Saddle bag vs Harness

[forrestG]

My first post here so HELLO everyone!
I'm thinking about buying under seat packing system. Looking at endless list of bikepacking designs and I wonder which system is better.
Saddle bag or Harness/holster?
I'm sure you can tell me something about your experience. Why saddle bag not harness? or vice versa.
I'm looking for a system for 1-2 longer trips a year (2-3 weeks) and dozens of shorter - 2-4 days.
Can you help me decide please?
Thanks

[harryonaspot]

No right answer. They both work fine. With a harness you can take the bag to your tent. That may be important depending  on  what you load it with. Just make sure have adequ ate clearance to your tire for whatever choice you make

[Marc40a]

Does anyone have issues with techy downhill sections when using a seatbag? It seems like it would be difficult/impossible to get behind the seat.

[harryonaspot]

You can usually hang them so they go back rather than up. Not that I have  ever found it a problem.  But everyone is different

[bakerjw]

There are many styles of seat bags out there. Porcelain Rocket makes a good offering that looks stable as sway goes. My preference is the Rogue Panda Picket Post seat bag. On the TD, mine was rock solid 100% of the time. I never feel it sway. Plus they're a small outfit and I've been happy with all of their products.

IMHO the best bang for your buck comes from a good frame bag. I move my water bottles to the front fork so that I can use all of the space down in the frame triangle. I put the heaviest stuff that I hope to never use down low too.

[bikelite]

I plan to attempt a diy harness situation for handlebar and seatpost.

[bakerjw]

Although they're not the most stable, I did pick up a Pak Ratt seat bag for $50.00 just to see how well it worked. It is built better than anything I could have put together.

[offroute]

forrestG, unless you have other bags you're not telling us about, or plan to use a sizable backpack, and are riding self-supported for a 2-3 week trip, I can't imagine not having both. They're pretty much the mainstay of rackless systems.

Marc, trips less than a week you can usually nail the weather well enough to go ultralight and use just a tiny seat bag (or none). Now your dropper works : ) A sleeping pad/bag and a couple garments/utility items is all you are essentially adding to your trail riding kit. Try to plan a route that hits resupplies every day to keep light. Use water purification (Steripen, etc.) where you have reliable sources. I wear a low-slung pack along with the harness and a couple top tube bags. If you get ruthless with offloading contingency and camping gear, you'll be surprised how minimal your kit can get. On an extended tour where a brief section pops up? Deal with it. Cheers...

[forrestG]

I've got front harness, frame bag and backpack. But the problem is I hate riding with backpack - I think it's not the best idea. Therefore I'm thinking about buying saddle bag / harness. I just wonder why people using saddle bag not harness or vice versa.

[sdr]

Forrest, I'm a little lost with your question. The confusion for me is the terminology... Saddle bag and harness, since you state you already have a "Front Harness". Lets clear a couple things up first to provide the right input.

When you say "Saddle bags" is this what you are talking about? They are more commonly referred to as Panniers.


If my first assumption is correct I'm going to assume then the "Harness" your asking about is one of these? Commonly called a Seat bag.

[bikeny]

He is asking about the using either a traditional bikepacking saddlebag (ie Revelate Viscacha) vs using one of the newer saddle harness/holster setups (ie Revelate Terrapin).

My answer is, it depends what your priorities are. The tradition saddlebag will generally be lighter and simpler, with less to go wrong or break, but at the same time it's a little more work to pack/unpack. A holster with a dry bag will be heavier and more complicated, but many of the newer ones have some kind of stabilizing rack to eliminate sway. The best thing is it's very easy to take the drybag off the bike and unpack/repack it in the tent or elsewhere, and then just strap it to the bike.

[Vonpotter]

Look into the Blackburn Outpost series. For less than 150 you can get a decent saddle harness with a removable dry bag.

That's what I've been running for a little over a year now, and I can't say enough good things about it. It's a little heavier than some of the higher dollar bags, but for your money, you really can't beat it.

Plus, it fits well on a small frame. I struggled to find something that worked well on my small Karate Monkey. The outpost harness gives me plenty of room with my axle all the way forward in the dropouts.

Also, Blackburn has a lifetime warranty on their stuff.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[forrestG]

He is asking about the using either a traditional bikepacking saddlebag (ie Revelate Viscacha) vs using one of the newer saddle harness/holster setups (ie Revelate Terrapin).

^This


Thank you bikeny for your answer. Now I can see things more clearly 

[Hayduke]

I have the Revelate Terrapin 'holster' system and like the removable dry bag. It makes it a lot easier to stuff/unstuff  my sleep system and extra clothes on the dry floor of my tarp tent.

When I do long day trips or need 'cargo' space I often use the holster alone.

[joeydurango]

RE: getting behind the saddle on techy descents, I've never had much trouble personally.  But I'm tall, so that helps.  Often you can, as mentioned above, orient the bag more vertically or horizontally - horizontally is easier to get over, but vertically is more stable.

If you run a dropper, there are a couple true dropper-post designed bags out there now.  Scott at Porcelain Rocket makes one, and so do we at Bedrock.  Very different takes on design, but you can look that up on your own.

Also, not trying to push our gear here, really - but it isn't as simple as "laced to the rails type" or "bag in a harness type" seat bags.  For example, both of Bedrock's seat bag models don't use a harness, but don't lace through the rails either.  They detach and reattach to the bike at camp extremely quickly and easily.  Once again, you can look into this at will.

Hope that helps.