Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

So with a bit of time on my hands, rudimentary knowledge of a sewing machine and with the help of some online tutorials I've made myself a set of bike packing bags. Looking forward to testing them out on weekend camping trips when I get back to Cambodia.

Bags

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Both the saddle bag and the handle bar harness will fit 13L to 20L dry bags

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@pdlouche we're only doing 2 days, but need full set of clothes at the end.
Off to Paris. It's more stuff than my last week long tour...
The floods and the forecast forced over packing > normal.
Also wanted to try out some kit.
But not massively impressed with my apidura buckle breaking 4 miles out from start. Slowed us right down.

Always carry a long strip of velcro, or webbing with a buckle. I guess you could ghetto it with a regular belt or even insulation tape.

I bought loads of side release clip buckles from PX in their clearout. It was cheaper than ebay. Army surplus often have them in bigger sizes too.

excellent enterprise!

Used a couple of spare reusable zip ties- they're my essential touring kit.

Nice work!
I think you're onto a winner with that top tube/frame bag combo.....it looks practical and aesthetically pleasing at the same time!

Did you use some sort of rip-stop poly-cotton?

amazing effort...

Can you guys recommend a low cost setup that would do me for a weekend? I've got a buddy who is itching to do some weekend touring & camping (on road routes - probably at a camp site with a pub dinner). I've got a Genesis Fugio which has minimal eyelets, so bike packing seems like the viable option - I was thinking a medium sized rear bag and handlebar bag would be sufficient, splitting the tent between us. Do people generally fit their sleeping bag between the handlebars?

Low cost:
-dry bag with straps to handlebar to do as handlebar roll
-dry bag with straps to do as saddle bag
-get a large cheap triathlon TT bag to do as a snack top bag if you like
-two water bottles
-small backpack to take on frequent use stuff - camera, sweater, food etc

Sleeping bag, mat, tent etc in handlebar roll. If your sleeping bag is one of the huge old types might be worth looking into some sort of compression sack for it to pack it down.

Clothing in seatbag.

Agreed. I do like my cheap ktm saddle bag, but it still needs a dry bag inside.

@Sebbb have a flick through the pics on the previous ten pages or so.

Compression sacks and dry bags are your best friend. Are you handy? Webbing and buckles are cheap, I made my own straps for the sleeping bag and chalk dip bag as snack bag up front.

Thanks guys - appreciated. I'll have a headscratch and see what I come up with...

Thanks guys, The material I used for all the bags started life as an old one man german army tent/groundsheet I got from ebay for £10. It's not ripstop but it is quite a hardwearing canvas, for the bags that will see a lot of rubbing i.e. the saddle bag and handlebar holster I did an inside lining of synthetic material from on old cut up sports shoe bag, which also provided free foam cladding to give the bags a bit of shape.

Cheers! I was looking around for full top tube bags set ups and didn't really see any, most people seem to use two bags instead, which made me wonder why no one was doing it? I mocked it up first to see if it would interfere with my knees etc. when pedalling but it's fine. I guess it's the wide q-factor of mtb cranks and spd pedals. This bag will probably be used to carry bladders of drinking water as where I will be riding, clean water is hard to come by. That and it's bloody hot!

Nullabor?

Nah Mondulkiri in the north east of Cambodia.

Went to Brecon in one, fully loaded, then had a few days riding without bags in the Beacons

Sounds awesome. Nice one

On the MYOG tip figured some folks might find this useful...
http://limberlost.co/2016/03/28/make-your-own-handlebar-roll-harness/

On that topic of making your own bikepacking stuff, I'm quite tempted to make a frame bag.. where's the best place to get all these high spec cordura & waterproof zips?

Probably Point North/Pro Fabrics in the UK. Extrem-Texile (or something similar) in Germany.

What about sewing your own bags? Will a normal machine do the job?

I've got through 2 layers of cordura, 2 layers of ripstop and some nylon webbing in one go with a normal machine, that was definitely the limit though, broke one needle and had to take it super slow!

cheers.. Not sure the wife would like me wrecking her machine!!