So I went on a wee Bikepacking trip this weekend, and the weight of my saddlebag plus rough terrain pulled my saddle back and tipped the angle back too. Needless to say this got to be uncomfortable.
I have a carbon seatpost from canyon and a normal saddle with steel rails. My saddlebag is maybe 8-10kg when fully loaded.
Am I crazy for putting this much weight on the saddle bag? Should I use carbon Assembly grease on the rails so it doesn’t slip? Is there a better option that doesn’t pull on the saddle rails so much, something like a seatpost clamp mounted saddle bag?
Thanks!!
by atthegreenbed
7 Comments
>Am I crazy for putting this much weight on the saddle bag?
the Brooks Scape Seat Bag has a [max load of **3kg**](https://www.brooksengland.com/en_eu/scape-seat-bag.html). you can answer your question yourself.
>Should I use carbon Assembly grease on the rails so it doesn’t slip?
even if the bag was within weight limit this would only result in a creaking saddle.
>Is there a better option that doesn’t pull on the saddle rails so much, something like a seatpost clamp mounted saddle bag?
it’s called a rack and pannier bags. you have the mounts. there is no reason to continue using an inferior solution with the high load requirements you have.
a [Tubus Fly](https://www.tubus.com/produkte/hinterradtraeger/tubus-product/fly-classic-edelstahl) would probably look very nice on your bike. and if you are made out of money they even have [titanium options](https://www.tubus.com/produkte/hinterradtraeger/tubus-product/airy) to go with the Waltly.
no mounting holes for a rear rack? you can just remove it if you’re not bikepacking and don’t want the weight/drag. if you don’t have eyelets for it, ortlieb makes a “quick-rack” that doesn’t need mounting holes, but its a little pricy. I’m sure you can find copies of it from less honourable brands for far cheaper, if the real deal is out of reach.
I’ve overloaded saddle bags more often, but I never had a saddle slip backwards… As it usually survives putting my 90kg on it backwards suddenly without issue, are you sure it’s tightened enough?
I personally never loaded my saddlebags more than 5-6kg. 10kg sounds absolutely crazy to me and I do not even know how I could achieve that. You might want to check the specs of your Brooks holster, I would not be surprised if you had already massively maxed out on load.
If you are on the heavier side yourself, the leverage of the bag and your own weight could just be too much for your seat post to deal with.
Now to the saddle slipping and tilting. If your saddle does this and you turned your saddle clamping already to max Nm, then you would need more friction within the clamping surfaces of the seatpost and not just between seatpost and rails. Before using carbon assembly paste I would try with finely sanding all the contact surfaces that are supposed to supply friction.
**Edit:** Your bike offers plenty braze-ons to install cages or even full-on rear racks to distribute weight to lower points and all over your bike. I’d walk that direction. It will improve the handling of your bike, make your luggage more accessible and prolong the life of your seatpost.
Yes, too much weight on saddle.
Time for some fork cages or a rear rack.
Luckily you have eyelets for everything!
Anything cages on the fork and a T-rack in the back will fix you right up.
The lenghts that people will go to to avoid using racks just astounds me. Your bike clearly has rack mount capability. Just put a rack on it. If you have a similarly sized load on top of a rear rack, then aerodynamics aren’t going to be much worse and you won’t have to worry about overloading anything.
Bikepacking seat racks are fine for people who want to carry light loads and really care a lot about how quickly they complete a route, like those doing timed courses for racing. But I imagine with that much gear you aren’t trying to see any speed records, so it probably makes a lot more sense to just get a rack so you can load your bike more appropriately.
Either that, or get comfortable carrying less gear with you. Not sure what you have in all those bags, but you might find that you could get rid of a lot of that stuff as it isn’t actually needed.