It's all Eric's fault, he makes multisport bike trips look too cool. It's also Roman's fault, once you get a packraft, you want every trip to be a packrafting trip.
In short, sometimes you need a BIG pack that you can carry on the bike. One that rides well when riding, and can then swallow all the stuff on your bike for extended pushes, bushwacks, and floats. The meat of all this is for me still theoretical, but I've got a few longstanding projects on tap I hope to complete soon that will require all of the above.
So I made this pack, and then made a video about it:
In the end, some of what makes a pack carry well while skiing, scrambling and bushwacking makes it ill suited to cycling. While riding you need the weight to sit low and on the shoulders. Much weight on the hips gives me a tummy ache while riding. You also can't have too tall a pack, as it pushes into your helmet/head.
This pack has burly shoulder straps (Arc'teryx sources fantastic dual density foam), and is fat enough (especially with the side/back pocket) that lots of stuff can go in and sit low. The top rolls/cinches down for this.
If the stars align some good trips reports should be forthcoming.
