Originally Posted by
meaculpa
I have Carradice's Nelson Longflap (18 liters). It serves as my commuter bag but may do for an overnight if I keep the equipment to a strict minimum.
Another thought just occured to me: considering my 42.5cm chainstay, maybe I should look into a BOB trailer over touring w/panniers.
I have an roughed up set of panniers that I used before the saddlebag. I'd lash them to stay as far back as possible on the rack so I could avoid hitting them. This has worked ok. Howevere, I should plan to ride other rigs/setups (lbs that sells BOBs for example) in order to do some comparisons, to get a feel for what I am losing in the handling versus any gains.
Once you have an idea of your style of touring, ranging from "kitchen sink" toting to ultralight you'll be able to decide on the bags you need. Go to
http://www.fullyloadedtouring.com
for lots of examples of how to set up a bike in a traditional way. Also look at the sticky of the touring bikes on this site and check out this thread for some different thoughts and ways to pack.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ighlight=20lbs