Panniers vs Courier Bag (Commuting)

[Flinders]

I don't like how a rucksack affects my balance, so apart from a tiny fold-up one for lightweight unintended purchases which I keep in my rackpack I don't use one.
But every pannier/rackpack I've had has been a bit of a nuisance to ship/unship and carry around compared to a rucksack.
I suppose you can't have everything.

I've never used a courier bag, but on the occasions I cycle carrying a heavy (DSLR+2.8/70-200) camera bag on my shoulder I find it a complete pest. I can only manage if I sort of 'wedge' it up on the rear carrier behind me. (It can't go in a pannier because it has to be immediately accessible)

Brooksby, I'm getting a Carradice A4 for my birthday. I'm glad to hear you like yours, can't wait for mine, it should take my paintbox perfectly (which currently bounces around in a huge old Ortlieb that's far too big for it).

[OnYourRight]

But every pannier/rackpack I've had has been a bit of a nuisance to ship/unship and carry around compared to a rucksack.

This guy makes Ortlieb Back-Roller Classic panniers look pretty convenient, but I suppose they’re still not quite as easy to deal with off the bike as a rucksack.

[Tonyf33]

My 40l 'Pro Action' panniers cost £10 and have lasted nigh on 14 years, I've relegated one because I managed to buy some new Halfords/Bike Hut top of the range jobs for peanuts off ebay that are probably closer to 30l each and are much much deeper/straight sided so I run odd panniers now.
The proaction is metal clasp and takes a decent tug to pull off, the Halfords is a thick plastic hook and pulls off fairly easily but both are very much solidly in place on the rack despite the Halfords being quite light and only having a couple of tubes/zip ties and a bungee hook in it.
I'm deffo not a touring cyclist, I use mine to transport my groceries/shopping, change of clothes, wine/beer & hot meals that I've cooked when visiting friends. Taken picnic stuff and rug on leisure days out and of course ample fluids and food when doing a long ride or audax.
There is absolutely no way I could do 25% of the trips using a courier bag and even with a 70l rucksack which I used when visiting the folks and using panniers too, I know that shoving soft foodstuffs into a rucksack makes it difficult to pack and having to delve into it is a drag not to mention the weight/strain on back/shoulders.
Saddle bags are fine for small/er amounts of stuff but if they have any decent weight in them they can have an amplified effect even when firmly secured when out the saddle even with little wobbling. You'd have to multiply that up 3 or 4 times to have anything like same effect in a set of rear panniers IME.

[mjr]

I have to wonder how many of us actually are 'touring cyclists'.[...]
I can't think of any practical reason not to use panniers other than looking uncool to some people.

The biggest practical reason is it's like having flaming air brakes sticking out the sides of the bike. Not good around here where it tends to be more about aerodynamics than weight.

I'm a day tourer and I use a 13 litre rackpack for that. It's mildly irritating to unclip but easy to carry around on its shoulder strap or handle. I know people with Basil, Ortleib and Altura single panniers that seem to just lift off the bike and have good shoulder straps. My double pannier is rather unwieldy to carry off the bike, so is kept for utility use (mostly shopping trips which wouldn't fit in the rack-mounted basket).

[reohn2]

...... Does using panniers instead of a backpack go with "maturing" as a cyclist?

Wisdom is a sign of maturity

Cool is a sign of fule

[BigFoz]

One thing folks often don't consider is that with a rucksack or courier bag, any sudden stop (such as into the back of the transit that just overtook you and stopped) can cause the bag to hit you almost as hard in the back of the head as the vehicle does the front of your head.

Luckily the day it happened to me, I had left the laptop at work, and it didn't also drill into my skull at high velocity.

Ever since, I've user panniers, not matter how uncool, or how much extra weight the required hardware contributed.

[Ellieb]

Can't stand panniers. Much too much of a pain to carry about off the bike Used a rucksack/mono bag to commute since 1995. Personal choice really. If courier bags are so bad around town, why do couriers use them?

[Flinders]

But every pannier/rackpack I've had has been a bit of a nuisance to ship/unship and carry around compared to a rucksack.

This guy makes Ortlieb Back-Roller Classic panniers look pretty convenient, but I suppose they’re still not quite as easy to deal with off the bike as a rucksack.

There's also video which shows how quick you can get at removing the soft case I got for my camera. Unfortunately, I find that however much I practice, it still sticks and takes far too long and my shot has gone. I reckon some vidoes are a bit, well, cherry picked for the one time in 500 when it actually works, or in the case of the camera, I suspect they are using a slightly smaller one than mine, despite it being theoretically the right size.

[Flinders]

Can't stand panniers. Much too much of a pain to carry about off the bike Used a rucksack/mono bag to commute since 1995. Personal choice really. If courier bags are so bad around town, why do couriers use them?

'Cos they are faster, I imagine.

[Tonyf33]

If courier bags are so bad around town, why do couriers use them?

Security & speed, if you're in and out of a buildings 50 times a day then a set of panniers will leave you needing to haul ALL your bags/packages to each and every end destination (as in where you get the sig for your package)
That just isn't practical for the most part and also it doesn't allow couriers to weave in and out of traffic so readily, look at the width of a set of loaded panniers across a rack compared to the width of a couriers narrow or cut down bars...squeezing between two irate black cabs whilst flicking them the finger and leaving a nice deep scrape just isn't possible whilst using panniers
But for everyone else, panniers are by far the best way to move your stuff around