I wear a medium sized messenger bag daily and find it far preferable to a backpack style bag for riding until I overstuff it. Do people think that large (something like the Chrome Kremlin) messenger bags carrying a significant amount of weight (for me, I think I could keep my list comparable to the ones posted, but I'd most likely want a tent, the weight of which would depend on pre-trip finances) would be preferable to mounting anything on the bike (messenger bags vs backpacks seems to be personal preference)? Is that sentence long enough? Are there advantages in regards to how one's bike would perform over long distances to not mounting? I think this thread is great, and it really makes me wanna try this.