sarinapd

I'll do doing mostly road and gravel roads. Does anyone have an opinion of whether front or rear panniers are preferred for handling, traction, etc?
All the best,

Pat

womble

I've ridden with a trailer but not panniers. Rough roads and gravel. I would really have appreciated front panniers to stop the front skittering about so much.

On downhills though, I suspect such a setup would have been kinda scary, as the trailer seemed to push the bike around. Having a big weight pushing the bike and a big stable load on the front wheel may have encouraged jackknifing. That's pure speculation though.

ncscott

If you put all that weight on the rear wheel, it will shurely explode. Why not just reduce the amount of stuff so it all fits on the trailer. Front panniers would be my vote for the wheel reason and what womble said.

sarinapd

Thanks so much guys! I agree keeping it all to the trailer might be better than either option. Perhaps I'll do a bit of experimenting on various road surfaces to see what feels better. Have a good weekend!

Pat

sag

I use a yak trailer with rear panniers and the only time I have a problem is climbing a steep grade the front wheel likes to come up a bit, scooting foreward on the seat usualy remidies this. it has not been a problem otherwise.

womble

Come to think of it, just how much gear do you plan to carry? You'd need to be doing something very unusual to carry both panniers *and* a trailer- trailer capacity is huge.

Joe Dog

I was northwest of Portland OR a week or two ago for work and saw many touring rigs on Highway 30. Most were pulling BOBs, but many had panniers. I only saw two that I can recall which had panniers and a BOB. I don't know if that's due to handling - the roads were pretty good. I suspect is was a weight concern more than anything.

I'd be as worried about braking as handling if I tried pull a BOB on a loaded bike.

sag

handling is not a problem, and I've found that longer wheelbase bikes pull the trailer with less woble at the start. Braking was a problem with a loaded trailer and panniers until I started using disk brakes and now I'm very confident and pleased with the performance both stopping and moving