Riding with bags

[Veloo]

I was on a 6 day ride last week where we each had 2 full rear pannier bags on the back. Average distance was 115 km per day. The additional weight was about 30 pounds.
It was a first for 3 of us and it took us about 3 days to get used to riding with that extra weight and being able to ride out of the saddle, cornering with confidence, etc. The result was 3 days of some rather painful riding being stuck in the seated position for extended periods. We would stop pedaling and stand for a few seconds to get relief from our saddles.

Thought I'd throw it out here to ask if distributing the weight to the front or to a top tube bag makes much difference. I was riding on an ENVE 2.0 road fork so no option for front pannier - as far as I know.

Before I go and blow money on more bags I thought I'd get some insight here first.

Prob time to look at some other saddles too but that's another topic.

[El Chaba]

Front lowriders are the best setup, IME. At first blush, a frame bag is attractive, but they are pretty limited for capacity, especially on a smaller frame....and what do you do with your water bottles then?

[El Chaba]

One other observation...The new style of seatbag that sticks out the back like a giant baguette is great from a standpoint of attaching it to a bike that was not designed with fittings for racks, etc. It's not a horrible weight bearing location while seated, but as soon as you stand, it becomes horrible...possibly the worst position on the bike to have weight attached while standing. Folks had this stuff figured out long ago, but we seem determined to reinvent the wheel...this time with corners it seems. There are different opinions, but I would line things up this way as the trip requires more gear:
1) handlebar bag-size determined by the frame size. If you ride a big frame, you can potentially carry a fair amount there (I can't as my size is 54cm). Carry the things you need to reach easily here...food...an extra bottle..spare tube, small tools, etc.
2) front lowrider panniers- I generally use smaller ones but try to put any heavier items in there. If needed I can switch the larger panniers from the rear to the front.
3) rear panniers-now we are starting to have some capacity. As noted above, I generally will put the larger panniers on the front and smaller on the rear. Rear panniers aren't as bad when there is already a load on the front, but the whole setup is getting heavier at this point.
4) the top of the rear rack- if everything else is taken up, you can carry things like your sleeping bag, tent, etc strapped to the top of the rear rack.

[Ruckusdog]

I agree with El Chabba. I enjoy touring but I found that the weight of rear panniers really messes up the handling of a bike. I switched to front lowriders and a large handlebar bag. Now I can stand on the pedals without fighting the extra weight. Cornering is much better too.

[sg8357]

It also depends on the bike & rack used.
25 llbs in the back on all bikes.

Trek Sport '89? Tour with Blackburn rack built to fit that bike,
not the adjustables they sell now.
Snake dance with shim sham shimmy when trying to stand.
Lesson, try bike loaded before going on tour with it.

Trek 520 '98, Tubus Cargo rack
Pretty good, not as good as unloaded bike when climbing

Rivendell Atlantis, Tubus Cargo
Felt like an unloaded bike, passing fuel trucks in the Alps
at 40+ on the down hills, no drama. Easy to ride standing,
never felt like it was going to get away from me.

[Peter P.]

I think you were carrying too much weight in the rear panniers.

First, the more of the weight of the rear panniers that's in front of the rear axle, the better the handling will be. Short rear ends, racks not designed or mounted to carry the panniers low and toward the front of the rack all contribute to that "tail wagging the dog" feeling.

There's a limit to what load you can carry in the back without affecting handling too much. If I were you, I'd perform an experiment: You already know what 30lbs. in the rear panniers feels like; so reduce the load 5lbs. at a time and go out for a couple hours. Note any differences. At some point, the panniers won't be an issue. There's your limit.

I used to commute by bike with rear panniers, and took a couple weekend trips with 15lb. loads, and can honestly say I didn't have a problem.

Also, the geometry of the bike may not have meant to carry loads in the rear. Just like some of those low-trail front ends are meant for loaded handlebar bags, I believe you can design the front end to accommodate rear panniers. However, unloaded riding may suffer.

[charliedid]

Not much to add here but I'll reinforce the bike. Was anyone actually on a touring bike?

[marciero]

What El Chabba said.
I only use rear panniers on the tandem these days, and even then only with larger panniers in the front. Both sets are small though-Ortlieb front roller or sport packer. (The exception being our coupled tandem which has no option for front rack on the wound up carbon fork that I would love to replace)
On single bikes I am fine with front loads-handlebar bags and panniers-regardless of front end geometry. The low riders with panniers actually can give the front end greater stability-for example eliminating front end shimmy, depending on the bike.
I think most "touring" bikes that were designed for rear loads without tail-wag are going to feel sluggish unloaded. On the other hand, you can get away with small rear pannier load on a lightly-built bike-eg a cross bike- without negatively impacting handling too much.