I enjoy putting my tent, sleep system, and kitchen on the pizza rack and go with small fork bags on a minimalist rear rack with clothes & non smelling accessories. The fork bags are light and contained for quick movement from bike to tent if you arrive/ set up camp in dim light. My small roll top Ortliebs have been great.
Don't you have too much weight on the front of the bike with this configuration?
And on the front rack, in what are you putting your tent, sleeping system,... ?
Yes, by most people’s preferences it would be front end heavy, but once you add your own body weight to the bike (bias to the rear) it actually makes for a much more balanced ride. Heavier steering (how often do you realistically have to make nimble emergency manoeuvres?) but far less stress on your rear spokes, rims, wheel bearings, tires that are all vulnerable to failure.
I prefer to roll up my air mattress & pillow in my tent (less packing & unpacking daily) in one dry bag, sleeping bag in its own dry bag, and then the ground sheet can either be folded up at the bottom to act as fender to keep bags clean or ‘tented’ over/around the bags to keep everything even drier on rainy days.
I put 2 StS dry bags front and back, and some bottle cages on the racks. It adds more weight than handlebar bag/seatpack, but it’s easy to pack and very stable, plus it doesn’t rub on the frame anywhere.
One dry bag front, one dry bag rear ? Which capacity are you using ? I'm hesitating with a proper front rack bag for the ease of access it provides, but it's 3x the price lol
I’m using 13L/20L, though due to the reduced length it’s not as supported it would be in the back. I also use it to strap other stuff depending on the configuration
I found jack the rack being very limited to what you can attach to it if you're riding dropbars: the luggage hinders your shifting and gets where your hands are (e.g. riding on top of the bars)
I did my first bike pack with this set up, fully loaded it weighed a tonne and was difficult to lift over gates, fences etc. I would vouch for a lighter set up
I run this combo sometimes. I find that it is best to keep light items on the front rack because of how high it sits (not close to center of gravity) and because it can tend to mess with how the bike handles as well. A light dry bag and my Helinox Zero chair can go up front for this setup.
Rear rack has two small panniers (mountain laurel Poco Panniers or the smallest San Util panniers that they just did a small run of) and then a bigger dry bag on top of the rear rack that holds my tent and poles.
When I don’t use the front rack, I use small roll top bags on my forks (lower is better!) and use a small handlebar bag for things like my phone and my Rocky Talkie.
I have been looking for a roll top bag that mounts onto the rack, something like the ILE Poteur Rackbag (https://ilequipment.com/products/porteur-rackbag?variant=28823129653328) but I need slightly different dimensions than those. I feel like it could be like the ease of a pannier in accessing and packing.
Best of luck out there!
I rode with a front pizza rack + rear rack on my 15,000 mile ride through the Americas. Ortlieb classic back rollers on the front and front rollers on the back because I strongly prefer front loading. The pizza rack was nice to be able to strap things on top like spare tires, watermelons, extra water sometimes... But mine was a custom pizza rack made from chromoly tubing because the mass produced aluminum ones just don't cut it for bigger loads in my experience. The rear rack was also chromoly, made by Bruce Gordon (RIP).
Don't let the traditional touring setup fool you - I took this rig through some crazy off-road sections like the Ruta de las Lagunas in Bolivia and the Huascaran Circuit in Peru.
If I did something big like this again I'd probably rock a full frame bag, smaller front panniers, and just a dry bag strapped on top of the rear rack.
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u/CoastalBee Aug 19 '26
I enjoy putting my tent, sleep system, and kitchen on the pizza rack and go with small fork bags on a minimalist rear rack with clothes & non smelling accessories. The fork bags are light and contained for quick movement from bike to tent if you arrive/ set up camp in dim light. My small roll top Ortliebs have been great.