Cycle Tour - Choosing Gear - Bags and Panniers for Luggage

Choosing Gear for a Cycle Tour (Part 2) – Bags - for luggage, food, maintenance equipment, first aid, electrics. 

Firstly, as a principal, everything we purchase must be durable with multiple trips in mind.   As to how much you purchase will depend on so many factors – your budget, length of time, whether you hire bikes or take your own, camping or using accommodation, type of riding, country you are riding in?  For this “How To”, we will be providing examples from our recent bike tours - Adriatic to The Baltic 2023, & the West Balkans 2024, of how we go about choosing and hopefully you can use that process for your situation.

In broad terms the “gear” needed for a cycle tour is:

• Bicycle and saddle (covered in Part 1)
• Tyres, Pedals and Gearing (covered in Part 1)
• Bags for luggage (covered in this How To)
• Maintenance equipment
• Luggage
• Lighting
• Helmet
• Communications and maps.

There is a massive selection of bags to choose from, or you can make your own, however your style of journey will narrow the field.  Let’s make a start.

For any length of journey over 2 days, bags attached to the bike will need to carry clothes, water, food, repair and maintenance equipment, first aid and electrics … and camping gear if wild camping. It is essential to keep all your packed gear dry and clear of the mud.  Consideration needs to be given to weight distribution throughout the setup and where the centre of gravity is. So, onto the rest.

There are 3 styles of bags that are either mixed or used exclusively:

• Backpacks;
• Side panniers/saddle bags (top openers); and
• Bar and frame bags and Seatpacks (seatpost bags).

The combination you choose depends on the style of riding for your adventure and how much you plan on carrying.

We make reference to our decisions regarding our 2024 West Balkans 10-week ride, given the parameters we had decided on:

• We wanted the total weight of bike, attachments, bags and luggage not to weigh over 26kg, made up of bike and racks 12.5kg, bags 2kg and luggage 11.5kg max.
• We are not wild camping (not our forte), so no camping or cooking equipment is required, just a loaded Wise debit card. For accommodation we use booking.com.

Backpacks: are not our favoured form of carrier for 3 reasons – they can make your body hot and sticky on warm days (let alone hot days), many people have experienced back pain on long days in the saddle, and it is another area of chaffing. However, Osprey make a great range of well supported backpacks should you choose that path.  Stuffable packs that are super light to put in your bike bag as a daypack for off-the-bike treks, food shopping or simply as a general stuff hauler when you need more stuff are a good acquisition. Osprey ultralight 18litre stuff daypack or Hyperlite Mountain Gear “Stuff Pack” are good examples. Other than being very comfortable packs and very light, they compress to the size of a pair of socks, perfect for tossing in the frame bag for occasional use, or stuffing in your back pocket when your picnic is done.

We then moved on to research other bags attached to the bike:

Side Panniers. Saddle Bags (top openers):

Ortlieb Back Roller Classic – for volume, waterproof and secure attachment system.  Each bag is 20 litres volume, with one compartment in each bag, each with a Quick-lock 2.1 system of attachment.  Each bag weighs 1 kg. One of the more expensive.

Thule Shield – has a huge volume 2 x 25 litres, strong waterproof material and good attachment, only 1 compartment in each.  Each bag weighs 2 kg.

Arkel Bug Pannier Backpack – 25 litre, many compartments, can convert into a backpack, water-resistant, 1.2kg each, expensive.  Possibly best where a couple riding and one has 2 panniers that can be converted into a backpack each.  Good mounting system.

Tailfin 22 litre Ultra Durable Side Bag, waterproof with a rigid internal backbone, roll top, light weight at 740 grams, excellent mounting system that doesn’t rattle, and reasonably priced for the high quality.  This is our pick of the larger panniers, and suggest you have a look. With this system it requires the purchase also of the superlight Pannier Rack.   

Tailfin also make a 5 (or 10) litre fork pack which fits with the cage to the fork attachments or the attachment holes on the pannier racks.  This pack size appears good for food, small items of clothing and beverage.  Total weight is 387g including the cage.

Seat Post Bags:

Whilst seat post bags are lighter than side panniers and very streamlined in that they sit behind the rider, there is the tendency for them to move sideways a bit if weighty articles are packed at the back of the bag.   Their litre capacity is nowhere near as big, however in our instance we are setting a limit on the amount of luggage.

Ortlieb Seat-Pack Saddle Bag - 16 litre, 460g is a waterproof bag with an air-release valve to easily purges the bag of trapped air, allowing for tighter compression.  To transfer luggage overnight the whole bag needs to be removed from the bike.

Topeak Backloader - 15 litre, 500g is a water-resistant bag with an inner waterproof drybag.  The inner bag has the air-release valve and means this bag can be taken out without removing the whole bag.

Both bags are almost identical in the way of attachment to the bike, being attached to both the underside of the seat as well as the seat post, and they are very similar in closure. Based on that the Topeak bag is easier to pack and unpack, and that it is significantly cheaper we have chosen this bag.

Rear Racks

Rear racks were considered for the following reasons:

1. should we choose to take side panniers; or
2. for extra support to a seat post bag and to provide extra luggage capacity to this form.

Any form of rear rack needed to be light, meaning 800g or less.

Racktime Weight 800g.  Has some adjustment forward or back, and Racktime has a range of bags and baskets that clip into place with their snap-it system.

Old Man Mountain Elkhorn has side attachment points (nuts) giving more options for packing. 

Tailfin Pannier Rack The reason to consider this brand is if we were to consider the whole Tailfin system as the pannier attachment is unique.  The system is good, but comparatively expensive.

Drop Bar Bags

Topeak 12 litre Frontloader bag with waterproof drybag, air release valve.  About A$130 as of 2024. Weight 450g. 

Taifin Bar bag 12.5 litre, weight 820g.  Waterproof single bag with lock attachment to the handlebars.  Air valve release.  About $470 (as of 2024).

Brooks England Scape Handlebar roll, 11 litre, weight 670g.  This and Topeak are very similar in the attachment to the bike and the dry bag system.  This dry bag has 2 compartments, but no air valve to compress the bag. 

In-Frame Bags

When choosing an in-frame bag it is important to measure the space you have on your bike. Some makers provide a template to allow easy measurement.

Brooks England – 3 and 3.5 litre size, up to 50cm length. Waterproof, zips both sides with 2 compartments. Up to 215g. 

Tailfin Frame bag - 1.9 to 6.5 litre, waterproof, 208g to 382g and up to 53 cm in length. 2 zips either side with 2 compartments and small zipped pocket internally, electronics or hydration hole.

Apidura Expedition Frame Pack has 5 different pack configurations ranging from 3.5 to 6.5 litre, weight varies up to 220g.  Has left and right-hand zips, 2 compartments, one with internal zipper pocket for passport/valuables, and is waterproof.

Ortlieb Frame Pack Toptube 3 or 4 litre. 4 litre, weighs 200g, 50cm long.  Waterproof. Zip only on right hand side. 

All are good bags, of a similar price and weight, though Tailfin may be a bit heavy and Ortlieb only has 1 zip, 1 compartment.  For the added size, low weight, waterproof and compartments we chose the Apidura 5 litre.

Top Tube Bags

Apidura Expedition top tube pack – 1 litre, waterproof, with a range of attachment options.

Ortlieb Fuel Pack – 1 litre, waterproof, power cord outlet, strap or screw attachment.

These are almost identical, so compatability with the in-frame bag may be an important consideration.

When it came to deciding on the combination to buy, the main consideration was weight of luggage we planned to take and price.

As mentioned, for our 2024 journey we chose to buy Norco Search XR steel gravel bikes to replace our Merida 5000 carbon road bikes which we had used for tours over the previous 8 years.  These bikes have more attachment points, wider dropbars, and are able to take wider tyres.  The total weight we wish to keep to is 26 kg per bike, which contains around 2kg of bags.  Our configuration below has Greg’s bike with 2.014 kg and Jen’s 1.814 kg.

What were our decisions for each bike?:

We trust this ‘How To’ gives you some ideas to conduct your own research and how to configure the bags for your tour.  I will cover the topics of “Maintenance gear” next week.

The answers to this question of “gear” are so wide ranging and somewhat reflect the rider’s personality.  I saw a beautiful photo on Instagram from a Warm Showers host - the travelling cyclist was heading off with plastic buckets strapped to either side of the bike and a piece of dowel roped onto the bike to use as a bike stand. His bike was old.

Often it is about risk and reward. Some gear just makes the journey more enjoyable and can make life easier on the road … and there is always new innovative gear!

Greg and Jen - October 2024