Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
I can't possibly imagine needing 70 liters. But if you were going across a desert and needed to carry lots of both food and water, then maybe you have a specific need. At times I have carried up to two and a half weeks of food, but I never needed to carry more than 5 liters of water.
OK after seeing your pictures. I just honestly don't know and haven't seen them all full, up close, next to one another. I am not even sure I have ever seen a 70liter go past me. A picture says a thousand words, so thank you. Which also saves me quite a bit of money too because the 40Liter bags I can find at good prices. The 70liter bags are all premium prices for the most part right now.
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Panniers kind of follow gas laws. Any gas that in introduced into a space will fill the space. For touring cyclists, any bag will be filled to it's capacity as well. I guarantee that people who use a 70 L bag are going to carry 70L of stuff in them. The problem is that when a gas expands to fill the space, it doesn't' weight much. 70 L of pannier space is going to end up being a ton of crap. You probably only really need 1/4 of a ton of crap.
I also suspect that these are marketed towards tourist who haven't heard that the bike rides better with bags on both the rear and front nor do they know that loading the front bags with about 60% of the weight gives a better ride. With front and rear bags, I have about the same volume as the single 70L bags but it's split up better. Even then I try to cut down on the amount of stuff I carry as much as possible.
Thank you. I often need to hear from folks like you who clearly know better. You sir are one of the reasons I had to start posting and asking questions. I know you and a few others intimately from your advice over the years. And in many ways, I can't honestly thank you enough for all your posts, effort, hard work, advice to others, your rebuttals, arguments, scientific evidence, the many times you were right, the many times I didn't agree with you or you were wrong, and mostly, for an insane amount of bicycle knowledge, and knowledge in general, being passed on to me and others over time. You are one of the folks I have learned the most from on the internet on biking in general, mechanical stuff, etc...and I have a lot of respect for you because of that. Thank you sir for all of that. You have actually helped me to learn to use critical thinking skills more over time too. I hope others have tipped their hat off to you in passing, and have taken the time out to thank you just the same. I personally think you are one of the best and most helpful folks/teachers on the internet when it comes to much of this stuff! You live in Denver so you're a neighbor too. I often wonder when I am going to identify you on a trail passing one day. I am sure we have passed each other many times in the 3D world to date for as much as we both ride and how long I have been lurking. Anyway, thank you for all that.
I will go with smaller ones now. So thanks. I was just looking at the Arkel 40, 45, and the
Arkel GT54 too.