Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Who said anything about it negatively impacting me? I said I don't see the logic in doing it. I didn't say that it hurts me somehow.
That said, this is a FORUM where we meet and discuss things for either our own edification or to provide advice to others, especially newbies. I would advise a newbie not to pack their tent in a pannier for many reasons. First and foremost is putting wet objects of any kind in a sealed pannier is a recipe for building a pretty good mold colony.
Yep, it's a FORUM. (Sorry, caps key got stuck.) I get that, but sometimes I weary of the declarative statements like, "Pannier space is too valuable to waste on tents. If you carry panniers, we can assume that you have a rack and that is the perfect place to carry tent and sleeping bag." In a pannier is also a perfect place to carry a tent and sleeping bag. Also, carrying your sleeping bag on the rack, is it in an unsealed, water permeable bag? Your tent? The only thing I carry on the top of my rack is my tent poles. Everything else goes in dry bags in the panniers. I've carried things in dry bags while bike touring, backpacking and canoeing. I've never had a problem with mold, even on six week canoe trips in Canada with several consecutive days of rain. My method works fine for me, but I understand that others choose to do things differently.