For all of you who fart in the backpack's general direction and applaud the pannier, I do the same in reverse. I don't care if my back sweats (it's not that bad), or if the weight is on my back (better than on the bike), and I like my bike to be balanced and as light as possible. It's not for everyone

I recommend trying panniers and seeing what you like. One is not better than the other, we all have different preferences. And if anyone brings up the weight on the rider vs. weight on the bike argument, please do a BF search to look for numerous other threads on this topic.