bike & hike: backpack options
 

Two of us considering a bike tour (500 miles) including a 2x15 miles hiking section -- an overnighter with bikes left behind.

We'd be tempted to strap our Osprey Stratos 36L to our rear rack, but it appears to be next to impossible. We could ride with our backpack on our back, but that seems to be less than desirable. We could purchase frameless backpacks (such as Osprey Talon 33L) and stuff them inside a pannier when riding. I would not consider convertible panniers.

Our hiking involves carrying food, water, cooking and sleeping equipment. 2x30L pack is more than enough.

How would you do / have you done something like this?

What's your rear rack/pannier setup...I'd pair down the hiking gear substantially (i.e. ditch the stove and eat cold food) and strap something like the Ultimate Direction Fastpack 20 to the rear rack. The roll top design should allow you to roll it pretty small. Are there reliable water sources on the hike? then you really don't need to carry much unless conditions are extreme. 15 miles at 3mph will only take 5 hours to cover, you could consider doing it in one long day?

I bought a Gossamer Gear Mariposa for that, but a Kumo or Murmur (frameless, 36L) should do. Note that 36L includes all pockets. The Gorilla has a removable frame, load-lifters and all that jazz.

You sound you're in the 10-15 lbs base pack weight range - I'd go with a frameless pack stuffed in a pannier, and depending upon the ground mattress/pillow you use, you can sometimes use them as frames. I have a old ~30L frameless pack that rolls up into 1-2L, and weights 1 lb, 3oz that would be good for that. That Osprey Talon 33 looks like it has a substantial sheet frame, and full hip belt... that's going to be pretty bulk to stuff in a pannier. Then again, maybe I can try again to tip you toward a folding bike - lots of folks tour on them with full backpacking backpacks mounted on the back :innocent:.

What about putting your backpack of choice in a compression stuff sack? Would that make it easier to strap to the bike rack?

I've done bike-camp-hike. I carried carried small panniers and my UL backpack turned inside-out and stuffed with some items. The backpack was strapped to the top of my rack. I cached my bike in the woods with the panniers and bike-related gear on it and took off backpacking. Another time instead of caching the in woods, I left the bike/panniers at ranger station.

Personally I enjoyed the experience but it was neither optimal bike-touring nor backpacking. That was several years ago and I didn't go beyond that couple-of-weekend-nights-experience/experiment.

I believe that the 33L is frameless. Larger models do have a frame, though. You are right about the full hip belt and the general design, however -- my idea is that if we carry a 6+ kg load, this design is preferable to, say, a zPacks' Nero. But we are still very early in the "thinking about a trip before we plan" phase

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To give additional background -- we are talking about the North Kaibab trail (Grand Canyon). May 2018. The initial idea is to camp two nights at Bright Angel carrying enough food to avoid paying 22$ for a breakfast (!). But we haven't ruled out booking a dorm and shelling big bucks for a pittance. Would make for an easy walk with basically nothing but a couple of litres of water, a jacket and misc stuff.

Thanks for reminding me about Gossamer. Yes, the Gorilla could well be it.

If it were a shorter time on the bike (1-3 days), I'd suggest wearing the backpacks with nothing in them. Unless it's hot, the discomfort will be minimal. But for 500 miles, I can see how you wouldn't want to wear them the whole time just for one overnight of backpacking.

Other than that, I've got nothing you haven't already come up with. Good luck!

Tubus cargo in the rear. Most likely two front panniers on a Tara, bare rear racks other than, maybe, a tiny tent on one bike, and a couple of frameless backpacks on the other.

Ditto the Gossamer Gear solution. I do it all the time.

If you have two panniers on the back of your bike, I see no reason why you can't just strap a 30 liter backpack on top of the two panniers. Some of my bike tours I strapped the Ortleib 31 liter duffel on top of the rear panniers, I would expect a backpack to strap on top in a very similar fashion.

A couple photos of my 31 liter duffle on top of the rear panniers attached.

Good point indeed. As we are moving to a front-panniers-only approach, I was in a state of mind where I envisioned balancing a framed backpack on a narrow platform. But you are totally right -- sideways over rear panniers makes sense.

i did just that. sort of.
18-month tour of nz and oz.
front+rear bags, and bob trailer.
had everything for hiking (including heavy duty hiking boots!)
except for backpack.
for a few tracks in tazzie and many in nz, would check into a
hostel, store the bike, and rent a backpack for a week.

one of you could ditch your rear bags, load your stuff into
the backpack, carried in the trailer with the unladen one.

I met a couple people in Iceland last summer that had been backpacking and bought some inexpensive folding bikes to continue their trip. They planned to just strap a big backpack on the back. I thought it looked hilarious, had to take a few photos. I gave one of them a strap that I was not using since they clearly had problems getting their packs to stay exactly where they wanted them. I have no idea if they rode their bikes out of the campground later that way or not, and if so I have no idea how they did. But it certainly looked unstable to me.

When I want to check a load on a bike, I stand to one side of the bike, grasp the saddle with one hand, the stem with the other hand, and robustly shake the bike from side to side to see how the load looks and to see if anything moves more than I want it to. If they had done that, I am sure their packs would have fallen off the bikes.

Full backpacks on rear racks seem pretty popular among the Brompton tourers - THIS couple were half way through an around-the-world trip. I imagine such a load would feel pretty nasty for stand-up climbing, but seated riding shouldn't be so bad. On account of the small wheels, the CoG shouldn't be so far off a traditional rig.

http://baikbike.com/wp-content/uploa...s-brompton.jpg

I would think that is quite unstable and would sway. Perhaps if you can figure out how to lash it to the back of the saddle to control side to side swaying? I am an engineer, so I think about things like that when I see a setup like that.

My foldup bike uses 24 inch wheels, so it is much closer to being a normal type of bike. I have not toured on it, but I have considered touring on it. But I was leaning towards racks and panniers and a Nelson Long Flap saddlebag.

You mentioned standup climbing. I have not had any cycling related knee issues for over a decade now after I quit standing on the pedals to accelerate or power up a hill. I stay in the saddle and have much happier knees.

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5860006a.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3f4429cd.jpg

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/...psdf98a228.jpg

I hike with a Osprey exos 48. I expect the 38 would be plenty big enough.
https://www.ospreypacks.com/us/en/pr...XOS38_613.html

I use a backpack, and no rack and bags when I hike. With the food and water on the bike as I cycle, the pack is comfortable. An under loaded pack is comfortable on the bike. An over loaded pack is not comfortable on the bike. 2 things; 1. Get a pack with a hip belt. The hip belt takes the weight off your shoulders. 2. Get a pack with a ventilated back, important. My non ventilated pack digs into my shoulders after all day. The non ventilated, no belt, pack makes me sweat so much, the black die dripped out of my shirt and ruined my pants.]

Do not stash to much stuff in the woods while hiking. I ride an old 1995 mt bike to the trail I want to hike. I do not leave $200 worth of bags and stuff on the bike. I do take a photo of the place I stached the bike. I do search for a natural land mark, strange tree stump, pointed rock, something to help me find it again. Last time, I stached it betwen 2 pointed hills. Draw a line betwen the 2 points and return to the bike. I do pick the bike up and carry it to a hiding place, so no one follows my tire tracks to my isolated bicycle. (Rangers in North Cascade National Park found my bicycle and let me know about it 40 miles from the bicycle.)

A front rack with a platform would be better to balance a back pack on. Secure it to the wide handlebars, not the narrow seat.

It took thousands of miles and a few years to wear out an Osprey.

Yeah, they are hanging pack straps on dowels attached to the seat clicky.

And I was toying with this ~90L capacity idea last year...clicky. The wheeled carry-on has a full hard plastic frame which ties down directly to the rear of the rack and anchors it from sway rather well (and the bag also has a full backpack harness).

I only mentioned 'stand-up climbing' because that's when tall/heavy/loose luggage really rears its ugly head. If you can stay seated and spin smoothly - you can get by with less balanced/stable loads.