Cycling UK Forum

Hi, i'm currently trying to choose which panniers to buy, in preparation for jogle/ other future trips. All tours will be done camping and although ortliebs seem the popular choice i'm not totally sure i'll have enough room- when i've toured before i used 50 litre rear bags with my mat and sleeping bag on top.
my question is, does anyone have any experience of attaching theyre bag to the top of the rack? i have exped dry bags, but don't know how waterproof they would be in the rain? (i usually carry the cooking equipment, which is difficult to put on top of the rack, so have no tent part to carry on the rack) i'm reluctant to but 56 litre alturas as there is too much temptation to overpack.
cheers
alice

I go fully loaded with 2 panniers front, 2 panniers rear, very small bar bag and 35L sack on top of the rear rack. I keep the panniers around 4kgs each and use the rear rack sack for the tent/sleeping mat which is held secure by a couple of straps round it and the rack top.
I use Carradice Super C panniers and an Ortlieb sack for the tent etc.

I take a foam garden kneeling pad as a camping seat and this goes between the rack top and the rear rack sack preventing any damage which the pannier hooks might cause to the top load.

I would recommend Ortlieb dry sacks for stuffing the sleeping in and slashing to the top rack, but the Exped are waterproof too. I use Exped for my sleeping bag if I'm walking on long distance walks, but use Ortlieb's when I do cycle-tours. If you get a cheap Tesco closed-cell sleeping mat, cut that to wrap around the Ortlieb dry sack and it will serve as protection to the sack and provide a handy sit-mat.

doofy wrote:Hi, i'm currently trying to choose which panniers to buy, in preparation for jogle/ other future trips. All tours will be done camping and although ortliebs seem the popular choice i'm not totally sure i'll have enough room- when i've toured before i used 50 litre rear bags with my mat and sleeping bag on top.
my question is, does anyone have any experience of attaching theyre bag to the top of the rack? i have exped dry bags, but don't know how waterproof they would be in the rain? (i usually carry the cooking equipment, which is difficult to put on top of the rack, so have no tent part to carry on the rack) i'm reluctant to but 56 litre alturas as there is too much temptation to overpack.
cheers
alice

At the moment I/we use four Ortlieb Roller bags, two small ones on the front containing sleeping bag and mat and two standard on the back plus an Ortlieb bar bag. I use a smaller bar bag on the wrong side of the handlebars to hold my water sack and sundry small items, whilst my cycling partner uses a Camelbak bag strapped to the handlebars. I find the bike is more stable especially on steep climbs with weight on the front end.

I did use a large Ortlieb bar bag to hold my Trangia for a while. It was easy to get to it during the day. However with a four pannier solution the rear bags (one containing cooking equipment) are always accessible during the day. Strapping a drysack to the rear rack makes the rear panniers less easy to get into.

We used to use four panniers and an Ortlieb Rack Pack across the rear bags one of which contained the tent. This worked well as the tent was the first thing we needed once we'd got to a campsite. However leaving the Rack Packs at home allows the rear panniers to be filled with more stuff and saves the weight of the extra bag. We still use a large Rack Pack for cold weather touring when we take a large MSR Wind-4 tent.
Regards
Stan

Aldi have got 44 litre waterproof Duffle Bags tommorow £6.99 !!!!

Al

I'm still using a set of Karrimor Silvaguard panniers bought in 1979, which says a bit for their quality. I normally tour with a pair of Iberians (the big ones!) at the back, plus a Carradice bar bag and saddlebag. That copes with camping gear, clothing, waterproofs, toolkit/spares and emergency food supplies. The barbag is for valuables, eat on the move rations and a few pages from a road atlas in the mapcase. Everything is kept in bin liner bags inside the bike bags so I don't have any bother in the wet.

I'd recommend the heavy duty dry bags from www.alpkit.com