Originally Posted by
bikemig
How did you like the handling of the bike? You had most of the weight centered over the front wheel which is a bit unusual. Is there a reason why you chose not to use rear panniers? I've been thinking of using a carradice camper in the rear and front panniers on low riders. I like how the bike handles with low riders and the camper is roughly the weight of a rear rack so it's a decent trade off weight wise. I've been thinking of getting an enlightened equiprment quilt as well.
I'm thinking about doing a cross country or at least a ride from the west coast home to Des Moines.
I used the front panniers because I had a set of front panniers (they originally belonged to my father) but no rear ones.
Long story short, the bike handled really well once I got the side-to-side weight distribution right. The steering was "heavy," but the bike went where you pointed it and held a straight line well. I would guess that I had 1/3 of the weight in the rear and 2/3 in front most of the time. That might have been closer to 1/2 and 1/2 when we were carrying a gallon of water apiece, since I kept my extra bottles in the trunk bag.
There was no tendency for the bike to wobble when climbing out of the saddle, as I sometimes did to give my weary ass a short break. I would use the same system again.
One minor drawback is that the front wheel tended to flop around when you went to lean it against a wall or some such. I have a good-sized scrape on one seatstay from a time when I forgot to account for that.
Also, I think that rear panniers are more forgiving in terms of side-to-side weight distribution. Phil actually lost one of his panniers near Warrenton, Tex., and didn't even notice until Dave, a friend who rode with us for a week, pointed it out. (Maybe the fact that he was on a recumbent had some bearing on this?)
Anyway, he went back ten miles and searched both sides of the road, but never found it. All his clothes and tools were gone. We had to stop at the Wal-Mart in Brenham the next day and buy him a bunch of new clothes, plus a soft-sided 24-pack cooler that he zip-tied to the rack in place of the missing pannier. He rode the last 1,200 miles with that picturesque setup. (You can see it in the last photo in post 62.)