• In a bit of a quandry here.

    I'm doing some touring in Belgium in a couple of months. My bike doesn't have any eyelets for panniers (and I bloody hate riding with them anyway so p-clips or a Beam rack aren't really an option for me). I purchased a Carradice SQR Tour Slim which has plenty of room for my belongings but the clearances on my frame are, well, not great, and there's about 50mm between the bottom of the bag and my back tyre. I tried it out on my commute today and it rubbed, I'm guessing when I went over bumps. I will have to return it and look at other options.

    I already have a Uraltour saddlebag but at about 10l I don't think it's big enough for a couple of weeks (unless I pair it with a handbar bag?). It also has droop issues unless you secure the straps super tight.

    The main issue is a ride a tiny frame (it's an XS B'Twin Ultra 700 AF which is about 49cm I think) -- I have about 11cm of seatpost showing and I'm not even sure there's 20cm between by saddle rails and the top of the tyre.

    Suggestions? The Apidura large bag might fit, but £100 was a bit more than I was expecting to spend to be honest.

  • Is the curse of the small bike unfortunately - also ride a small frame (50) and have little seatpost showing - had the same issue with Carradice SQR.

    I mostly just ride with two small panniers and a nice slim rack if I need to carry a decent amount of stuff.

    If that's not an option then you're restricted to whatever you can get into the biggest saddle* and handlebar bags you can fit. With regards to handlebar bags, I've found ones which velcro on rather than using a Klickfix style mount better for bigger loads.

    *you might have found your limit already - the apidura ones all need 18-20cm clearance as a minimum.

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