Packing - what do you put where?

[DoctorRad]

Sorry if this has been discussed ad nauseam elsewhere (links would be welcome), but... I'm moving from 'backpacking with a bike' towards strapping more of my stuff to the bike itself, and wondering who puts what where and why.

So far I have sleeping mat and sleeping bag in a 13 litre handlebar roll, and a tent or bivvy in a small-ish seatpack. That leaves a half-frame bag (would consider a full-frame custom job), a smaller backpack or rear pockets, and more on the bars or in the seatpack.

Interested to know what works for you, especially for longer trips where you're carrying more in the way of food, clothing etc.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I'm sure others will also say that, time of year / conditions will alter things a little but generally ...

Bars in a dry bag fastened in a harness. This bundle of joy doesn't get opened at all until I stop for the night.
Quilt
Sleeping mat
Jacket
Hat
Socks

Seatpack.
Cooking / brewing kit.
Spare tube - stuffed down into the odd tapered shape at the front of the pack.
Bivvy bag.
Tarp.
Waterproof.
Food.
Space - an important thing to pack as it lets me stow additional food along the way.

Frame bag. Usually a half bag like a Wildcat Ocelot.
Poles / pegs.
Tools.
Pump.
Battery - if I bother.
Fuel.
Water filter.

Water in bottle on frame.

If I'm going to need more bits and bobs, I generally prefer to add a 'pouch' to the front harness than use food pouches on the bars or TT bags.

[whitestone]

The dreaded answer: it depends.

For general touring trips I'll pack according to need and usage. So stuff I'm only likely to need for the bivy will go in the bag on the bars and spare clothing in the seat pack; stuff that I need during the day will go in Stem Cells/Feed bags or whatever you want to call them, top tube bag; heavier stuff and food for the night will go in the frame bag. I've a bag on the underside of the downtube for tools and spares.

For shorter ITTs I generally won't have a bag on the bars so bivy stuff goes in the seat pack.

[jameso]

Sleeping kit inc anything like hat, bivi socks or down vest to kip in up front in a bar roll - it stays closed and sealed all day.

Clothes in the seat pack - need access a few times in the day and some of it may go back in when wet, that's ok. Managed with drybags as needed. Tarp also goes in here for that reason.

Denser items in the frame bag - centralise the weight, easier to pack smaller / hard items in this bag.

Been pretty much the same set up since I started, though I used to put the sleeping kit in the rear and clothes in the front. I swapped that over as I prefer a predictable / more constant weight on the bars. The clothing weight varies more and that variation is less noticed under the saddle.

[ootini]

Similar to Stu, except I use stem cells.

Sleeping kit and warm stuff up front in a bar bag in a harness.

Tent and waterproofs in seat pack, with space for grub.

Poles, pegs, tools, pump, bits n bobs in half frame bag.

Brew kit in one stem cell. Keys, phone, electronics etc in the other stem cell.

[AlasdairMc]

It depends for me too, entirely on where I'm going and for how long.

In my HT550 pack, I had handlebar roll and pocket, gas tank, saddle bag, small pouch on the truss fork and a small rucksack

Bar roll: Ziplock bags of food, down jacket, waterproof jacket
Saddle bag: emergency food, sleep kit
Gas tank: Gels, some food, and battery if any charging was required
Pouch: tools
Pocket: food, anything I needed quick access to e.g. Smidge and suntan lotion
Rucksack: Not much, just some food, cables, basic wash kit.

This weekend I'm going on a ride that will involve an overnight but might not involve a sleep

Frame bag: Food, pump, battery, tools, tube
Saddle bag: emergency bivi, down jacket, waterproof
Stem cell: bottle, attached to truss fork on the crown
Gas tank: gels, battery when charging
Bum bag: quick access things, possibly some food bought en route

[Trigs]

Im still trying to work out a structure to my packing also, as i too use a loaded rucksack atm. No matter how much stuff i put on the bike, the rucksack seems to stay the same size.

But generally i have

Bar harness with dry bag attached, with sleeping bag and tent outer in their own drybags within.
Toptube bag has gps in it, and a drybag containing my phone and money etc. (But nearly having the bike swept away down a river at weekend is making me reconsider not keeping gps and phone on my body. And yes, anyone that saw my thread last week, it was my new bike )
Seat pack contains dry bag with tent inner and sleeping mat, and then other bits and pieces like cup etc.
Rucksack has my food, spare clothes, kindle, cooking gear and dry bag containing toolkit/spares. (Would be interesting to see a thread on what spares/tools people carry, think i may err on the sparse side)


Like to get a frame bag for the food etc but not sure. Noticed wiggle had some cheap Deuter triangle bags which may be worth a try.

[AlexGold]

Noticed wiggle had some cheap Deuter triangle bags which may be worth a try.

I have one of these, it's surprisingly small/hard to fit anything in due to the shape. You also lose at least one, maybe both, bottle cages. I went for the Vaude 'cruiser' frame bag in the end - it holds more (which is weird as it looks smaller), and you don't lose a bottle space.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Bar harness with dry bag attached, with sleeping bag and tent outer in their own drybags within.

and

Seat pack contains dry bag with tent inner and sleeping mat, and then other bits and pieces like cup etc.

Would it not make sense to put the tent inner with your sleeping bag and the outer which is more likely to be wet, somewhere else?

[JustinF]

Tent slung under bars,using a set of tt bars to load it lengthways so it doesn't affect lever throw (420mm drop bars don't allow for much loading)

2 stem cells, one with my dynamo usb output in and all my electronics, so cache battery, phone, camera
the other with snacks and anything I might want access to without stopping pedalling, lip salve, a gel or two

half frame bag, things I might want access to without dismounting and tools/spares, rain jacket, full gloves, arm warmers, suncream, first aid kit

rear bag, mat, bag, clothes, everything soft and squishy gets used as a pillow.

[Trigs]

Noticed wiggle had some cheap Deuter triangle bags which may be worth a try.

I have one of these, it's surprisingly small/hard to fit anything in due to the shape. You also lose at least one, maybe both, bottle cages. I went for the Vaude 'cruiser' frame bag in the end - it holds more (which is weird as it looks smaller), and you don't lose a bottle space.

Alright, thanks for that. Will check out the vaude instead.

Bar harness with dry bag attached, with sleeping bag and tent outer in their own drybags within.

and

Seat pack contains dry bag with tent inner and sleeping mat, and then other bits and pieces like cup etc.

Would it not make sense to put the tent inner with your sleeping bag and the outer which is more likely to be wet, somewhere else?

The sleeping bag and tent are both in seperate dry bags in the harness's drybag, so the bag doesnt get wet off of the tent.
I mainly stuffed the inner into the seat pack in order to fill the odd shaped point of the pack, though i may stuff the inner around the tent and sleeping bag to fill the space up a bit, as at the weekend the straps kept trying to squeeze my tent out of position due to the space not being filled enough.

[Bearbonesnorm]

though i may stuff the inner around the tent and sleeping bag to fill the space up a bit, as at the weekend the straps kept trying to squeeze my tent out of position due to the space not being filled enough.

Packing individual dry bags within a bigger drybag makes this much worse. If you can stuff all your 'dry gear' into one single drybag, it'll be much more stable, won't try to separate and usually takes up less room.

[whitestone]

Here's a shot of the bike in touring mode when we reccied the northern loop of the HT550



You can see the bag under the downtube, difficult to distinguish due to the dark peat behind, this contains all the tools and spares.

This shot is of the setup I used for the HT550, top tube bag rather than the half-frame bag used above. The purple item on the front is a heavy duty waterproof. Wildcat double ended drybag with bivy kit separated into wet and dry items on the front. The seat pack has all my spare clothes. A complete description is here http://bobwightman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/ ... l-kit.html

For shorter ITTs during summer then the only thing up front would be the stem cells. Light bivy gear would be in the seat pack with some spare clothes. Does depend on the weather. Top tube bag contains things like water filter, midge net, FA kit, spare batteries. Stuff that I might need through the day but not quickly like food which is in the Stem cells.



So same route but a different approach leading to different kit being taken and how/where it's packed.

When I started bikepacking I thought I knew what I needed to take and how to minimise kit (I did a lot of Alpine climbing back in the 1980s) but a couple of years on and I'm probably taking half the amount of kit. There's been a few purchases but in many cases this was to replace stuff that was wearing out.

[Trigs]

though i may stuff the inner around the tent and sleeping bag to fill the space up a bit, as at the weekend the straps kept trying to squeeze my tent out of position due to the space not being filled enough.

Packing individual dry bags within a bigger drybag makes this much worse. If you can stuff all your 'dry gear' into one single drybag, it'll be much more stable, won't try to separate and usually takes up less room.

Good point. Trying to pack for this weekend atm, so trying out diffrent options.
Do you class an inner tent as dry gear? I usually try and keep it seperate from sleeping bag etc due to it being wet on the bottom, but im wondering if its ever really wet enough to make much diffrence, especially if i give a quick dry in the morning. Might try pack that all together as you say and see, would certainly save me a good bit of room.

[Alpinum]

The more technical the riding, the more goes on the back. Carrying and pushing a loaded bike is less fun than carrying some gear on the back. Same goes for riding in tricky terrain. Thus, when things get techy I only use a framebag with mat and rain clothes, spare tube and little food.



When riding easier stuff like HT550 I put almost all on the bike except for some food, fruits, bread, that kind of stuff, electronics, wallet and water which is in a small rucksack.
Bar bag will see mat, quilt, liner, down jumper, compression socks (from hospital), spare socks, buff.
Frame will carry tools, spares for bike fixes and food and if I have one, pot and tiny stove.
Little bag toptube/seatpost has lip balm, sun screen, food, chamois cream, first aid and little food.
Saddle bag tarp/bivvy (depending on conditions and trip character) rain gear and more food.



In Iceland I went for a large saddle bag for the long stretches with out resupply. Rucksack with some clothes, food, mat and electronics/wallet.



On wintertrips it's similar. More clothing in the saddle bag, less on the back. Mostly only camera stripped around and little water on the back if any. Where I ride in winter we often get -25 °C so I go for a remote stove and slightly larger pot which both goes in the saddle bag too.
Electronics in a toptube bag with food.
Hat, gloves, all that cold temps. stuff is handy in frame bag or front pocket of bar bag.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Do you class an inner tent as dry gear?

Difficult call. In similar situations I tend to line my outer dry bag with my Schnozzle bag. Then I cram everything that MUST be kept dry in the Schnozzle and loosly fold the top over. Next, anything which might be a little damp like a groundsheet goes on top. The whole thing is given a good squeeze and fastened as normal.

[jBay]

Waves - I rode past you recently in Long A, heading for a night out.

[Sarah]

Looking thru this as trying to pack for my trip [2 weeks in Somerset/Cornwall] and struggling to fit stuff into bike bags and not take panniers.

Am I just being silly and should just chill and use panniers ? I am really not taking a 'lot' of stuff, big fan of TLS....

Where do you carry Myti mug [650] and stove, similar to Koro, a cabled stove to sit on the floor [very old and not super slick, but trustworthy]

I have bar roll, 2 anything cages, frame bag and Airlok tapered saddle bag [not fancy outer] and just cant get it all to fit darn it !

[ootini]

Looking thru this as trying to pack for my trip [2 weeks in Somerset/Cornwall] and struggling to fit stuff into bike bags and not take panniers.

Am I just being silly and should just chill and use panniers ? I am really not taking a 'lot' of stuff, big fan of TLS....

Where do you carry Myti mug [650] and stove, similar to Koro, a cabled stove to sit on the floor [very old and not super slick, but trustworthy]

I have bar roll, 2 anything cages, frame bag and Airlok tapered saddle bag [not fancy outer] and just cant get it all to fit darn it !

My setup is similar to yours, but instead of anything cages, I use stem cells. My Mytimug goes in one of the cells, with the stove inside and mini gas can perched on top. https://bikepackingonabudget.wordpress. ... -kit-pt-1/

[whitestone]

MyTiMug goes in a stem cell - they are sized to fit one. The 650 will take the smallest gas cylinder (100g?), a Koro style burner unit, ours is a Vango one which disassembles so just fits and a lighter or box of matches. A ziplock bag with tea bags goes in as well to provide some packing so things don't rattle.

For summer overnighters I'll use a homemade pop-can meths stove rather than the gas stove, lots of room inside the mug using this. I'll keep the fuel separate though, just in case there's a spill.

Once you've got stuff for one night you don't really need much more for multi-nights especially in the UK as you are never that far from somewhere to resupply. Space for a couple of days' food is all you really need unless you are deliberately avoiding towns and villages.

[Sarah]

My stem cells are home made and dont fit the myti mug

I think a lot of awkward stuff is going to get put into bar roll, in amongst tent and warm/spare clothes.

Might investigate a bottle cage under the frame for tools etc in an old water bottle.

[whitestone]

My stem cells are home made and dont fit the myti mug

I think a lot of awkward stuff is going to get put into bar roll, in amongst tent and warm/spare clothes.

Might investigate a bottle cage under the frame for tools etc in an old water bottle.

I use bottle cage and tool bottle on my commuter but on the MTB I have a downtube bag made by BearBabe as that bike doesn't have cage mounts there.