"""an appropriate low gear depends on your bike+load total weight, what sort of terrain/steepness/long climbs are realistic to encounter, and to a smaller extent imo your age, fitness etc ."""
of course its nice to have a very low gear when cycling with weight, no doubt about that. at home with any weight on the bike I use then same low gears I use with a well loaded bike, and I love the easy going. the really big roll on the back panniers of your last image looks really cool.
Hi there senor
You will laugh, when I did that trip in Scotland ,I borrowed the red dry bag just to have some spare space and to avoid putting heavier stuff in those thin rear panniers, so with all rough riding, they wouldn't get a hole worn in them.
The first day, the bottom of the dry bag came apart, so I had to improvise with a plastic bag to close the end so in the regular Scottish rain, it wouldn't get wet inside.
A frame bag would have been best to put the heavier stuff in like my pump, repair stuff, stove etc
I still like the idea of having a dry bag for overflow food shopping, weighs very little and with voile straps, easy to securely put on top of each.
It all worked out, and the setup was fine on a lot of rough single and double track. The panniers work well, but better to just have softer stuff like clothes, rain gear.