How To Carry Extra Water And Gear On Your Touring Bicycle

[WheelsAcrossCanada]

A trick I used was to keep the sleeping bag in my front pannier and put extra water bottles on top of my front panniers--they usually have bungee straps to hold them down and rain covers. It's a bit clumsy, but it works and keeps the sleeping bag in the pannier instead of exposed to water. I use a waterproof compression sack to hold the bag, and put the compressed package in the pannier. In most of Canada, if you're below the 54th parallel, you'll find sources of water within a minimum of a day

[elstado1]

wear a mic

[guritnolive]

Nice tips. Next time please increase your recording volume, it's too hard to hear your voice. Thanks anyway.

[trumpetbeek]

Does this dork work for The Ministry For Obvious Information?

[brimstone33]

Good advice Darren. I recommend carrying extra "Platypus" soft water bottles. They're cheap, very tough, light, and fold up really small. And an oz of "Aquamira" solution will treat many gallons of wild water.

Also handy to take a few cheap, disposable shopping bags. They can act as expedient drybags, keep dirty stuff separate, keep your seat dry, and...carry stuff.

[TheDanielJet]

funny to look at the person with the dog far away in the background haha...

[chefslot]

Plan your trip with known springs rivers etc and carry a water purification system from tastefull tablets to pumps, see lightweight back packing water purification, cool 

[gailm61]

Well, I have toured around Scotland in all weathers.

Basically getting advice is fine but you simply need to go and do it to find out whats best for you. I recently did a few hundred miles in very warm weather and carried a load of water but had Chlorine tablets "just in case".

travel as light as possible ! Be ruthless with gear !

Gail - Scotland

[elgeneralsv]

hmm I use a Surly "Nice Front Rack" and the platform makes the rack very useful so I can have two front panniers and have something on top... I haven't decided if Iam going to put water bladders on the front (liquid sloshing around) but the front rack is available to carry light stuff from the rear rack and free up space in the back if needed

nice to see an Alaska username post on bike touring...

[Amundbamos]

u could also use a hydration back pack....u can get 2 litres bags without taking a 2 L bottle in ur bag...atleast i find it work great when i go for 4 hour long rides and probally works on touring trips with these

[saviourag]

@Amundbamos The last thing you'd want on a long bicycle tour is to have anything on your back. I always carry a small backpack, just in case, but I keep it bungee corded to the rack most of the time. I generally use it at the very end of the day when I buy food for making supper and plan to consume most of it by the end of that day. You know, you can't stuff in eggs into your panniers if you don't want to have an bike tools omelette in there. It's best not to have anything on your back.

[MichaelLorenger]

Nice video Darren. :) Great tips!

[hartleymartin]

You can attach an extra water bottle underneath your downtube using hose clamps Also, if you don't use front panniers (ie only use a large handlebar bag) you can similarly attach water bottles to each leg of your front forks.

[darrenalff]

BeeRich33. You are right, The sleeping bag could be stored in a dry sack... which would eliminate the need to place the sleeping bag inside the rear pannier. But that's not what this video is really about. It's really about how storing the bag inside your pannier forces you to pack less... and by packing less, this gives you the option of carrying additional gear (like water) on your bike WHEN YOU NEED TO. When you are stuffed to capacity from the get go, this is not an option.

[BeeRich33]

You can get a dry sack as well, which is pretty much impermeable.