You're right - I never tried a trailer. If it's really so easy to pack and will not be heavier than my panniers, I might reconsider.

With regards to the kgs - apparently I didn't make myself clear: I'm OK with the weight I'm carrying at the moment, including panniers. I just don't want to add to it. Any solution that would mean that I end up with more weight than I'm already carrying is out of question, unless it would provide substantial advantages (as the Big Dummy might or might not do - unfortunately I've never had the opportunity to see one, much less ride one).

Of course I am working on my pack-list and on the items I bring as the weight is a PITA when climbing, but this is something I have to do on my own. Equipment is a highly personal choice that reflects the style of travelling and priorities. I could post my packlist, and I'm sure you'd tell me "you don't need A, B, C, D and E". But this would reflect your goals, not mine. Cycling is important to me, but hiking is, too. Since I'm camping for months, it's important not to get fed up with it. Hammocking means that I'm actually looking forward to camping, come rain come shine. I could get down to 2 panniers. But this would mean that I ignore too many of the reasons that made me go travelling in the first place. After having gained some experience, I will think about it and see if I can make cycle touring work for me. As I said: I might get to the conclusion that it is better to keep touring for shorter trips, and do multi-month trips by car with a folding bike in the trunk. This is why I said I didn't want to discuss the packlist. At the moment I'm interested in the question "is there a way to improve carrying my equipment on the bike". It might turn out that the answer is "no".

What I tried to find out by opening this thread was:
- are there maybe other pannier options available that I'm just not aware of? People mentioned Panpacks (I will have a closer look) and Arkel (already knew of those).
- are there alternatives for panniers? People mentioned trailers, long tail bikes and backpacks. I knew of these options beforehand, but I might have a closer look at the trailer option.
- did anybody have similar issues and found a DIY solution? Apparently some people are DIYing their own panniers, which I find interesting. But it seems that nobody has been trying to find a non-pannier option.

My ideas about non-pannier options were basically to create some type of loading platform, similar to what Xtracycle seems to do (again, I never had the opportunity to have a look at the actual thing), but to do it on my short tail touring bike. I would, of course, have to avoid heel strike and moving the weight too far back. My hope would be that
- this solution won't weigh more than what I already have
- and won't add to difficulties with planes/trains/busses
- but will bring down the center of gravity substantially, making the bike handle better
- and allow me to use non-cycle bags (duffel, backpack etc.), thus making transport off the bike easier.
- I'm also looking to move a bit more weight to the lower rear of the bike, instead of having it on the fork or on top of the rear rack.

Does this make sense?