Hello Cyclists,
Apologies if this is very dumb question, but I somehow convinced myself I can do a 10 day biking trip in Alsace (I have no prior experience). I am biking 1-2.5 hours on average between destinations and only biking 5 days out of the 10 day trip. I naively think I can just strap my backpack to my bike…. but the kind people of r/onebag are making me question my decision. I am renting an electrical bike and bought some straps to hold my backpack to the back of my bike. Is this possible? insane? 🥴 I am not against renting paniers at the place where I am renting my bike, but wondering if it makes a huge difference?
edit///
I should mention, I only want to take a 30L backpack (open to buying one – I don't have one at the moment). I would only carry a couple summer clothes, toiletries and another pair of shoes.
This is the bike I am renting: https://www.kalkhoff-bikes.com/en_gb/image-3-move
by ursulaandres
7 Comments
There’s a guy who has touring for seven (?) years on youtube with a 35 L backpack strapped to his rack. I couldn’t find his channel right away. He has other bags as well. If I recall, a handlebar bag of some size and a custom frame bag. You might use this fragmentary description to find him. See how he does it. Flexy cords won’t do. Need voile straps or similar, I’m sure.
It depends. How big is the backpack?
If the bike has a back rack, and you can strap the backpack onto it, you might be fine.
Alternatively you can have proper bikepacking bags and a foldable backpack that you can take for hikes.
Or you can have a hybrid approach, a backpack which doubles down as pannier bags (decathlon has one like that).
I’ve done all 3, it boils down to what bike you have and how much you want/need to carry.
Perfectly ok solution. I do it, I strap my regular north face 36l backpack to my rear rack using basic luggage straps. I’d say this size would be on the bigger end that you’re looking for. 30l could be the sweet spot.
https://preview.redd.it/pxwk20hugtcf1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c949174545387b18ce4613fa52dcb65b15f4ea44
I tried it after watching that same channel but didn’t like dealing even the straps. I do use a similar sized dry bag in the same way though
Sure. But a decent sized dry bag is actually really cheap.
Unless you plan on taking a backpack anyway (for hiking or day trips) I would just get a cheap dry sack.
Why couldn’t you?
The only rule is keep stuff out of the spokes
I would do it with the cheapest drybag and somr motorbike bungee cords. A backpack would do as long as it is waterproof.