Originally Posted by
Appolion
Since I don't know if I'm going touring some more after I get to Seattle, I'd really like to use my backpack instead of panniers. Also, I'll be going to at least half a dozen friends' places along the way with backpacking trips. A Bob looks like the best thing for me. I plan on strapping one of those reflective vests onto the backpack, too.
backpacks belong on backs, they are too big to load onto a bicycle and handle well once you get above a daypack sized load. That's why you wear a backpack and not panniers on your back and why people use panniers and not backpacks on bicycles. Once you go to a trailer you've added the weight of nearly half the entire contents of a medium sized backpack load, 8-13lbs. Trailers can make a lot of sense for very heavy loads, heavy loads that can't fit on some bikes, or off road and saving rear wheel. But if you're simply touring around with a back pack load and want to go hiking later consider a set of panniers with your backpack rolled up flat(softpack?) and layed on the rack lengthwise.
The cost of a Bob trailer is going to be a lot more than the lowest cost set of panniers and rack.
Reflective vests will work better on your torso than the back of the bike.
Most important though is what kind of bikes do you have?