I was bummed out about the price of soft-mount panniers and handlebar bags, so I decided to mess around with some stuff I already had. Most old backpacking backpacks have a detachable top part (the ‘brain’) that works beautifully as a soft-mount pannier, and these can be acquired for free/cheap. I call them ‘brainniers’. On my handlebars I clipped two 8L Sea to Summit compression sacks which are waterproof and can be gotten for $25 each if you catch a sale. I’ve been biking the Arizona Trail (lots of singletrack, often pretty rough) for the past two and a half weeks and this setup has been working perfectly.
by Cool-Bluebird-2867