stuck a Topeak seatpost mounted rack on there. It’s something like this, but they do a broad range that really need to be looked at in detail depending on your bike. They do a three part pannier (top and two sides) bag that was fine for ligthweight touring. That combined with one of their top tube mounted Tri bags (it’s only small but surprisingly useful) did the job, but a bar bag would help too.

I still use the rack / panniers for my commute as I like the way I can leave the bike in the warehouse at work and just unclip a QR clamp and take the whole lot of my gear with me.