Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

really like my Exped lightweight one. Size of a beer can packed, had it years, cost me about £30. So... touch wood I don’t puncture it next trip.

@Skülly not £30 anymore by the sounds of it but cheers for the recommendation. Will keep my eye out for exped

Exped or Thermarest. Go for one with a good r value.

@Landslide cheers will take a look. What should I be budgeting to spend? £70ish?

Got all my bags sorted now mostly second hand, just need some stem bags.
Other than a sleeping bag got nothing sleeping wise.
Planning to get jet boil type thing, 1 man tent (or is that a waste of space for bikepacking? Was thinking it'll do pannier touring too), sleeping mat, maybe a bivvy.
Think I'll then be kitted out.

If you fancy a peaks weekend this summer I would be keen :) last one was ace

sleeping pad - anything from exped synmat or themarest neoair xlite range that fits your weight to price ratio. they hold their resale value very well too

jet boil - skip it and get a BRS 3000 T and a titanium pot (both can be had on aliexpress)

1 man tent - secondhand six moon designs with cheap carbon pole from that guy on ebay (and an ultralight tyvek groundsheet if you buy a floorless one)

i'll be running the peaks trip again this summer, it was such a special trip!

@platypus thanks so much! Peaks trip extremely keen. If there's anything I can do to help organise let me know :)
Managed to get second hand a revelate full frame bag and seat pack recently. Probably need a rigid post too to swap out my external dropper on my sherpa for the seat pack as not scratch the stanchion.

great. yes try a rigid post, my syntace hiflex one is awesome, or a wolftooth valais or similar on the dropper

Revelate make a dropper bag I think. I will be on the lookout for one (used, RRP is jokes) if I ever get my Sherpa built. Meant to be in paint this week.

EDIT: Vole

What worked miracles for me in terms of staying warm on cold nights outside is to take a belt (or whatever you have with you) and strap it around the outside of the sleeping bag around the waist area! Traps the warmth by your legs and prevents it from escaping. Makes a massive difference for me!

I've bought one of these topeak things to try the dropper / seatpack combo. Doesn't need the topeak pack. I havent actually tried it yet, but didnt cost the earth, which is refreshing for a bikepack product.

https://www.topeak.com/global/en/products/298-Bottle-Cage-Mounts/1139-DP-MOUNT

In that photo it looks lie you'll get all off 5mm drip before the bag hits the tyre.

I reckon if you're running dropper, you're doing real mtb, and having a saddle bag is not good for bike handling.

https://bikepacking.com/gear/dropper-post-seat-bags/

Might I suggest a rear rack

Pannier racks - a viable alternative to bike packing bags

Look. When you graduate from little boy gravel bike school, to proper mtb. You will know what I mean.
That top one would be fine, the 2nd one OK if you keep it really light.

have you lost your fucking mind mate

We've ridden off-road together twice, I think?

Badlands, I beat your ass (my gravel bike vs. your MTB) and the other time I was on a gravel bike and you crashed your MTB.

You can come back to the adults table when you've finished your vegetables.

....

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Wake up from your dreams

Agree to disagree I think. Tend to plan my bikepacking round fun descents where possible and dropping the saddle will be nice. Also on a couple of trips we've left our stuff at a bothy for an out and back. Planning on doing Ben Macdui this year and having a dropper will be useful for that!

The pic above isn't great and I think with my relatively small saddle pack I'll be fine.

Also, not having to uncable/recable the internal dropper is an extra bonus.

Ooh it burns, it burns! :P

Most people do disagree with me!

Maybe we are mixed up though. I love droppers. Just not big saddlebags when trying to ride proper mtb.
I just have bad memories of trying to hustle my over ladened saddle bag around the highland trail 550. It ruined the handling of the bike.

I would run a small saddlebag on a dropper but only just 1kg in kt at most.

Might I suggest a bike fit

I don't disagree. I merely linked to dropper specific saddle bags so OP could have a look at some 'specific' options. The thing with MTBs is the flat bars allow you to run more up-front so you should really be able to get away with a much smaller saddlebag. There's also backpacks as an option, like you used - I've seen a bunch of people using them off-road, presumably because it impacts the handling less than bikepacking kit. I still have my Camelbak from 20+ years ago so it's not a new idea. Iohan, the guy that's spent the last 6 years touring on various MTB around the world uses a rack with a backpack on it so that for technical sections or hikes he can pull the backpack off the rack and wear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp7OjrlC6aM

So... a rack.