Bicycle Saddle Bags For Touring

That's a really nice looking bag. Is it big enough to hold everything you need to carry? It looks like its be really well balanced.

That's a really nice looking bag. Is it big enough to hold everything you need to carry? It looks like its be really well balanced.

That's a really nice looking bag. Is it big enough to hold everything you need to carry? It looks like its be really well balanced.

I'm surprise that bag doesn't swing back and forth as you crank on the bike. I realize it's fastened to the seat post and fastened to the seat rails but that much bulk would certainly make that bag swing. Even if you don't need to carry much I would probably invest in a seatpost rack and then use bungee cords to strap your trunk bag to it to keep it from swinging.

I use panniers and much prefer the best...Ortliebs because they will last a lot longer than one or two tours. However if a person only needs something for one or two tours then the Ortliebs is a waste of money.

As with Froze, I suggest you get a pannier rack. I have one on my bike and I love it. You can get front pannier racks too, and might be able to distribute the contents of that backpack among front and rear panniers, thereby freeing yourself of the backpack.

I too think that getting a pannier rack would be better. I'm sure this is a good bag but it looks kind of odd. It almost looks as though the rider is sitting on the bag. It is okay for short rides but I'm not sure if it will be sturdy enough for a long ride.

That is a pretty cool bag. Must feel pretty good having the bulk of the weight on the bike and not on your back. I guess a cute little basket is not on the table.

Just come back from 4 days trip (around 300km) by central Ukraine. Perfectly satisfied with the saddle bag. My slipping pad and tent was in it.

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@Jerome S Even small downhill riding with the panniers is suicide 🙂
You can ride really in a dynamic style with a saddle bag.

@dmytro_goncharenko may I ask a question? Do you plan to write an account of your bicycle trip and post it somewhere? It is okay with me if you write in Ukrainian or Russian, I have friends who might be able to translate your writing for me. (I myself only know English. I apologize for not knowing your language.) I'm very interested in what you experienced during your trip. I do not know very much about your country or its people.

Bob

I'm glad it worked for you, I don't happen to like having a backpack on my back as I ride, it hurts my back after a while, makes my back real sweaty, and makes me feel top heavy on the bike which could cause handling issues. But if it works for you then by all means continue onward!

By the way a lot of Americans ride with panniers fully loaded front and rear and travel on very steep downhills and they never feel like it's a suicide ride. Front panniers are you're only iffy thing, they can, if not balanced correctly, mess your steering up; you like to pack light which means you don't even need front panniers, the most you would need is a handlebar bag to accompany your rear panniers. Don't forget to that panniers come in all sizes, you don't need to get the largest one you can find, a medium size one would be all that you would need, then with the rack that the panniers fasten too you can put that saddle bag on the rack and bungee it down.

Yes...the idea is to first install metal pannier racks on the bike. I have a rear rack on mine. I could put a front rack on if desired. Then add saddlebags which clip to the rack. The rack acts as a frame for the saddlebags and keep them out of the wheels.

Bob

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BobCochran said:

@dmytro_goncharenko may I ask a question? Do you plan to write an account of your bicycle trip and post it somewhere? It is okay with me if you write in Ukrainian or Russian, I have friends who might be able to translate your writing for me. (I myself only know English. I apologize for not knowing your language.) I'm very interested in what you experienced during your trip. I do not know very much about your country or its people.

Bob

Sure. Here is my trip report. There are also some advices about travelling in Ukraine. Ask me if you want to know any details.

dmytro_goncharenko said:

And pannier wasn't a proper decision for me because of many reasons (wrong weight balance,some risk of broken spokes on rear wheel and more).

Froze said:

Front panniers are you're only iffy thing, they can, if not balanced correctly, mess your steering up

Please tell me how many times have you picked up your friends on one of those AIST bikes, heh? Have you broken any of spokes? 🙂

From what I've read,
I see that you haven't tried a steering bag. I wouldn't chose it either because of what I remember about having someone heavy on the rear for a bike to handle it right. As you say, there's almost nothing in your saddle bag, then you probably don't really need a rear pannier. But if the bag starts sagging, I think you should get the pannier. Anyway, the difference shouldn't be crucial.

pojiullu9l said:

Please tell me how many times have you picked up your friends on one of those AIST bikes, heh? Have you broken any of spokes? 🙂

From what I've read,
I see that you haven't tried a steering bag. I wouldn't chose it either because of what I remember about having someone heavy on the rear for a bike to handle it right. As you say, there's almost nothing in your saddle bag, then you probably don't really need a rear pannier. But if the bag starts sagging, I think you should get the pannier. Anyway, the difference shouldn't be crucial.

I had "Kama" bike in childhood 🙂 but it was something like "Aist".

Let's keep in mind that we are a bit conservatives and follow our habits. If you used panniers for a long time you will use it. I can't imagine, really. They looks so hard and big!

But, I never went to the bike trip longest than one week, perhaps I will need more things in a long trip (or really fat wallet🙂 ).

And also it's a part of character and philosophy: I like to get rid of things, take minimum with me and own less.

P.S. Does steering bag reduce the visible area of the road?

Wow never thought they existed, seems they come a lot handy when it's a long journey.

pojiullu9l said:

Please tell me how many times have you picked up your friends on one of those AIST bikes, heh? Have you broken any of spokes? 🙂

From what I've read,
I see that you haven't tried a steering bag. I wouldn't chose it either because of what I remember about having someone heavy on the rear for a bike to handle it right. As you say, there's almost nothing in your saddle bag, then you probably don't really need a rear pannier. But if the bag starts sagging, I think you should get the pannier. Anyway, the difference shouldn't be crucial.

I haven't used front panniers yet, but I've spoken to lots of people who tour, not just on forum but those too, but also people I've seen who were touring and people I knew personally who do tour. One of the question I ask is how does the bike handle with bags, and the only complaints I've ever heard was from those that converted a road bike (using adapters) to handle small front panniers in combination with handlebar bags. Touring bikes made for touring I've never heard one complaint. There is always cross wind situations, but even those situations they all said it wasn't difficult to control. I asked a lot of questions about this touring stuff because I have plans to tour across the US.

I don't like trailers but having said that there is new trailer on the market that's piqued my interest, and that's the Extrawheel, see: extrawheelshop.comextrawheelshop.comOpen ↗ It's gotten rave reviews too. So the decision would be not to have front panniers and use this instead or just go with front panniers and be done with it. However there is a science behind front panniers, it does balance the weight better making the bike actually more stable, not less stable, especially climbing steep grades, but only if the weight is distributed 40% on the front and 60% on the rear; and it takes some of the pressure off the rear wheel helping to preserve spokes and hubs..

You can get panniers from small to medium to large, so a person who doesn't want to pack a lot yet keep the weight balance could use medium panniers on the rear and small ones on the front. There are quite a few options to play with.

However camping technology is rapidly improving especially in size and weight, I'm not so sure yet if I'll need more then just rear panniers, I won't know till I retire exactly what I'll do.

dmytro_goncharenko said:

P.S. Does steering bag reduce the visible area of the road?

It doesn't unless you flatten yourself to the frame. 🙂 (Ну не чемодан же там! 😄 )

Quoted post said:

Let's keep in mind that we are a bit conservatives and follow our habits. If you used panniers for a long time you will use it. I can't imagine, really. They looks so hard and big!

No one forces you to fill up panniers. And of course as Froze said, there are different sizes, weights, etc. But I don't think you would need them: your tour routes seem to cover at least one town in 80-100 km.

PS Froze, I didn't doubt your experience on the subject at least because of your postcount. 🙂 That's why I quoted you but my message was actually addressed to the TS. I meant to stress that (from what I've read here) 'Front panniers are you're only iffy thing' and so there should be no problems with rear panniers.

There's also a typo in my previous message, meant to say 'reap pannier' but not a 'steering bag'.

Quoted post said:

I have plans to tour across the US... I'm not so sure yet if I'll need more then just rear panniers...

So should we expect for a report on the forums in the future 🙂? And if that's across the country I think you might need exactly more than just rear panniers (I don't know what you are planning though, but if you personally think that could not be enough...).