Interesting replies

My saddlebag is a Nelson Longflap. It's great for touring, but as it sticks out sideways it's not the best for off road. The buckles can be an issue, but if that's the case you could use the Camper C which has modern nylon closures. Also the cotton material is heavy. I'd love to see a lightweight version that uses modern materials with the design features of
the traditional saddlebag.

The Bagman is almost perfect, I just wish that they hadn't relied on a couple of set screws to hold it together. I would have threaded the ends of the rods that go into the mounting block, made the holes in the block thru-holes and held everything together with a washer and lock nut on the end of the threaded rods. Some versions of the Bagman seem to have issues coming loose so to avoid this I put locktite in the rod holes and on the set screws and it's been very solid.

New to bikepacking.net, but a long time contributor to bikeforums.net/touring. I've been interested to see bikepacking develop as I've been evolving my  touring setup for a few years to use a Carradice saddlebag, handlebar bag and ultralight equipment with a general goal of getting my gear and bags under 20lbs while keeping as much of my comfort as possible.




I the stuff made by Epic and Carousel and have considered trying some of the bags out, but I was wondering if anyone uses more traditional bags like ortlieb handlebar bags and Carradice saddlebags while bikepacking.