Hey bikers, none of my friends really do this kinda thing, I'm riding (not racing ha!) the tour divide this year, wanted to dial my kit a little and would love some advice from those who nerd out on such things! This was my setup for riding the Peru Great Divide – 14L gravel packs on a Ortlieb quick rack in the back, and then the 6L fork packs in the front = total 40L.
I was looking switching out for the tailfin rack with 16L panniers (32L carry) instead, (another option is tailfin aeropack + 10L panniers – but it seems like the aeropack is not that fast to get in and out of throughout the day?).
I value ease of access a lot – these ortliebs are SO easy to get in and out of – and so well constructed. I used a front roll bag in Kyrgyzstan and I spent SO much time trying to stuff it and get in and out of it quickly – and basically I've found I need easy access to my food + someplace quick to put my puffy and windlayer on and off, on and off, haha. Rattle free is not a requirement but these ortliebs do rattle even with the spacer in there, so that would be a bonus.
I already ordered a custom rogue panda frame bag for this bike, then I was going to add flat bars, a revelate pronghorn (for sleeping stuff, only open that once at night), then have one 16L pannier be other sleep/clothes I don't open much, then one 16L pannier be all the food and stove and kit I do use.
Then in the framebag I would put water, and maybe wet clothes in the bottom compartment – I learned in the monsoons of Peru having an easy separation of wet and dry saved a lot of packing time.
Then my forks are free to mount two bottle cages, one with a 1L bottle, the other with one of those hard repair kits, nice to have that handy too.
Thoughts on this setup?
by sara_hikes