Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

Coming from mountain bike forums and more offroadie set up's the Alpkit 13l drybag up front on the handlebars is a very common set up choice, i would say many consider it an ideal size and less volume means more ruthless packing and equipment choice.

Yeah it would definitely have been good to have a slightly smaller one, but I was away for over two weeks in all and needed enough clothes for all that, inc four days wandering around Copenhagen and I wanted to be able to dress like a normal person! I mostly had lighter, bulkier things like clothes in the front bag, and heavier smaller things in the seatpost bag.

I just recieved a 20l dry bag from Alpkit but it's a bit bigger than I expected. The straps are so far apart that they are exactly where my hands would be on the tops. How did you get along with this?

I managed to roll up each end to keep it as small as possible, depending on what I had inside it each day. The straps never seemed much of a problem, I just shoved them along or put my hands over the top of them. It's never going to be perfect, but for £13 it was bloody good!