Great Allegheny Passage

[DebW]

More questions from me

I was thinking about when you showed me your bike and realized it was in two pieces - how does it fit together?

It was a bit chilly at night, wasn't it?

Your front bags look larger than the rear bags.
If so, why and does it affect steering?

Where's that photo of me? Is it that awful?

The two pieces of my bike are held together with S&S Couplers. See http://www.sandsmachine.com/.

It was chilly the first couple of nights, but pretty warm the last two. The first couple nights I ended up wearing my hat and fleece inside my bag by morning. The last night I slept in shorts and a T-shirt and didn't even use my quilt until almost morning.

Both sets of panniers are front panniers, because I try to go pretty light (~25 lb). The rears ones are Ortlieb front rollers, with a dry-bag type closure. Since they are not easy to get into during the day, they hold my camping gear and camp clothes. The front ones are Ortlieb SportPacker Plus and have drawstrings and a buckled lid. This set goes in front because I can open them while standing over the bike and grab my camera or a snack. I may have sometimes had more weight in the front panniers than the rear panniers, but if you add the drybag with my sleeping bag and hammock strapped on top of the rear rack, then the rear end had more weight. It took me about 30 minutes on the first day to get used to the handling with front panniers. I find that the left/right balance is pretty critical to good handling, but not so much the front/rear.

Here's the photo of you. Not at all awful, IMO.