Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

I used to live just around the corner from where you took it. There's some great single track on the MOD land just after Woking as you follow the canal along...

Ha, fancier than my holder, which is a map case bulldog-clipped to a poundshop plastic cutting mat, zip-tied to the stem and bars...

Only a couple of quid from SJS when I saw them there.

Classic jules ;-)

FTFY, although riding through the fields was good fun actually, came across some guys doin some mad sick stunts with RC planes. all in all an amazing weekend for our first bit of bikepacking, that route would be perfect with a little bit of tweaking.

Anyone using a Wildcat seatpack? Or any other stand-out/new saddle bag offerings out there at the moment?

I'm inclined to go with the small Wildcat one as I'll just be doing fair-weather overnighters at first and it'd be good to have something small for longer dayrides too.

I use a Wildcat and I like it, but every time I mention it on here someone tells me how shit it is. :-/

Haha yeah without that awful restricted path and the field on the second day. Easily fixed though. I'll make some changes and post a link here if anyone fancies it

Sounds a bit harsh. What's their reasoning?

That the straps loosen over time and that it needs a tapered drybag to pack properly. I do have the tapered drybag - it was quite expensive - but very convenient. Straps are fine on mine.

Anyone using a Wildcat seatpack?

@jammy I think I'm rigght in saying he is very fond of it

Didn't realise the wildcat didn't include the dry bag in the price, bought the Blackburn in the end. Have read good and bad (as with the wildcat) so we'll see. As much as I like the idea of UK made I can't justify nearly double the cost right now and more importantly it should come before the weekend.

Yep, love mine. Had it for 6 years now. I used to use it without a tapered dry bag - still works fine. It's all in the packing.

If you read the instructions they recommend packing some small, loose items at the bottom such as your socks to give that part of the dry bag some room to move to take up the space near the seatpost.

Also re straps: As far as I can say the wildcat has the best straps system as they double up over the seat rails to act as a pulley system, giving you a 2:1 ratio mechanical advantage when tightening them. Sometimes the straps won't slide over each other too easily when tightening but a quick wiggle of the pack gets things moving so you can take out the slack. Never had the bag loosen whilst riding. Whole of TNR, South Downs way and plenty of other offroad stuff.

So here are some progress pictures of my bags.
Hoping to do more this weekend!

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they double up over the seat rails to act as a pulley system

I wonder if the people who have problems with the Wildcat straps loosening haven't looped them over the saddle rails properly?

Exactly this - if you pack the bag as suggested and fasten it properly it's rock solid and you have no idea it's there...

it's not shit - just revelate better for price imo.

A few tips from my relatively limited knowledge of making bags, get some double sided tape like this for your seams, it makes things easier to hold together so you can get straighter lines etc. https://www.profabrics.co.uk/products/double-sided-seaming-tape-6mm?variant=6056078531

And when you do the zip, I think it's easier to fold the seam over and stitch it onto the zip through the seam and through the zip (3 layers of fabric). Difficult to explain over in text but if you look at something like a revelate they have a stitch running along the zip which might make it clearer. You can also do this on the zip ends too.

Seam stuff sounds like a good idea.

The zip is tricky in the sense you need to be thinking about facing fabric ,facing, facing zip but I found it easy enough to sew. Plus I figure looks neater, the apidura are made this way.
Or am I missing something? It’s all very new to me.

I can't see the new Apidura design online but the older one is made like I'm talking about. I guess it looks a bit neater but I found when you pack it you don't end up with a flat transition between zip and fabric. I also think you'll pull your stitches through the fabric when it's full of stuff because of the directions you are pulling in.

on a side note adding foam around the sides helps a lot to hold shape too.

If you read the instructions they recommend packing some small, loose items at the bottom such as your socks to give that part of the dry bag some room to move to take up the space near the seatpost.

Always a great solution, I'm still amazed by some people whom went touring and have the loosest saddle imaging, probably gonna claim that it help with performance.

Ah ok, we’ll that might be V2 adaption.
I’m not expecting them to be right first time.
The foam is something I’ve been looking into particularly for top tube bag and saddle bag. Also some form of plastic to create the shape. Think saddle bag is by far the hardest!!
Have you any pictures of the ones you made?

This is the last one I made, I no longer have access to a walking foot machine so I stopped making them (Would like to have buy one... but quite expensive). The bags probably done 6000km since then with no problems.

I also have a lot of Cordura if you want to buy some

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Looking to get the apidura compact frame pack for an audax I've got next weekend. Anyone know if it rubs the frame much?

Impressive looking bags.

Whats happening with what looks like the exposed cable on the down tube? Is it hugging the cable to the tube or is there some cable housing hidden by the strap?

Not specifically Apidura, but my Alpkit Ananloko rubs noticeably. This may be down to the double sided velcro it attaches with, other straps may vary.

I think if you're concerned about your paintwork, then some protective tape is a must have. I just accept that my bikes will always end up looking shabby.