Man, this is a similar question that I was trying to pry from this forum in another thread. I, too, am a fairly light backpacker. And I'm trying to decide on pannier configuration before buying. I am concerned about volume. The panniers seem so much smaller in total volume then I am used to backpacking. I was trying to decide to go with front panniers only with about 2000 c/i versus rears with 3000. 1400 c/i seems really small to me. Is there any reason you can't get more room?