Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

Cheers man. This thread/lfgss gave me a lot of inspiration for the trip!

That is what Angel at Condor said, who found the bag in their storage and then fitted it.

They are not very waterproof, do I need a dry bag?

And the bag might mean the end of my love with baggy trousers on the bike.

Thought this is the most appropriate place on the forum for this

In the photo, are the pegs on the front forks a foot rest for descents?! I'd imagine with extra front load and feet off pedals that a spoon brake would ignite in an Alpen pass.

What is the affect of riding with packs on the top of bars?

^1898, they probably just didn't brake. Men were men and sheep were scared int em days.

^^ it's like London Fields on a sunday (except for the mountains)

I wouldn't bother with dry bag.
Unless your in torrential rain for hours.

Just use a few sandwich bags for important stuff.

That's an amazing photo.

http://www.pedalingnowhere.com/gear/bikepacking-hacks/

Great ideas.

getting the nature boy ready - blackburn on the back with tarp inside plus extra room, roll mat on the blackburn too. Backpack with sleeping back and other equipment.

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All set for 1 week St Malo to Montpellier.
No camping or cooking, B&Bs and cafés all the way.
Steel road frame, carbon forks, mixed Ultegra/105 groupset.
32 spoke Open Pros with 25mm Duranos.
50/34 on the front, 12-30 on the rear.
Revelate frame bag for tools, spare tubes, wash stuff, any extra general crap.
Large Topeak Areo Wedge on the saddle, and small Poc drybag on Nitto rear rack, for clothes.
Small Deuter gas tank style bag on the top bar for snacks.
Samsonite camera bag on the bars, with luxury item Jabwa Solemate mini speaker strapped on top.
Quad Lock phone mount on the stem.
Comes in at a smidge over 15kg, with empty water bottles.

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@Zdrenka getting down and dirty

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Both looking good. Neat rack, Philbythesea!

Backpack with sleeping back and other equipment.

If the sleeping bag is heavy it may be preferable to get it in the seat pack and off your back

Nitto R10. £58 from Hubjub, came with 2 sets of stays, short and long, fits on pretty much any steel frame with the p-clips, used it a few times now, really well made and solid.

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Anyone got this?

https://www.apidura.com/product/top-tube-pack-extended/

I have an alpkit one but it's a bit shit and flops about and to the side. The apidura one stay in place?

^Not sure on the apidura, but my Archie's gas tank bag was/is the same. Real design flaw in these and bloody annoying in use.
Some plastic inserts, or similar (in the sides) in your alpkit should help. I actually found an old sunglasses case that fits perfectly in mine.

I have one, it's more solid than the Alpkit version. There is foam stuff in the sides to keep the shape. Zip died after ~12 months, will attempt to fix it. As sewing machine is currently away being serviced too got a Revelate one as a last-minute stand in for this weekend.

Want to see if the double-zip design works out better as I'm prone to overstuffing these things...

Which would you rate more. Apidura or reveleate?

I'll let you know on Sunday evening, collecting Revelate from the post office tomorrow morning on the way out.

Definitely interested in this, as I'm trying to figure out if the 35 quid top tube pack is more secure/solid than the generic topeak feed bags.

Did some cheap bikepacking last weekend. That seat post mounted rear rack sways about like hell, no riding outside of saddle but did the job. Next time gonna get better and lighter camp stuff and possibly get one of those nice apidura seat packs.

Thanks.

Have a good one!

How did you find the deuter top tube pack? Did it flop to one side easily?