ADVENTURE GEAR
Bikepacking? Cycle-touring? If you’re carrying kit on your bike there’s more than one way to do it...
Considering bikepacking or cycletouring this summer? We’ve got the gear from full racks and panniers to simple bar and frame bags to extend your rides by carrying some creature comforts.
Cyclists have been touring by bike since the time of its invention. Up until a few decades back, the way to go would have been a steel-framed, drop-barred tourer – Dawes, Claud Butler, Raleigh for example – decked out with a rack or two, Ortlieb or Carradice panniers, and a bar bag for good measure, with an extra pack or tent strapped to the rear rack. Now, traditional cycle touring has a younger, hipster sibling – the bikepacker.
All about the bike?
Taking advantage of today’s gravel, adventure, all-roader, road-plus endurance bikes, you can fit bags on to and within the frame and handlebar, using only simple fabric secured by Velcro, buckles or both. This does away with the need for fitted racks and frame mounts, so such packs will fit virtually any bike, drop-barred or flat. It also makes maximum use of every cubic inch of space available.
We’re taking a look at each system, but it’s useful to remember that you can also use just about any bike for pannierbased touring. Our touring kit test bed is the venerable – though updated for 2018 – Dawes Super Galaxy. Dawes’ original 1971 Galaxy was made in Birmingham. Today it’s designed in Britain but manufacturing has inevitably been outsourced and while the TIG-welding looks neat, we’re not sure it’s as elegant as the original lugged design. The move to disc brakes is welcome, even if it is mechanical rather than hydraulic.
Modern machines geared towards bikepacking include Specialized’s Diverge, the Kona Sutra and the Whyte Glencoe we’re using. Like the Dawes the Whyte is designed in England, but that’s where the similarities end, as this is every inch – or centimetre – the modern 21st-century road, or road-plus bike. It has an aluminium frame, super-wide 650b
Traditional cycle touring has a younger, hipster sibling – the bikepacker
wheels, SRAM single-speed 1x11 gearing and TRP’s mechanically pulled hydraulic disc brakes. We’ll be reviewing both of these bikes in a future issue.
The whole kit and caboodle
We’ve got a classic pannier and handlebar bag pairing from Ortlieb and a similar, slightly less expensive setup from Vaude. You can add front panniers, but softie Simon fancies a bed after a hard day’s ride, and if it doesn’t fit in three bags he doesn’t take it. For bikepacking we’re pitting Apidura’s high-end Expedition top-tube bag, handlebar pack, compact frame pack and saddle pack against the more value-orientated range from Topeak.
We discovered that you can use both bikes and both systems over just about every terrain possible, from tarmac to gravel track and even riding rough-rutted fields with three-feethigh grass, but we also found that each setup has its own advantages.
Even the lower-capacity Vaude touring panniers carried a much greater volume than the Apidura or Topeak bikepacking setup. And while we always recommend travelling with as little kit as you can, if you want, or need, to carry volume and weight panniers are the best
You can use both bikes and both systems over just about every terrain possible
choice. Once you’ve attached the rack and bar bag fittings – maybe 30 minutes tops – removing them is pretty much instantaneous. Even with generously sized bikepacking bags you’ll have to pack carefully and keep your gear to the bare minimum. That can be seen either as part of the appeal, or a compromise, and may depend on your mindset, and expected weather conditions. If you’re overnighting, because your kit will be spread out among several bags, you may need to remove them all at each stop, and get very good at repacking and reattaching them. No matter how fast you get at threading straps around a frame or handlebar, it’ll never be as quick as slotting panniers in place.
Ah, but there are also some very real advantages. Because your luggage doesn’t alter the bike’s width, and if packed well, keeps mass centred and low down, you can ride the bike over more technical, testing terrain even out of the saddle without fear of snagging or loss of handling control.
The greater width and weight of a pannier-based setup will have more of an effect on your bike’s handling, and if travelling loaded to the gunnels, we’d suggest splitting your load over front and rear panniers for better balance, rather than overfilling rear panniers. But panniers are easier to pack – though their volume means stuff can easily go AWOL.
Having so much weight in one area can make handling harder, however, and while you can leave the tarmac at times, a heavily laden tourer is most at home on the road. Both the Ortlieb and Vaude systems proved easy to use, fit with just about any rear rack, are easy to adjust and very well made. Waterproofing is exemplary in both cases and both companies have high standards when it comes to the environment, which is very pleasing to see. The Ortliebs just about justify their higher price, and we preferred Ortlieb’s waterproof bar bag to Vaude’s water-resistant with separate rain cover version, but both setups come with guarantees from companies with good reputations.
Bikepacking requires a slightly different mindset. It’s not exactly cycle-touring and stopping for pictures, as in that sense, kit is less accessible, but many more destinations are accessible. Of the two bikepacking setups, the Topeak is essentially half the price of the Apidura, but at least two thirds as good for most people. But if Robin was going off into the wilds and wanted to protect his kit, he’d still be very tempted to spend the extra.
A heavily laden tourer is most at home on the road