Touring and bags on a carbon road bike

maloner

In a few weeks I'll be heading off with some friends to cycle from Munich to Lake Garda over the alps, taking about a week. Easy enough days and staying in b+b's/hotels.

I had planned to rent bikes over there, but thats fallen through so I'm bringing my own carbon road bike with me (felt z4), and plan to put all my stuff in a small back pack (and thus carry very little).

We've done this in the past going from Malin head to Mizen head where I had a small backpack and a 5 liter bag on the handle bars for slightly heavier things. That bike was aluminium framed, with carbon forks (since robbed).

As this bike is carbon alround, what are my options, if any for putting some things on the bike? I'd be afraid of damaging the frame if I started hanging bags of it.

Hang the same 5l bag off the front of the handle bars, assuming I find a replacement bracket that was on the old bike when it was robbed?

Swap the carbon seatpost and saddle for the aluminium seat post and (not aluminium...) saddle on my hybrid commuting bike and stick a big saddle bag on it? Will the frame take 3-4kgs (or whatever it comes to) hanging off that?

When there I hope to climb the stelvio pass as we'll be going right past it, so lugging my hybrid up that doesn't sound great. I'd sooner travel light and tackle that on the road bike.

blorg

I would use a saddlebag, off the saddle, and keep it light. I've done similar trips with 3.5kg on the back and maybe 1kg on the front in a bar bag. The bike I did it on was titanium but it's a full on lightweight racer (Litespeed Archon, 7kg) with a carbon seatpost. I would have no compunction about doing the same on a carbon bike. Put on 25mm tyres if you can, although I went on 23s.

johnk123

This has given me something to think about!

Had been set on the idea of panniers for my first bit of touring this summer but after seeing this it may be the way to go! Back to the drawing board as they say

maloner

johnk123 wrote: »

This has given me something to think about!

Had been set on the idea of panniers for my first bit of touring this summer but after seeing this it may be the way to go! Back to the drawing board as they say

When I did it from mizen to malin, I had one set of cycling gear that I washed every night in the B&B, and one set of normal clothes I wore when we got to where we were going. I had hiking pants, sandles, a light jumper and the like. Small and light was the key. B&B's have towels, soap and all that so you need very little else. Charger for gadget(s), tooth brush, few other bits, but most of it can go in one bag if you pack well.

Doesn't work for longer trips as you'll likely need more clothes, and a B&B every night doesn't work out money wise, so might need tents which is a different animal.

jlx1

The seat pillar rack idea is good but change your pillar to an alloy one. A carbon pillar is not made to take the strain of such a rack. If anything its peace of mind an alloy pillar will cost you 20 euro or so, you can just swap back your carbon one after.