Originally Posted by
eappleton
Hi all,
Some questions as we prepare for a cross country trip this summer. The tent and sleeping bags just arrived. I'm working on some homemade alcohol stoves. We already have Ortlieb bags front and back for my bike. I'm not so sure what to do for my wife's bike.
Some questions:
I'm wondering what kinds of bags to get for my wife? She's not thrilled about front bags. Maybe she could have just back bags to hold her clothes and sleeping bag. I would carry most of the rest (food, cookware, tent). It would probably be good for me to have a bit of a handicap to slow me down. Is this reasonable?
Should we have dry bags for our sleeping bags? Or compression bags and keep them in the panniers? Or are these not mutually exclusive? Do we need dry bags for anything else? Tent? How big should the dry bags be?
Thanks all,
Eappleton
Yes, you should have dry bags for the sleeping bags but not for the tent. Tents aren't hurt by a bit of water and most tent bags are reasonably waterproof anyway. Even if they aren't others have pointed out that you may want to let the tent dry while on the bike.
As for the front bag vs rear bag, I'd suggest that you have your wife test both before your trip. Load your bags with beans and rice to equal the expected load and have her try riding both ways...not just around the block but do some distance. She might find that the front bags are actually easier to deal with the rear only. My wife certainly did.