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Old 01-05-14 | 02:29 AM
  #31  
MassiveD
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Joined: Jul 2011
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That pictured bike has about the same gear carry as, at best, one of my rear panniers, and I am running xsmall panniers, that were originally conceived for offroad use, though normally they are on my.

The rear bag is basically a small capacity version of a rack top carry on most touring bikes, The inner triangle bag is tiny, but counts towards some part of a pannier. The two top bags, are a pocket. Many tourists run handlebar bags. So there you are, you have thrown out 3 panniers or more. That is as it should be if a person can manage it, but it isn't some snazzy new system that saves a lot of weight. It is a system for people who have pre-decided they don't need about 65% of the capcity of a regular touring bike. Part of that capacity is just there to carry lower cost gear like synthetic fill bags. Pile.

Other snazzy ideas like "no hardware to fail", are also pointless. YOu can save literally pounds of weight by not having panniers that quick detach, yet people will not ask for them or use them. If people would just frame pack their racks they would save probably 3 pounds. SO why is it we don't have heavy, one hand detach systems for frame packing? Anyway, the good hardware never fails, and bad stitching does.

Even the Ultralight backpack guys who have base weight packs of 8 pounds, have the capacity to load up when they hit a food re-supply. I don't see where you double you carrying capacity with that rig. Or more to the point get it to a reasonable level.

You can't really make a list of rack builders these days, so many people are into it now, there are hundreds of really strong racks out there. Good advice, which goes mainly unheeded, is to decide on the load, then the bags, then the racks, then the bike. Obviously you would go back and forth on that, as you come to a final design.

I made a set of racks out of 4MM door skins, in use 20 years, it is a highly viable approach. Pretty quick to build also.
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