Originally Posted by
CamboWatt
I set off on a 3 day 200km ride the other week, with all my gear - tent, food, clothes etc. in a hiking style back pack. It posed no problems with the motions of cycling, but the main issue were the extra weight it put on my butt onto the saddle, which got quite sore after a while. And also I felt I sweated a lot more on my back as I guess my skin could not breath properly.
Wondering if anyone else has attempted touring using a backpack instead of paniers/trailer, and how you found it - pros/cons etc? I'm keen to do some more touring, and guessing it would be better with paniers/trailer, but can't really affored them at the moment.
If I were on a super tight budget, I'd look into building my own panniers. If you Google "DIY bike panniers", you'll find a bunch of ideas. You can build something functional using plastic bins and metal hardware. Another solution would be building a "backpack rack" using PVC plastic pipes. I've seen pictures of this somewhere on this forum. The guy would go touring, stash his bike somewhere and then go hiking with his backpack.
As for you last question, I've never attempted real touring with a backpack. I've done a 100km single-day ride with a backpack once (containing a change of clothes and some food) and I swore that I'd never do it again. The only person that I know of that set out to tour with a backpack ended up buying some cheap panniers on the second day of his week-long tour.