Cycling UK Forum

Assuming you have the mounts, of course....

There are:
Bar bag
Saddle bag
Top bag for rear carrier
Rear panniers
Front panniers
Rucksack
Whatever

Now it would be quite a tour to fill all of these, but as your load gets bigger, in which order do you deploy your luggage?

You missed out frame bag!

Mostly it depends on personal preference, how much you're taking, balance of bike, and of course what your bike can take in way of mounts, bar bags not getting in the way of cables, etc. Personally, for a tour, I'd start with rear panniers. Tent or maybe sleeping bag on top of rack. It's not usually possible to use a saddle bag or pack along with rack top, they occupy pretty much the same space. Valuables or stuff I might want to access while riding in bar bag. If I really want still more, front panniers or maybe gorilla cages or similar on the front forks. I've never tried a frame bag.

Others will do it differently. Best might be to experiment before you actually start your tour and see what works for you.

My load goes from lightest to heaviest:
Bar bag and carradice Nelson
Bar bag and front panniers used on the rear
Bar bag and rear panniers
Bar bag, front panniers, and rear panniers
Bar bag, front panniers, rear panniers, and top of the rear rack.

Hmmm....bar bag seems to be a common theme.
Only major item I don't have at the moment.
[I see there is another thread about choosing a bar bag.]

Bar bag, or top tube bag for most rides, always if I wish to take a camera
Saddle bag, always on the bike, tools, tubes, lock, any clothing change or anything else i might need in the day.
Rear panniers (Small ones), for touring, they only carry what I need at the end points, they shouldn't need to be opened along the way (Also has the advantage of being able to let someone else transport them for you without worrying you've become seperated from something you might need.) If I'm camping the tent is strapped to the top of the panniers.
Rucksack, not quite but I always have one of those small Cycling UK bags with me, it can be useful to transport unexpected shopping.
Don't bother with front panniers or any other bags, I used to take four panniers, then the more I toured the less I carried till I found the right level. Or I should say the right level for me, it's no concern of mine if someone else's tours with full sets of pans, deck chair, fluffy towel, dinner jacket...

LittleGreyCat wrote:Hmmm....bar bag seems to be a common theme.
Only major item I don't have at the moment.
[I see there is another thread about choosing a bar bag.]

I like the bar bag for touring as it’s really easy to take off when stopping and big enough to hold all my valuables and my lunch.

There are two basic types of bar bag, serving different purposes:
One type is a box which fits to the bars by a Klik Fix or similar bracket.
The other is a roll or cylinder which ties on.

The first is tough, often waterproof, and easy to access while riding without stopping (eg to get a snack). But it's fairly heavy, because of the bracket, doesn't hold much, and does affect steering at low speed because it's held out in front of the bars.
The second can hold more, shouldn't affect steering so much because it's closer to the steerer axis, but can't be accessed until removed from the bars.

Bmblbzzz wrote:There are two basic types of bar bag, serving different purposes:
One type is a box which fits to the bars by a Klik Fix or similar bracket.
The other is a roll or cylinder which ties on.

The first is tough, often waterproof, and easy to access while riding without stopping (eg to get a snack). But it's fairly heavy, because of the bracket, doesn't hold much, and does affect steering at low speed because it's held out in front of the bars.
The second can hold more, shouldn't affect steering so much because it's closer to the steerer axis, but can't be accessed until removed from the bars.

I’d say traditional bar bags hold less than the roll bags, but to say that they don’t hold much is a little disingenuous. The larger touring ones at 7l or so will swallow camera, wallet, phone, tools, food, etc. etc.. They do weigh more though (500g ish). They do effect handling but I find that beneficial when the rear of the bike is loaded. Fundamentally though they are used for different things. New style roll bar bag is for carrying as much stuff as possible without the need to access it. Traditional bar bag is for carrying things you need on the ride because you’re carrying you main luggage elsewhere on the bike.

I start with a bar bag ...

But I must say that a bar bag with rear panniers is an absolute classic. Before I got round to putting a bar bag on my Club Tour, I used a rack top bag with rear panniers and really didn't like it.

For work trips and camping I use front panniers and at that point the bar bag becomes an optional extra (for overnight work trips I just use the four panniers).

What I fnd really amazing is that you can have all these combinations of luggage that basically just do the job: the bike is superbly balanced, the steering is unaffected and you're free to cycle while the bike carries the load. The bicycle becomes a truly versatile and functional vehicle carrying everything from your sandwiches for work to a full luxury camping load.

Least to most luggage:

smaller saddlebag (Nelson LF)
bigger saddlebag (Camper)
bigger saddlebag and front roll bag (on a rack similar to the Nitto M18)
big saddlebag and front panniers
front and rear panniers
smaller saddlebag and front and rear panniers

I do have a handlebar bag, but the mounting kit for it got mislaid long ago (I think last use was late 2001)

When touring with the family, I usually go for two rear panniers, a rack-top insulated bag for all our lunch, and a small seatpack for tools.

For my latest solo tour I'm just planning on an 11l Ortlieb bikepacking seat pack and a 1.5l Alpkit top-tube bag. But I'm not camping!

honesty wrote:

Bmblbzzz wrote:There are two basic types of bar bag, serving different purposes:
One type is a box which fits to the bars by a Klik Fix or similar bracket.
The other is a roll or cylinder which ties on.

The first is tough, often waterproof, and easy to access while riding without stopping (eg to get a snack). But it's fairly heavy, because of the bracket, doesn't hold much, and does affect steering at low speed because it's held out in front of the bars.
The second can hold more, shouldn't affect steering so much because it's closer to the steerer axis, but can't be accessed until removed from the bars.

I’d say traditional bar bags hold less than the roll bags, but to say that they don’t hold much is a little disingenuous. The larger touring ones at 7l or so will swallow camera, wallet, phone, tools, food, etc. etc.. They do weigh more though (500g ish). They do effect handling but I find that beneficial when the rear of the bike is loaded. Fundamentally though they are used for different things. New style roll bar bag is for carrying as much stuff as possible without the need to access it. Traditional bar bag is for carrying things you need on the ride because you’re carrying you main luggage elsewhere on the bike.

We are in complete agreement apart from our judgment of "much" in the context of laden touring.

Front panniers have been mentioned, even as a starting point. My experiences were different. I haven't used them on my current tourer, although it has the necessary mounting points, in fact I gave my front rack away at a club auction (the buyer was going to Central Asia, I'm happy that he'll make better use of them than I ever did or would), but I did use them on my previous touring bike, which was actually a mtb with front suspension. I fixed a Tortec rack to the fork legs with P-clips and despite comments it was rock solid even on rough tracks. The problems I had with it were twofold: it slowed the steering down and increased low-speed steering flop, but that was easy enough to get used to and only caused problems when trying to park the bike against something (a kick stand was the solution), the more annoying was that when unladen and parking around town (the bike was used for shopping etc as well), the rack would get caught on either sheffield stands or neighbouring bikes. Also, it was heavy and looked, um, purposeful. The Tubus hoop type front racks look more elegant, I don't know if they also eliminate the catching problem.

Bmblbzzz wrote:There are two basic types of bar bag, serving different purposes:
One type is a box which fits to the bars by a Klik Fix or similar bracket.
The other is a roll or cylinder which ties on.
[snip]

images from M. J Heine.

There are two other types of front bags, Rando & Porteur.
Rando avec panniers


Porteur