Lighter panniers?

[nirakaro]

OK, I know I can be a bit of a gramme-counter, but I do like climbing big hills, and it all adds up…
Time for some new panniers, and the old ones (Altura rear, Carradice front) weigh in, empty, at 3.2 kilos, which is more than the combined weight of my tent, mattress and sleeping bag; that seems disproportionate.
I know lighter equals thinner equals less durable, but they’re not going to have that much use, so I reckon I can live with that. Any recommendations?

[Reigncloud]

I was looking at this recently. My current Alturas are about 2.0kg of rthe pair (42L). I need to upgrade them (wearing out after daily use for 7 years) and wanted to go as light weight as possible. The two I came down to were Ortleibs (of course) and Alture Fuse. I couldn't find the weight of the latter on the web so emailed the distributor and got this:

Fuse 42 Panniers – Approx 1.81 kg
Fuse 32 Panniers – Approx 1.60 kg

I did find the weight of the Ortleib Back Roller Classics, which was about 1.8kg for the pair.

Both look like good construction, but I'd probably go with the Ortleibs in the end, as everyone says they last forever.

[fatboy]

Carradice Super Cs are much lighter than their Carradry bags for example and Super Cs are tough bags but expensive

[meic]

To give an idea of what can be had, my medium size, nylon Chapaks are 400g per side.
My massive, voluminous Andrew Hagues are 620g per side.

It appears the older stuff was made with lightweight in mind.

[foxyrider]

Been there, done that, removed stupid bits of plastic and on a 150 gram seatpack replaced the steel screws with aluminium to save 20grams! Its true, I've turned into a regular bean counter.

The Roller Classics according to Ortlieb weigh 1900g a pair but you can save some by losing the shoulder strap and internal organiser
Back Roller Plus are 1680g all in but the lightest are Roller City at 1520g which save the weight over the classic by not having an organisor or quite so much extra capacity!

My original Ortliebs are 8 years old and have survived a fair bit of abuse without so much as a broken hook.

As they say - original and best (at least in my book)!

[gbnz]

OK, I know I can be a bit of a gramme-counter,(Altura rear, Carradice front) . Any recommendations?

Gramme counters shouldn't really by cycling around with four panniers

The most effective approach, would be to scrap two and travel lightly

[nirakaro]

Which I do, sometimes. The question is, how do I carry what I want to carry, without unnecessary weight?

[Paul-S]

OK, I know I can be a bit of a gramme-counter, but I do like climbing big hills, and it all adds up…
Time for some new panniers, and the old ones (Altura rear, Carradice front) weigh in, empty, at 3.2 kilos, which is more than the combined weight of my tent, mattress and sleeping bag; that seems disproportionate.
I know lighter equals thinner equals less durable, but they’re not going to have that much use, so I reckon I can live with that. Any recommendations?

You may not like this answer but.

At an average of 800g per bag you ain't doing so bad

Personally I would stop worrying.

Cheers,

Paul.

[LollyKat]

You could do without panniers altogether - have a read of this for how to go ultralight.

[ANTONISH]

The last time I did a tour I used Agu front panniers and a large stuff sack on my rear carrier. This gave an all in empty luggage weight of 1.5kg. I wasn't camping and AGU panniers aren't noted for being very waterproof so this probably wouldn't suit you and I only have 1.7kg advantage over your existing set up. Considering the weight of your bike, yourself and your equipment 1.7kg isn't going to make much difference to the weight you are hauling uphill.

[bg]

About time somebody made a light pannier set, there must be enough demand.

[Reigncloud]

About time somebody made a light pannier set, there must be enough demand.

I reckon it would be extremely difficult to really cut down the weight of panniers like Ortleibs without compromising strength and durability (waterproofing aside). Given that these things hold your life while on tour, I'd be wary of using something too lightweight for fear of causing more problems that I avoid through lower weight. And this is coming from someone who weighs everything!

[PH]

Pacific Outdoor do some light weight panniers. They look a bit flimsy to me, certainly won't have the same abrasion resistance of Carradice or Ortlieb and are about the same price.

[horizon]

I'd be wary of using something too lightweight for fear of causing more problems that I avoid through lower weight. And this is coming from someone who weighs everything!

nirakaro: just to add from the other point of view, I'm someone who loves front panniers and even I reckon you can do without them (and the racks, don't forget). As others have said, if your panniers are too heavy then you are probably already taking too much stuff in them. If you do need them then you are into heavy touring and their strength is as important as their weight. I reckon on 8 kg per rear pannier - that's 16 kg of gear plus room on the rack for the tent, easily enough for lightweight camping.

PS your point about the weight being the same as tent, mat and bag was very interesting though.

[nirakaro]

Wiggle say that the Altura Dryline 56 weighs 520g per side, which is less than half the weight of my current panniers, and sounds too good to be true. Can anyone confirm this weight?