Originally Posted by
cyccommute
I won't look at your list...I don't look at anyone's packing list nor do I share my gear list (or even make one) as a matter of policy...but you do bring up something that people post over and over again that I just don't understand. Why do you put the soft parts of the tent in the panniers? I've never understood the logic.
Tents come with their own bag as a general rule and the tent poles probably don't fit in the panniers. This means that the tent poles ride outside of the bag...usually on a rack deck and usually on the back one...so why pack the soft part of the tent separately in the panniers? I can use the space for other things that don't have their own pack.
The other problem I see is that the vast majority of the time that I pitch a tent, the tent is damp or even wet in the morning. When packed in the tent bag, the whole tent eventually is wet and needs drying when I set it up at night. I could imagine putting the tent into a pannier and getting everything wet inside the panniers as well.
I'm not saying that you are doing it wrong but I just don't see the idea behind the practice.
I agree with your point on wet tents. And although I posted my list in which the tent is stored (in plastic) with other items, it's not my preference. You can see for my 2-weeks tour I moved it to the tail. But I actually like having my tent in a front with other wet items like water-filtering-stuff and rain gear. I prefer the quick & simple on-off-attachment of panniers especially in circumstances when doing a portage in the backcountry.
Here's my LHT running four panniers. Tent is in front pannier with the poles in a rear pannier. Nothing is lashed to the bike. The panniers have plenty of extra room so packing is quick & easy. I did ditch that handlebar bag mid-tour when I determined I could easily put my extra-iPhone-battery in the front pannier. The right front bag is my kitchen & food, its easy to pop off for picnic lunch or hang away from critters. There's always a lot of tradeoffs when packing but I really like the comfort of 4-bags with room to spare, when doing a months-long tour.
