I started backpack and then went pannier. I prefer pannier just for the comfort level. Plus, I use a camel back for h20 and small stuff. Speed dropped a little on the "speed" sections but overall, it made no difference. Then again, because of stops and traffic I realized that there's not much point in busting my butt for speed anyway since it shaved maybe 5 min. off of the time yet kicked my trash for the day and the ride home. I even ditched the computer so now I have no idea how fast I'm going. I just enjoy the ride.

I've been interested in the Banjo Bros bag too. The Timbuktu Swig is interesting but it looks like you need to get the more expensive "maverick" version if you want something waterproof.

One of the things I don't like about a lot of cycling backpacks with the flap closure is that many of them have "wings" that interfere with your vision to the rear. The Banjo Bros bag hangs low enough to avoid that. I'm not sure about the Swig.

I've got a large Banjo Brothers backpack. It doesn't have that much organizationally speaking, but it's waterproof and rather comfortable, expecially with heavier loads. I used to transport my laptop just wrapped in a towel, before I discovered the beauty of flash drives and Google Docs. But, depending on the size of your laptop, this might be an option.

I'm with the backpackers. I've used several backpacks over the years & have found the best one for me is the GoLite Ion. The only downside to it is that it is just one large pack, with no compartments or little pockets or anything. What I like about the pack is that it is very light, has great shoulder straps & is waterproof. I have several cycling-specific packs as well, but these seem to make my whole back sweaty. The advantage of the Ion (for the way I ride) is that it is kind of slack, so it does not conform to my back. (I tend to pack pretty light-just a change of clothes, cell phone, ipod, bike lock & a book usually). There are plenty of gaps between it & my back, so I usually just end up with a small spot on my back that's any sweatier than the rest of me. The pack works great for carrying my stuff once I'm off the bike though, much better than any Panniers I've tried. I've tried strapping my pack to my bike rack, but so far, no love. The rack straps always seem to be either too tight or too loose. I did find one on amazon.com that gets great reviews and has several pictures that users uploaded showing it carrying backpacks among other things. I have one on order & I hope it solves the backpack to rack attachment problem. If that happened, my golite would be the perfect solution for me.

No panniers on my current bike, but new one (Fuji Touring) will certainly have them. I have been hauling stuff in my backpack and a small Topeak seat stem rack/bag, and am very much looking forward to losing the backpack, in favor of bags/panniers. I do not enjoy the weight on my 57 year old back.

It will be interesting to see if/how much the new bike and bags impacts my commute time. I'll be moving from an mid-entry level bike with a racing geometry (Scott Speedster S60) and a backpack, to the Fuji Touring with bags. I'm guessing no more than a minute or two on my 10 mile commute.

Get the backpack and a rear rack. Strap the backpack to the rack with some bungees. If you are packing a laptop make sure that you have your clothes in the compartment between the rack and the laptop. Also put a thin cloth between the keyboard and the screen of the laptop, it helps to keep from polishing an image of the keys into the screen.

The wind over the pack on the rack will be blocked by your legs so the only issue will be the weight.

Comfort over any miniscule speed difference...panniers! Actually I started back commuting with the bike and backpack and after 6 months I went 'bent and panniers. With age comes wisdom

It makes a lot of sense when you live in a big city, where bikes/accessories get stolen constantly, and you want to stop and get groceries on the way home.

As someone has already pointed out, this thread is not about backpack vs panniers. It's about bike and rider. The OP is currently averaging roughly 10-12 mph and is wanting to improve to what? 18-20 mph? To cover the same distance in half the time and thinks that switching to a backpack will somehow magically allow this happen??

OP- you have a nice bike for what it is- a good alternative to a car. But if you want to attain a higher average speed, then you have two choices- put more effort into your pedalling with what you have or buy something that is a bit lighter and put greater effort into pedalling that one.

Who says you have to leave the panniers on the bike?

And maybe that's called living in the wrong city.

Actually, no one said that you have to leave the panniers on the bike. It sounds to me like his/her point was that (s)he wouldn't leave them on the bike, but carrying a backpack around a store is a lot easier than lugging panniers.

Isn't that what shopping carts are for?

Or, if it's a tiny grocery store like the one in my neighborhood, it's more of a hassle to wear a backpack/messenger bag/whatever and hope that I don't knock everything off the shelves.

Anyone notice a difference going up hill with pannier? I feel like I'm going slower with it. Maybe slower acceleration? Not sure if its all in my head or just me? Theres lots of wind here. Maybe my legs are tired? I use one pannier. But I hate the back sweat and my backpack bobs up and down!

i used to use a rack and a trunk bag for carrying my commuting stuff, but i much prefer using a back pack now. my reasonings:

1. aesthetic purity - none of my bikes need to have a cumbersome rack attached to them. this is especially important for my titanium road bike.

2. i'm gonna sweat no matter what - my daily commute is 15 miles each way; there's no casual cruising at 15mph for me, i like to hit it hard, so i'm dripping with sweat when i get to work whether i'm wearing a back pack or not.

3. handling - i prefer having the extra weight on me as opposed to on the bike. it just feels more natural to me to have the weight on my back, it makes the bike feel zippier and more maneuverable, especially when out of the saddle.

4. comfort - i tried a lot of packs, but eventually settled on an REI pack with multitudes of micro-adjustment straps that allow me to cinch the pack down in all the right places to get that perfect feel where the pack simply becomes an extension of my body rather than something i'm wearing. waist and sternum straps are absolutely essential in my opinion for a bike commuting backpack.

5. the backpack always follows me - when i get off my bike, my backpack is already attached to me, so it goes wherever i go without me ever having to think about it.

6. psychology - in my mind, i feel faster/less draggy with a pack on my back than elsewhere on my bike. that notion might not have much basis in reality (if any at all), but it's still there in my head and hard to ignore.

7. simplicity - i try to travel as light as possible. all of my bikes have a small saddle bag for a spare tube, levers, multi-tool and CO2 pump, so the only things that i'm actually carrying with me in my backpack on my daily commute are a change of clothes, a thin folder for any necessary work papers, wallet, phone, flash drive, and keys. that's it. i don't do the laptop thing because a tiny little flash drive weighs 100's of times less than a laptop and allows me to easily transfer any necessary files between home and office. i don't usually carry a lock because i store my bike inside my office. i eat out for lunch everyday, so i don't have food to carry along either. and i leave my work shoes at the office so that i'm not needlessly shuttling them back and forth everyday.


with all that said, it all boils down to personal preference. there's no such thing as a one size fits all answer to the eternal question of rack or backpack. different commutes, situations, riding styles, and a multitude of other variables will eventually inform each individual's decision as to what works best for them.

There is a place for all solutions: 1- panniers for people who have to carry a ton of stuff,
2- trunk bags floating on beam rack or hard rack for medium volume of items, 3- cheap schoolkid backpack for those interested in cheap and non cycle bags, and 4- cycling backpacks with weight carried on hips and sternum strap to keep it from shifting.

For those unfamiliar, a good cycling backpak will keep the bag off the back and will have good air flow.

For me panniers have too much room and would really slow me down. The trunk bag worked well for transporting enought stuff to work to change at work. The beam pin broke and the rack won't work on an aero seatpost, so I have switched to backpack. I thought I would hate it for: a- too hot and sweaty, b- too many straps flopping around, c- all the weight on my shoulders, d-block vision and e- add more resistance and slow me down. It turns out I got a good pack and none a one of those assumed issues has bounced up. Only issue I have is I'm only using 1/4 of pack and so tend to put too much in it.

It's all in your head. Unless you're going 15+ mph uphill, there's no aero difference. Weight is weight.

What Steely Dan said. And one never has to worry about heel strike while wearing a backpack or mess bag.

But, hey, use whatever tool you need to get the job done.

Hard to say for sure, but I think I'm faster with a pack on trips of 7 miles or less. Probably could get a better time with panniers once the trip gets up to about 18 miles. 7-18 mile trips are about the same whether backpacking or saddlebagging.

Backpacks make stomping on the pedals more fun, bunnyhopping potholes and curbs 10,000 easier so that's where the speed comes in. I don't think aero means a thing unless you're really haulin' butt or in a harsh headwind.

OP, I think you're getting passed cuz you're slow. 'salright, I am too.

Today I had to ride about 8 miles with a gallon of orange solvent, a quart of glue, an 18"x100yd roll of tape and 100 big sheets of transparencies. It was really too heavy for the backpack. My butt was starting to split in two by the time I got to the shop.

So, you can see that load plays a part. Ain't no way I was gonna be bunnyhopping anything with that on my back. I still sprinted off the line at a couple of lights, tho.

my guess is that if you were carrying 5 lbs or less of gear (maybe a jacket, a spare tube and tire irons, a cellphone, wallet and keys) then it would make little difference for mileage of less than 15 miles without much elevation gain or wind.

For carrying more weight, longer distances and considerable climbing a pannier would probably be not only more comfortable but less fatiguing than a backpack, which would translate into a faster time for the same distance.

Why not do a test? Put ten pounds of weight in a backpack and do a 20 mile ride as fast as you can. A few days later do the same ride under similar conditions with the same 10 lbs in panniers, again as fast you can.

Yes, definitely
I have noticed a gain in speed when I use my hydration-pack only, as opposed to both hydration-pack and pannier. Then again I tend to just pack the pannier to the gills full of things I don't really need or use on a daily basis but I feel comfortable just knowing it's there.
Ultimately, it's not worth the extra weight, drag, and lack of a fun bike ride. That's why lately I've been trying to pack lighter, more minimalist, and use only the pack which has 1600 cubic inches of space.

I've already conducted an experiment of my own- though the parameters are a little different:

The bike part of my multi-modal consists of 8 city blocks of streets, followed by 9 miles of paved MUP. I've worn my backpack and also mounted my backpack to the rack. 10171623..jpg10171627..jpgI find that I'm faster wearing the pack, both in terms of riding and making the transition to/from the bus.

I have saddlebag panniers from Knog, but my backpack holds more- and I don't have to worry as much about weight distribution or deal with heel strike.

Personally I don't want to have 'my stuff' on my bikes. I use a messenger bag and probably always will. It's not about the weight, but the weight distribution... that and I wouldn't want to take my stuff off the bike every time I stop somewhere on the way home.

And OP.. no way you're going to shave that much time off your commute with just a backpack.

thanks for doing the math for me, my longest commute is only 6 miles so I think the backpack provides sufficient storage that a pannier loaded with unnecessaries is just deadweight, unless i have to carry a ton of textbooks or something else.

I need to plug Wingnut here. It's all I need for 3 liters of water, my keys, wallet, pencil-bag, cell-phone, iPod, biking gloves, saddle covers, mini u-lock and cables, a moleskine journal, a small paperback, a bus schedule guide, and maybe a jacket.

-roomy
-waterproof
-low center of gravity
-hydration pack
-pricey but worth it

https://www.wingnutgear.com/product_d...product_id=112

Don't know why I didn't think of this earlier (or maybe I did; this thread has been going a while ), but for me, "faster" doesn't matter as much as "more comfortable".

When I look at it that way, anything on my back is less comfortable than putting it on my bike.