?

That s what I was thinking.
I do not know carbon well enough but I see strapping a load to the seat, plus rider weight, flexing on a small point. It's the flexing I would question. A rider usually takes the load somewhat on their legs but a pack would just bounce up and down on a seat cantilever of sorts.

Just finished a 3 week tour of Ireland. Used a 2004 Giant carbon road bike for my wife. Used a skewer rack from Niagara Cycle, swapped out rear cassette and derailleur for deore long cage and 11-32 cassette. Worked great with 2 small panniers and a trunk bag. Had to use Marathon 25 on the rear, but was able to fit a 28 on the front. Just be certain to wrap the frame for transport in the bike box.

There's no requirement to use a carbon seat post. I use an Al seat post and bars on a carbon frame.

If you mount a saddlebag properly there is very little cantilevering or motion, but it's still nice to keep the weight to a minimum. My Carradice Camper fully loaded weighs 12lbs and is supported by loops on the saddle and a strap around the seat post. I have done thousands of miles with this setup and never had an issue.

This is offtopic but is there anything supporting the carradice camper other than the loops on the saddle and seatpost? I've been tempted to buy one but I thought you need to buy some sort of rack support for the large camper bag. Seems like a great choice for lightweight cycle touring for sure.

It seems pretty much right on topic to me. There is nothing else supporting the saddlebag. This is how Carradice saddlebags were originally designed to be used, many times they would simply rest on the mudguard/fender. Then Carradice introduced the various support racks like the Bagman for bikes with less clearance and also various "lowsaddle" saddlebag versions. I ride a 56 cm bike and the Carradice Camper has a couple of centimeters clearance from the back tire, so it's tight. Mounting without any other support will only work on a fairly large bike. Things like the Bagman have had issues because they do cantilever the load out from the saddle and there are stories of them failing.

The complicating factor in his case is the use of disc brakes on the rear. That requires a rethink on the skewer rack arrangement because of the distance required to clear the disc (if you look at normal retail racks that attack to an eyelet, they have "wings" that move the bottom of the leg out an inch or more).

The alloy post is a simple, cheap and elegant solution.

I don't buy the arguments about too much lever stress on a CF post anyway unless is it rated for 160lb and the rider is 185lbs.

I may have to buy one then, . I like the design better than the revelate bags. I may run lower riders though up front though. I like the way the bike tracks with the weight down low.

The Revelate saddlebags are smaller than the Camper, which is 23L, but also lighter because they are made from nylon rather than cotton duck. But the Carradice saddlebags better bits of luggage, IMHO because the big flap and opening lets you get at stuff easier. The bikepacking design is better if you are going off road though. If you are using panniers up front a Nelson Longflap (15L) will probably be plenty large.

I can use google too

I admire your setup. do you sleep in hotels?

my personal philosophy is to go lightest I can with the cheapest most disposable stuff, and still have a tent and stove.

Go see Post 171 in your other thread. Tent and cooking gear and all.

that is dope

Yes I sleep in hotels, and with warmshowers hosts and in my sleeping bag inside my tent. There is a Tarptent Contrail, NeoAir sleeping pad, Exped pillow and Montbell down hugger sleeping bag in the saddlenbag......plus some other stuff.

but still, I'd like to have the convenience of a rack.

Wish I could put these in my signature...

oh, that's some high dollar lightweight gear. that's where I'd branch off to get something cheaper. my gortex bivy/klymit pad/generic air pillow/blanket/sleeping bag costs probably less than $200 together, and weighs around 5 lbs. without the alfine 8 shifter clogging up the front, I could probably put the sleeping gear on the bullhorn handlebar, kind of like yours, to help distribute the weight

A bivy or tarp are pretty inexpensive, but getting a sleeping bag that's light and compressed really small is still expensive.

If find racks to be inconvenient. They get in the way when you have to take a wheel off and just add weight. They are a real pain when you travel by plane or train with your bike. Also needing a rack limits the type of bike you can use.

on a long tour, when there are many miles in between cities, and you have to carry food extra food for camping, how do you manage to do it?

the big plus about a rack for me is that it provides a nice platform to strap things, and to me, that's worth the extra pound

I eat in restaurants when I can, but I carry food in my handlebar bag. The larder that I always have is

Couscous
2 x Ramen
4 x instant oatmeal
Energy bars/candy
Dried fruit and nuts
Earl Grey tea bags

this is enough food (once hydrated) to keep me going for 2 days.

in jersey pockets usually bananas or apples and more energy bars.

If there's a long stretch without resupply I'll add tortillas, cheese and salami which I stuff in the food bag in my handlebar bag.

If I stop at a supermarket at night I carry bigger items like cans of soup, beans, pizza etc under the saddlebag longflap. I have also use that method to carry a couple of extra liters of water. There's also room in the handlebar bag for a small bottle of soda, but that generally just goes in my back jersey pocket along with the candy and bananas. If I need even more carrying capacity I have a 2oz nylon backpack.

I suppose you could strap anything around the saddle bag with a bungie cord... how would you strap a pizza box on there though?

have you ever considered using an expedition support? also, aren't those slits coming off of the saddle usually made of plastic or something soft? are they up to the task of supporting a 20 lbs load for an extended period of time?