Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

Was thinking that, might ask a carbon specialist to add some mounts to fit one.

http://www.bikepacking.com/routes/bikepacking-slovenia/

Looks like a great route!

for anyone who's interested, alpkit have 10% off skyehigh sleeping bags, code: SHUKC10

What's the recommended saddle bag at the moment. Restrap looks nice, but pricey. Alpkit? Wildcat?

I've got apidura - works well and is nice and light

I use an Oveja Negra 8-12L...I'll be on a 1000km single track for 9 days with it this coming Saturday, so will report back with how well it does in a downpour and swaying.

It might seem pricey, my first saddlebag was an as new Archie's grobag (which I paid £75 for, think they originally sold for more) and the main compression strap buckle failed and snapped after 2 days (due to being cheap tat) leaving me to bodge it with bungees and a suitcase strap to make it through the rest of the trip.

When you have the restrap one in your hands, you realise no expense has been spared, no corner cut, the materials and buckles/magnets are all top quality and solid as hell. 13 rough days on the road with mine and not a whisper of an issue, and they are offering a guarantee on the workmanship for the lifetime of the product ( not sure exactly what that means) but I expect if something went wrong, they'd sort you out.

I like the Restrap and Wildcat designs because of the separate dry bag - leaning towards restrap because of the apparent robustness, but wonder if it is overbuilt and over weight? Any idea on weight? Also put off by the lead times.

Not sure what weight is for wildcats 5-8 ltr harness or the drybag, but the 13ltr ortlieb drybag is 226g and the harness is about 445g (mine is a bit muddy so could be a couple of grams lighter box fresh)

If you were worried about grams you could use a lighter drybag as the ortlieb is pretty heavy duty.

Personally the weight doesn't bother me, I'd rather have something durable.

2 Attachments

Thanks for doing that, very helpful. All I can see on Wildcat is 195g but assume that is for the smaller one.

wildcat largest appears to be 5-8 litres, while restrap is 13l. so choose which best fits the amount of kit you plan to carry.

Just spent 5 and a half days on the Munda Biddi in south west WA. I fell short of my full trail in 8.5 day goal, my hands slowly stopped working over the 700km I rode, I was fine with not being able to hold a teaspoon but when you can't use shifters or brakes that was probably the end of it and I fell behind schedule. I'll let the photos speak for themselves! Hopefully you can check it out, it's a public fb album :) will post kit list if anyone is interested.

The Munda Biddi is a 1000km continuous trail that runs from Perth all the way to Albany, with about half of it purpose built single track, the other half on fire roads. The "recommended" amount of km is the distance from hut to hut on the maps - about 40-60km. I was smashing 130-150km a day as I couldn't get enough time off work!

Just had a browse of the photos, looks like an awesome trip! Serious mileage too

Warbird setup this summer. Stavanger, Norway down to Fanø, Denmark. Faaast.
Sleeping bag, hammock, tarp and 50 sneakers. Reveleate jerry can and feedback was posted to my destination for more sneakers. Shit phone sorry.

50 sneakers
more sneakers

That's a lot of shoes..!

Snixkers. Snickers! The bar shaped fuel

?

Before I buy new, does anyone have an Alpkit Koala they'd like to part with?

Has anyone used an compact apidura on a carbon seatpost?

What's the concern? fit it in, you'll be fine.

The seat post snapping etc
It will not be loaded that much.

Least of your concern.

As long as the seatpost has a good saddle clamp should be fine, I had a nightmare running a saddlebag on a USE cyclops, saddle kept slipping and tilting up. Not a lot of weight in the bag really but a lot of leverage as it extends out.