Dry bags - a lightweight alternative to panniers

[ANTONISH]

I use a large one folded over on the rear rack for touring if the trip involves train travel. I have front panniers as well.
When I'm getting on a train the dry bag is big enough to take all my kit including the panniers.
Because the dry bag has a strap I can have it on my back which leaves my hands free for the unladen bike.
I find this easier when getting into continental train where there are steps to climb.
Never tried it with camping gear- I suppose it depends how much you are carrying.

[bigjim]

I have toured a few times using a Carradice Overlander bag. It weighs about 300g including the straps, I like the square shape. It has padding on the back so sits nicely on a rack. It also doubles as a rucksack and the shoulder straps are removeable to use to tie to the rack. It's better than a sack as it has a big zip around the front and can easily slide your hand in for items. I put items in plastic bags for ease of accessability. It also means you can strap a tent etc to the flat surface. I reckon it's easily about 26litre. More than a Carradice longflap and a lot lighter. I bought a second on on e-bay as a spare. £6.



Downside is that it is only showerproof but a binbag slid over it solves that problem if need be.

[garibeet]

Alpkit are now selling a shaped dry bag that would fit the seat post really well. A cheaper alternative to their Koala seat pack. You can of course fix a bag to the bars either with straps directly, or using a soft frame such as the one Alpkit sell.
There are several companies that sell these kind of "frame bags", try a search for Revelate, porcelain rocket and wildcat to name just a few.
As for their suitability, well personal preference plays a large part, however I really only use this kind of bag having given my set of Ortliebs away to a friend. I haven't really had any problems with having enough gear, opposite in fact, I find I am more focussed on what I actually need. YMMV of course.

[ANTONISH]

I have toured a few times using a Carradice Overlander bag. It weighs about 300g including the straps, I like the square shape. It has padding on the back so sits nicely on a rack. It also doubles as a rucksack and the shoulder straps are removeable to use to tie to the rack. It's better than a sack as it has a big zip around the front and can easily slide your hand in for items. I put items in plastic bags for ease of accessability. It also means you can strap a tent etc to the flat surface. I reckon it's easily about 26litre.

That looks a very neat solution bigjim.

[John-D]

I swapped my low-rider front rack and carradice front panniers for a home made rack (aluminium strip from B&Q) and halfords drybags. I've used it for a couple of tours and it works well.

[honesty]

Interestingly Altura are launching super light panniers for 2015, which are basically drybags with hooks. They're calling them Ultralite Packable Panniers and you can have a look here: http://road.cc/content/news/133292-new-product-roundup-featuring-giro-altura-blackburn

[psmiffy]

Ive always used drybags when on tour - to supplement my four panniers - on the rear rack and contain things that either i'm not too bothered about getting wet and my waterproofs - to me all this light stuff has one drawback - durability - I suppose a simple trade off - 20km a day? - im happy to average a 100/day - most of my stuff has done a couple of hundred days on the road and still have at least another couple of hundred days left in them

[Galloper]

A few comments. To improve the stability of the bag, a simple solution would be to use a light piece of rigid plastic, effectively creating a frame at very little extra weight.

My other, not so positive, comment is a discussion I had some years ago on the Southern Tier with some other riders. They were bemoaning the fact that their lightweight panniers really weren't up to the job and after about 2 weeks were already showing signs of wear (and some duct tape).

On the subject of saving weight, I'm not sure that the difference in weight between drybags and panniers is significant, in the overall system. If you take the all up weight of rider, bike and luggage, the weight saved, as an overall percentage is quite low. This, I think, is something that is not generally given much consideration but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense,

[Kernal Corn]

I have toured a few times using a Carradice Overlander bag

The bag look nice but it's easy to strap any sort of bag to the top of a rack - you're not fighting gravity. I would run my setup with the roll-tops on the sides in addtion to a big one strapped to the top.

I swapped my low-rider front rack and carradice front panniers for a home made rack (aluminium strip from B&Q) and halfords drybags. I've used it for a couple of tours and it works well.

That's a beautiful setup! You've got me jelous. Is squeezing the bags to the rack enough to keep them from wiggling downwards over the day?

On the subject of saving weight, I'm not sure that the difference in weight between drybags and panniers is significant, in the overall system. If you take the all up weight of rider, bike and luggage, the weight saved, as an overall percentage is quite low.

I disagree with this. Suppose you've gone to the supermarket with a friend. You are walking uphill with your shopping and say "mate, add this bottle of wine in your bag, would you?". Although that extra 1.5kg is a tiny proportion of combined body and shopping weight the extra increase does feel significant. It is wrong to treat weight increases in proportional terms. Understandably, tourers have a different set of preferences to racers but to throw all consideration of weight out of the window feels like a mistaken "all or nothing" mentality to me. If I can shave 1.5kg without serious disadvantages I'll take it. I could save a couple of hundred £ on cheaper, bulkier tent and sleeping bag instead of saving the weight if I fancied.