Not fully loaded, and not touring for another couple of weeks.

Trying out a shopping experiment. I have all these different military surplus rubberized bags kicking around and a bunch of milsurp leather straps. It turns out they all fit inside each other and make a nice little bundle that I clipped a shoulder strap to. Sometimes it rides bungeed to the rear deck, and sometimes I unfasten it and toss it in my Basil, although it is a little heavy for that. My Chrome Metropolis is so huge that the bundle of bags still leaves a fair amount of usable space and is comfortable to wear.

When not in use it is a more compact and centered load than another empty pannier. On a trip like today to a bike shop and a thrift store and not sure what all I was going to have to portage home the flexibility of adding one, two or three bags was nice. Under the one alongside the wheel is actually another rubber bag a little smaller than that one.



The bike is in transition at the moment. Fenders are off while I change the hardware on them, front rack is off temporarily and I'm not sure about the Gatorskins yet. I love them commuting to work, but find them a little limiting and think I would prefer a nice 1.5, maybe Schwalbe Marathons if they come in that size for bike camping and short tours. Everyone seems to regard those highly, although I like Continentals.