Gonna have to disagree. I find bikepacking bags to be a bit of a pain when it comes to organization. Stuff fits in them in odd places and there are lots of nooks and crannies where something fits but is unrelated to the other stuff in the bags. For example, my stove fits in one bag but my fuel canister fits in another. Panniers are much easier to organize by purpose. Bike packing bags, not so much. I’ve done several backcountry bikepacking trips and I’ve yet to repeat a bag configuration/organization plan.

Some of my tours, at the end when I was just about out of food, my 31 liter Rack Pack is empty or nearly so. But the Front Rollers at 25 liters are full in that case.



In the above case, Rack Pack stayed home, used a 20 liter drybag at the start of the trip for food. Same on the trip below, different bike but same luggage.

Below, this was our last day. Unfortunately it is so beastly hot in Key West, FL, even in February, that I accidently got a big sweat smear on my camera lens, thus the photo is extremely bad, as were most of my photos that day.



I would rather have that weight in front panniers than on top of the rear rack. But if your wife and kids are happy with the way the bike handles with that much load in the back, great for them.

[QUOTE=Tourist in MSN;23592497
I would rather have that weight in front panniers than on top of the rear rack. But if your wife and kids are happy with the way the bike handles with that much load in the back, great for them.[/QUOTE]

I agree with you, but no one listens to me My wife has pulled away from me on a downhill when I was pegged at 45 mph. Her bike is rock solid

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If I recall your past comments, her bike is a Co-Motion, I would expect that to be quite solid. Looks like your kids are on Surly bikes. My Surly LHT had a defective frame, so I am negatively biased on that brand. I can't see the racks that they are using. Choice of racks on that heavy of a load is another factor. But I trust you spent some quality time choosing good racks.

I think we are drifting from the OP's primary question, but where and how they are stored during packing is also important.

Yes, we all have Tubus racks. I'm not sure what model the daughters have but my wife and I have the older style Cargo racks. They figured out how to position their panniers on the rear rack for best handling, trying to get their bags centered over the rear axle or even a little farther forward if possible.

My wife's bike is a good example. Her bags are pretty well balanced midway over the rear axle. Her Rack Pack is as far forward as she can get it. I believe she did a good job of setting it up. Her gear usually totals about 30 lbs. and a bar bag for camera, etc.

That is a nice looking setup. I was a bit surprised to see her bum right up against rear luggage, then I realized that it is such a small frame size for a small person. Thus, the rear luggage will be just as high above the rear axle on any 700c bike, regardless of frame size, given that choice of rack.

I mentioned in my first post in this thread that I try to keep the center of gravity low, the heaviest stuff in my rear panniers is in the bottom of the panniers, lighter stuff like sleeping bag up in the top of the rear panniers. My Tubus Logo EVO or Racktime Addit racks mount the pannier hooks a few inches lower than your racks, the bottom of my Ortliebs is at or below the axle. (My light touring bike has the Racktime, heavy and medium touring bikes has the Tubus rack.)

Every thing I needed to cook dinner and to make tomorrow’s morning’s coffee all in one bag.

Totally agree on your approach and I do very similar.

Rain and warmup clothing I need or will de-layer from during day go in rear left since that is the side I dismount (think of this as "hall closet" for rain and cold). Smaller daily use stuff and valuables are in handlebar bag (my "desk"). Dense heavy items I might need during the day like tools goes in front left ("the workbench"). Right side is for when not riding. Right Front is "bathroom, "medicine cabinet" and "kitchen":, the heavy dense stuff. Right rear is "clothes closet" for riding and street clothes.

Works for me. And I use all sorts of zip-lock bags, stuff sacks, etc that are mentioned in other posts.

Bikepacking bags totally puzzled me when they first came out. But then, I don't ride off-road, and I now perceive an advantage in a narrower profile to better clear brush and tall grass off-road, and perhaps better aero onroad.

When I fold my bike for transport or train, I need to take off all bags; 4 panniers and 1 trunk bag are already more than I want to carry. I snap pairs of panniers together, with line around each pair in a cross-parcel pattern if carrying far or handing off to anyone. With bikepacking bags, I'd need one of those big mesh duffles that I've seen others here use, including to consolidate panniers for air travel.

When I use Amtrak roll-on service, I put my panniers in a mesh sleeping bag storage bag, Weighs nothing and takes up little space.

I think I saw a post on that by you, or someone else, I know I saw a pic of big mesh stuff or zipper duffels during a trip transit. I thought that was a great idea, would stash more compact than regular bags. For more concealment, could line with cardboard or a large trash bag, easily available at both ends of trip.

I think I got the idea from you, I think you commented that you did that to make your panniers something you could carry onto the train. In my case I did it to make four items become one to meet the checked baggage requirements. I bought a mesh duffel for that purpose.

That said, when I took a ferry and had to carry everything onto the ship, it was easier to carry two panniers in each hand, handlebar bag with a shoulder strap. In that case, ship's crew handled our bikes.

I was never confused by them. The first time I saw someone using them, I thought they were brilliant…but only for off-road use. I’ve used panniers off-road and had to chase ejected panniers down a hill. I’ve used trailers which I found to be a total pain. Now I use bikepacking bags and they work far better than anything else for rough tours.

My state has a bus system that will carry me to any corner of the state. I’ve used it many times to do off-road tours. The bikes are carried on the front of the bus. They require that all bags be removed from the bike prior to loading and carrying around several weird shaped bags along with a helmet and Camelbak is tricky in a narrow bus aslie. The bags stick tó the bike like glue but they are a pain to carry off the bike in addition to being difficult to organize.


At least nothing came off when I crashed.

^^ I had an early B.O.B. trailer for my first tour on a long-wheelbase recumbent with underseat steering. Rode out and back from my dad's retirement house so no public transport, otherwise it would have been a nightmare, despite the bike (Linear) being able to fold. On the road, the trailer was narrower than the steering bar, by far. But on fast descents, it could get unstable unless I locked the steering and made slow movements, and the LWB helped, a result of the hitch pivot behind the rear tire, and not at axle center like wider trailers. Was much worse when later checked loaded and pulled by my short-wheelbase diamond frame race bike. But such a luxury with a big rubbermaid box heat-molded to fit in the B.O.B., just toss everthing in and close the lid, never had to stuff the sleeping bag, good for the down, and would easily dry any sleep moisture during the day. But just impossible to transport the whole rig when not biking. I'm now a pannier convert. Although the rig, if easy to get in and out of house, was nice in suburbia for going to buy a new car battery when dead, piece of cake to go in the trailer each way, try doing that with panniers. Around that time I became aware of bikesatwork.com, they make massive bike utility trailers, you can move a fridge/freezer, mattress, recycling bins, lumber, etc, as long as the land is not too hilly.