Touring - Panniers Feedback

I am looking for feedback on pannier sizing, I just built up a Soma Double Cross, I plan on using to for my 16 mile commute to work but want to start getting involved in cycle touring.

I plan to do a few short 3-7 day tours next summer with the goal of doing a cross Canada tour in 2016 for my 40th birthday.

I wont be doing any camping so it will be mainly Credit Card touring which will cut down on the goods Ill need to carry.

I plan on using rear panniers only for my commute to work to carry work clothes lunch etc.

I have no background in panniers and looking for advise on sizing.

I have looked online at a few pannier manufactures, Ortlieb, Arkel, Lone Peak and Jandd.

I was looking at Ortliebs lowest price paniners the Back/Front Roller Classics. They are 25 litre for the front and 40 litre in the rear and wasnt too sure if there were going to be large enough for a 45-60 day tour,

I was also wondering about the quailty of the Roller Classics as they are the bottom of the Ortlieb chain of panniers.

Hi jan191976,

I bought a pair of Ortlieb Roller Classics recently. I think that they are a great pannier, and they will certainly last a 45-60 day tour. I also use them on my commute (32 mile roundtrip), and they work fine. The one thing that is kind of annoying is that they don't have an exterior pocket of any sort. I suppose that the "roller" part precludes them. However, the roller also keeps everything inside extremely dry --- including my laptop.

The limit on your size of pannier is what you intend to carry with you along the way: tools, parts, raingear, clothing, and food.

FWIW, I think that bottom of the line Ortliebs are a lot better than some of the others you have listed.

-Tim

Ortieb roller classics should last a very long time. I bought two pair due to the durability demonstrated by multiple world tours completed with those panniers reported on crazyguyonabike.com.

For example, consider this report of a 30,000+ mile trip with classic roller:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/alongridehome

Madden..couldn't be more pleased, very high quality, great fit

I was looking at Ortliebs lowest price paniners the Back/Front Roller Classics. They are 25 litre for the front and 40 litre in the rear and wasnt too sure if there were going to be large enough for a 45-60 day tour,

I consider that to be more than enough space for pretty much any tour I would do. I really over packed for the Trans America and was carrying camping and cooking gear and that was still plenty of space with panniers that size. That said it has way more to do with your packing preferences than the length of the tour. Personally I'd find just the 25 liters of front panniers quite adequate for credit card touring with only the two panniers.

I plan on using rear panniers only for my commute to work to carry work clothes lunch etc.

I use Sports-packer plus, the same size at the front rollers, I think, for commuting. Plenty big enough.


I was looking at Ortliebs lowest price paniners the Back/Front Roller Classics. They are 25 litre for the front and 40 litre in the rear and wasnt too sure if there were going to be large enough for a 45-60 day tour,


I assume you're going to wash clothes some time, and stop to buy groceries? If so, that combination should be big enough for loaded touring, including camping and cooking equipment. Really, a 60-day trip is just like a 7-day trip, repeated 8 or 9 times.

For credit card touring, you might well be able to get by with two sets of the smaller packs, or even less.

2 small front pannier pairs, perhaps ? certainly be better balanced
than just 1 big rear pair.
Particularly if you ended up having low spoke count wheels.

Or, a back roller front roller set, pack every thing in there, nothing on the rack.

I use mine al the time around town, shopping and Etc.