would 1700ci between a pair of panniers be two large for the front rack of my kona sutra 2010? the panniers in question are axiom seymores. i would like to save a little money if possible; if i don't have to purchase panniers for my front rack than all the better. i was planning on using them in conjunction with 1200ci panniers in the back; that 1200ci each. i would also want to purchase a good handlebar bag and already have a 600+ci internal frame fanny pack. altogether it's a bit overboard i guess for storage capacity but i like to be organized.

Lone Peaks largest front panniers go @ 2000ci(pair) so you should be fine.

3,200 seems like a lot on the front, plus the total capacity seems to be a lot too. That being said, sure why not? You can do just about anything. I would do a test run of it though. The rack will be able to handle it but make sure you do not put more than about 30 pounds up front because most forks are net designed to handle much more than that.

You might get more useful answers if you told us where you are planning to tour and for how long. Depending on the route and length of the trip I personally would consider just going with rear panniers only rather than go way overboard on the bulk and weight. For up to 2 weeks of touring I can usually get by on 45-50 liters of total space, including the handle bar bag, and be just fine and dandy.

One problem people have run into when going with rear panniers on the front is that they may scrape on the ground going around curves. Pretty dangerous stuff! Is your rack a "low rider" or can you mount them up high?

it would not be 3200 in the front it would be 1700 in the front 2400 in the back unless you are counting the handlebar bag but i didn't tell you the ci of that. my tour will be 8 days. i am touring around lake champlain.

He said 1700ci on front and 1200ci(X2=2400) on the back. Total on bike=4100. Where did you get 3200 on front????

wow, marvelous beat me, sorry for the redundancy

There are about 61 cubic inches per liter. Thus, 1700 cubic inches would be roughly 28 liters and 1200 cubic inches is roughly 20 liters. That is in the range of common sizes. Have you tried to ride around town with most of your weight loaded on a back rack? You will have to decide what you are comfortable with when it comes to handling. Some bikes handle better than others with most of the weight on the back rack.

I am curious... What do you carry on a longer tour that you don't carry on a 2-3 week one? I use the same packing list for either with the assumption that if I can do without something for two weeks I don't need it on a longer trip either. If anything on a longer trip I pack more carefully and am more likely to mail stuff to and from home as conditions change to avoid carrying too much. For example if I leave the mountains I might mail my colder weather clothing home.

To the original question... It sounds OK to me, but yeah it is probably more capacity than you need if you pack similarly to what I do. Total pannier space of a bit over 3000 cubic inches has been adequate for me for tours of whatever length (mine have been between 10 and 73 days so far). I usually have the tent on top of the rear rack and some empty space in the panniers.

My bad. I misread his post thinking it was 1,700 each pannier and then also miscalculated and got 3,200!

+1 to what everyone else has said.

As for longer tours and packing. If I am going on a tour that maybe longer than 2 weeks it is usually because its the kind of tour where there is no coming back for a good long time, such as an open ended tour or a third world country. If I only have two weeks off it is likely that I will be staying relatively local such as within my own state or a neighboring state. If I get more than two weeks off of work then I generally go somewhere more exotic, more remote, or more poor, possibly all of the above. One or all of those reasosn means I end up packing slightly more like, water filters, extra repair parts, ect.. Also the extra capacity often goes into extra room for food and water during long stretches that just do not exist as much in the US anymore.

I live in Korea at the moment by the way and its hard to find a place to camp where you can not see a convent store nearby! Thus I often tour here with as little as 25 liters of space.

Exactly! An overnight to 4 day tour is actually harder to pack for than a 2 week to forever tour.

That's about what I have too. The small fronts (1200 cu. in.) are usually stuff full with all the heavy stuff while the rears (2100 cu. in.) are about 1/2 to 2/3 full with light bulky stuff.

Thanks for the reply.