Haven’t bikepacked since January 2020.
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good story, Soft Bags.
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I think a major advantage is that you can always fit more crap into your dry bag (strapped to a rack) but a seat bag is a pretty fixed volume.
I never had an issues with the Freeload design, later sold to Thule, and they mounted direct to the seat stay so worked well on fullies, without needing to pivot off the frame. I guess the Aeroe design works similarly. None of them are particularly light tho.
I used to see people like this on our roads. Man its such a shit way to ride. Stay off the road for a start.
Most new panniers for bikepacking use straps with cams and tons of velcro instead of plastic/metal clips, and they top out around 10-12 liters. So, smaller soft bags that are higher up so they don’t catch on rocks.
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Other rack factor is if you’re traveling to do bikepacking in some exotic locale, you have to deal with that extra piece of bike infrastructure in your bike bag. Terrible.
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You’re really working hard to make ‘Soft bags’ stick, aren’tcha?
rack motion would have a lot of fore-aft if it was attached rigidly to the seatstays, esp right at the front of the rack - so whatever you attach to the top of the rack would need some air gap between it and the seatpost. You couldn’t also strap it to the seatpost for extra support.
sticking it on a pivot at the seatpost means it still wiggles a little bit with suspension travel, but much less than it would if it was rigidly attached to the rear triangle, and at the point where the rack is closest to another support member to strap your drybag to it’s not really moving at all.
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soft bags can have their drawbacks too, wearing through hoses and frames albeit over a long time
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Don’t slander Soft Bags like that
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Sure thing, Helicopter Tape
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I think you misunderstood—I’m suggesting not attaching it to any suspension component but instead to the seat tube, seat post, etc
Or a short time, as I found out with dry bag on a gritty rain day in France
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I mean people can do whatever they want, just speaking from like 10 years experience doing the thing. I’ve traveled with racks, I’ve traveled with panniers, I’ve traveled with coupler bikes. One big bar bag, a frame bag and one small butt bag was the most simple. The engineered tiny racks are interesting but feel like marginal gains for tour divide or something.
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I made a system for my upcoming ride yesterday. Using my aero bars as a frame. Poked some holes in a piece of tire and went from there. Seems pretty solid. Plenty of clearance with cables.
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That’s so rad.
I see an Etsy account and literally dozens of dollars of profit in your future!
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Just as well I did it yesterday too, as a Miss Grape handle bar cradle just turned up on Market place…
Ive been ruminating on something like this a lot, as I pretty much always use aero-bars… but to be honest this next ride is 4 days, 3 of which are primo single-track. I should have just ridden my fully (with no aeros) and gone for maximum fun… I have booked accommodation at the end of each day so I dont need to take much gear.
Damn, maybe I should get that Miss Grape for use on the fully….
Look at this fugn hero
Making adapters to mix enve inroute and FSA acr
MF even makes a transition adapter for GODS OWN KALLOY UNO to internal route system
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wow, that’s pretty slick. good job, guy
