Switzerland

Why do many tourers load up at the front and avoid rear panniers?

Reasons:

The front wheel carries less weight, since your body is over the rear wheel (maybe... 60/40 split or so).

The front rack can mount the panniers lower to bring your center of gravity further down. The rear rack has to stay over the derailleur.

On many bikes, especially bikes with a "low-trail" fork and geometry, a load in the front smooths out the steering and improves handling



Non-reasons:

It's a hair more aerodynamic

It looks cooler

I recently got a Troll and am thinking of converting to front rack. But it seems like a weird move for times when I'm carrying one pannier (eg left one at campsite) or I'm carrying a *ton* of weight temporarily (eg a 12 pack just until we get somewhere). Thoughts?

It is slightly more awkward. Two lightly-loaded panniers up front work for grocery runs, and the top of the rack is good for strapping on a 12-pack.

I think if you find the handling of a front rack to be a really big boon to your riding comfort every day (~95% of the tour), you will find a way to make that system work for little things like grocery runs (~5% of the tour).

Yeah, thats what I'm afraid of - it seems that with front rack you always need to think really hard about distributing weight evenly or you get real steering problems. Whereas with the back, while that helps tremendously for long rides, you can kind of wing it and learn to compensate and the issue with only one pannier (or generally uneven packing) is more that of drag and weight than of steering.. Does that make sense? The other option is *both* but with the Troll and Big Apple 2.35, bikes starting to get plenty heavy :-(

Yes, weight distribution is more of an "issue" in the front than in the back...but it's relative. You really need to try it to decide if that issue is an issue for you or not.

Personally, I can ride my bike just fine with a really significantly unbalanced load, so long as it's low to the ground. I can't ride with my hands off the bars, but I don't notice any instability, really. I can compensate the steering with my pinky finger. It's not a problem for me!

once one has tried front load one will not go back to back load. the only reason to carry two back panniers is when you have to bring your whole household bike with low trail fork and front load behaves far better climbing ... no frame wobbling left right left right ....

That is a beautiful setup :-) What kind of rack is that?

Great photo. Very raw.

thank you guys.....

the low rider rack is a Tubus Tara
the rack for the handle bar bag is from Wheeldan Titankonstruktionen

https://www.flickr.com/photos/things...57633264087809

Heading out on my first tour. Lewisburg, PA to Pittsburgh, then the GAP/C&O to Washington, D.C. Getting out of Washington via Rock Creek Park Trails, then country roads to Lewisburg, PA. Route distance is about 730 miles. I have 40 lbs of gear on the bike and hope to complete the trip within 10-11 days.

Nice rig! Gorgeous colors.

+ 1

+2

My new Basketpacking rig! Ready for action!








The bar bag is kinda cool. It's a rope bag, and it folds out like a tarp when you empty it out. Just grab the four corners, and everything slides right inside.








Neat! Click my blog link if you want a more detailed description.

nice

Very nice! Are you running the H Plus Son rims tubeless? I've heard of people doing it with them and succeeding - I'm tempted to give it a try.

Me and my rig somewhere along the Oregon coast a couple of weeks ago, mid ride between Tillamook and San Francisco. Note the bar bag strapped to rear rack = bracket malfunction when preparing the bike for air travel. Still, the ride was spectacular. Maybe some more pics when I've got over the jet lag...

My 1994 Trek 520 with my new set of ortleibs

I want to run all my bikes tubeless, but I haven't found the time to actually do it. I'm going to wait until winter, because then my local bike shop will have less going on and I can use the stand and air compressor for hours if I need to.

haha, my problem is that I have about 15 new tires I have to work my way through before I buy tubeless specific ones. I also just bought about 20 tubes from priceline when they were going out of business.

too like to be able to reach into my handlebar bag but its placement interferes with my front light so I take off the light and I'm not really comfortable about that. Many hub dynamo-based lights have a front fork bracket that holds them in place but I don't have a dynamo (or any sort) so I don't have this type of light. I wish I could find (or easily make) a front fork mount (where the screw/bolt holds my front fender) that is round so I can attach my light that currently mounts on my handlebar.

Minimalist touring

thats a pretty neat setup.