SteveA

Just taking our first week-long (camping) tour - without using a trailer - I would take the length of the tent poles into consideration. We got by bungee-ing them cross-wise on the rear rack (24-1/2" long poles). I would like to have shorter poles (so they didn't hang out on sides so much [as I felt that they would suffer abuse over time from leaning the bike {tandem} on walls, etc.). They were really too long to place on the rack in an orientation such that they were parallel to the long axis of the bike - as nearly half the pole length would be cantilevered off the back of the rack. This would lead to a lot of flexing over time and maybe fatigue the poles. Also - my wife needs to swing a leg over the rear of the bike to get on. Our panniers don't have a pole pocket (like on Arkel bags).