Spare carrying capacity?

[Bearbonesnorm]

*So, it's 7.30pm, you've been riding all day and you hit the shining becon that is the Spar. It'll be your last chance to stock up on food for the evening and the next day. You wonder round the isles, pulling stuff of the shelves like an 8 armed famine victim. You get to the till, still slightly oblivious to just how much stuff you've got, pay for it and walk outside ... now what? The cooked chicken and family apple pie aren't going to fit in your frame bag no matter how much you rearrange the contents. Your 2 bottles of milkshake won't fit in your jersey pockets without running the very serious risk of loosing them over the next few miles.

The above is very much a true story and has happened more times than I'd care to remember or admit to ... so does anyone carry something like the Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil day pack? From what I can tell it folds down to bugger all, weighs 70g and has a 20L capacity. There's also a waterproof roll-top version that's still less than 100g. Anyone got any experience of them or something similar?

*Don't tell me you haven't been there too.

[d45yth]

A similar thing happened to me, I saw a few bottles of beer that I would have struggled to get anywhere else. I had to tie the contents of my rucksack to the outside of it, just so I could cram the beers in.

Anyway, what's wrong with a plastic bag dangling from the end of your bars?

When the weather's nice I try to go to the local Chinese takeaway on my bike instead of in the car. I get the staff to put my food in a pouch made from foil-backed bubble wrap. This fits snuggly into my seatbag so my curry doesn't get spilt. I think anybody else waiting must think I'm some kind of delivery service!

[griffdowg]

Yes, we use one. take it shopping mostly lives in the girlfriends hand bag.

Its great but a few points to note:

1) fabric is light and thin. It looks like it wouldn't take much to put a hole in it (think plastic packaging)

2) because it packs away there is zero structure to it so you will feel that pint of milk, pack of chocolate digestives and rib eye steak packaging burrowing into your spine.

3) straps are thin so you want the lightest, fluffiest stuff possible in it especially over distance.

4) its not really water resistant.

Thats about it. great emergency bag, use it for a mile or 2 riding etc.

We could have done with it walking the southwest coast path 2 years ago. one of the campsites offered to run our bags to their other campsite so we could walk bag free. problem was, we were both only carrying our 50L packs! had to buy a cheap daysack from a surf shop in the end. This S2S bag would have allowed us to carry some water, waterproofs etc.

Is that enough? would you like me to bring it to the WRT? :D

G

[numplumz]

I take a light drawstring helmet bag, seem to have several from motorcycle helmets or bike helmets and even freebies from events, ultimate source give out loads.
One string loop over each shoulder and pretty stable on the bike, not waterproof or fancy material and no attatchment to them if I overload them and it rips, zip ties fix them well . If a full disaster guess then I would bin it and go for super emergency bag stuffed down the jersey, or have an improvised picnic

[MonkeySpacePilot]

amateur's mistake, the best and most obvious place to store foodstuffs is in the stomach!

[Blackhound]

As above really concerning up and down sides. I used one as an overflow on the Tour Divide for long sections without food. I might re-arrange my kit though to get light & bulky stuff in there. It worked well with my wingnut bag I carried at the same time.