Touring with the pannier weight on a front or rear rack?

[Yamahonian]

Hi,

I was wondering if it is better to put your touring panniers on a front or rear rack?

With my extra battery, water, food, clothes, lock, camera, tools, I estimate around 35 pounds of weight.

I was going to put that weight in pannier bags, and was wondering if that is better to go on a rack over the front or rear wheel.

I have a full suspension eMTB. I will be adjusting the bars to give myself an upright seating position, possible even with a saddle with a back-rest (so I will be seated like a cruiser motorcycle) - so my weight of my body will be pretty much all over the rear wheel. I weigh 160 pounds.

I would probably prefer the rear rack so I have an unobstructed view of the ground ahead of me, and so I keep my quick steering. However, I am worried about overly stressing the rear wheel and busting a spoke, or something else, which I wouldn't really be skilled enough to fix on my own.

Looking for feedback about whether a front or rear rack setup is better for my touring.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

For the weight you are describing (does that include the panniers themselves?), and probably any weight up to about 20kg, running with most of the weight on the rear rack won't be a problem.

In extreme cases if you are carrying very heavy your bike might become difficult to control or at least very unpleasant to ride if all of the weight was on the rear rack. From a practical standpoint, you probably will run out of volume in your panniers before you run into that issue, unless you are carrying gold ingots or something similar.

One of the challenges on a full-suspension bike is that your racking choices are necessarily limited, and your choices will be between very expensive racks which work well for a limited combination of bike geometries, wheel sizes, and/or axle combinations, or a less expensive rack which won't carry much or work very well in real-world conditions.

"Bikepacking"-style bags (front handlebar roll, saddle bag, and frame bags) were designed to work well with full-suspension bikes. You might consider that option instead of racks and panniers. You will necessarily have limited volume (though not so much as you'd think if you choose your bags well) and be packing into some oddly-shaped spaces (kind of like playing tetris with your stuff) but it is something to consider.

Depending on your bike and riding style, running with front panniers and no rear panniers might work well. If you are running with fairly light loads your bike will likely be more stable and behave more like an unloaded bike in such a configuration. This to some extent depends on your bike's geometry.

Most bike touring books recommend a 60-40 split between front and rear wheels. Although it is quite ambiguous which set of wheels gets the 60 and which gets the 40. I suspect as long as the loads are reasonably balanced it matters little.

 

[Yamahonian]

For the weight you are describing (does that include the panniers themselves?), and probably any weight up to about 20kg, running with most of the weight on the rear rack won't be a problem.

In extreme cases if you are carrying very heavy your bike might become difficult to control or at least very unpleasant to ride if all of the weight was on the rear rack. From a practical standpoint, you probably will run out of volume in your panniers before you run into that issue, unless you are carrying gold ingots or something similar.

One of the challenges on a full-suspension bike is that your racking choices are necessarily limited, and your choices will be between very expensive racks which work well for a limited combination of bike geometries, wheel sizes, and/or axle combinations, or a less expensive rack which won't carry much or work very well in real-world conditions.

"Bikepacking"-style bags (front handlebar roll, saddle bag, and frame bags) were designed to work well with full-suspension bikes. You might consider that option instead of racks and panniers. You will necessarily have limited volume (though not so much as you'd think if you choose your bags well) and be packing into some oddly-shaped spaces (kind of like playing tetris with your stuff) but it is something to consider.

Depending on your bike and riding style, running with front panniers and no rear panniers might work well. If you are running with fairly light loads your bike will likely be more stable and behave more like an unloaded bike in such a configuration. This to some extent depends on your bike's geometry.

Most bike touring books recommend a 60-40 split between front and rear wheels. Although it is quite ambiguous which set of wheels gets the 60 and which gets the 40. I suspect as long as the loads are reasonably balanced it matters little.

Thank you for the information.

So, from what I gather, if the total weight on the rear panniers is less than 40 pounds, and my own body weight is 160 pounds, and I am sitting in an upright position on the bike, then I should opt for a rear rack pannier setup over the front rack?

This way, my handling is not negatively affected by having the front panniers, and I also shouldn't notice much loss in control from the additional weight on the rear rack?

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Thank you for the information.

So, from what I gather, if the total weight on the rear panniers is less than 40 pounds, and my own body weight is 160 pounds, and I am sitting in an upright position on the bike, then I should opt for a rear rack pannier setup over the front rack?

This way, my handling is not negatively affected by having the front panniers, and I also shouldn't notice much loss in control from the additional weight on the rear rack?

Yes, I think you would be fine with a light load on just rear panniers.

 

[Bicyclista]

@Mr. Coffee is right in pointing out that it is hard to find sturdy racks and panniers that work well with full suspension bikes and wide tires (i.e. more than 2 inches wide). The best sturdy racks use the axle as the main point of support, and this usually requires replacing the axle with a longer one so that the rack can embrace it. I searched high and wide before I found Old Man Mountain racks. The company recently changed hands (the axle supplier bought it out) and I don't know if the founder, Channing Hammond, is still involved.

At any rate, my full-suspension mountain ebike with 27.5-inch wheels and 3-inch wide tires sports an Old Man Mountain rear rack and Ortlieb panniers in which I carry heavy professional photo equipment, including a long telephoto zoom lens and a tripod. I added lots of padding to protect the equipment. Carrying about 30 lbs of equipment in rear panniers has not impaired the handling of the bike that I can tell.

Old Man Mountain and The Robert Axle Project (which now owns Old Man Mountain) are based in Oregon and their products are made in the USA, so far as I can tell.

 

[indianajo]

So, from what I gather, if the total weight on the rear panniers is less than 40 pounds, and my own body weight is 160 pounds, and I am sitting in an upright position on the bike, then I should opt for a rear rack pannier setup over the front rack?

With steel baskets that weighed 20 lb and about 60 lb in them, and my weight about 180, I was knocked over by a dog that ran into my front wheel. 75 lb steel mountain bike was weighing about 140 lb rear 20 lb front without me on it. Lots of weight was behind the rear axle lifting the front axle even though I loaded the 2 liter bottles in the front of the baskets. That is one reason I bought the $1500 stretch frame cargo bike left, and $200 in rear pannier bags instead of the metal racks. I'm still spending summer days 25 miles from the grocery store, and I'm not eating or drinking any less out there. I use 2.1" tires at ~60 PSI on both bikes.
BTW the yuba bodaboda has bosses for a front rack welded into the frame, so the front rack doesn't swing with the front wheel. I have the battery mounted up there, over the front wheel. If the battery catches fire it is not between my legs toasting my body.

 

[Yamahonian]

With steel baskets that weighed 20 lb and about 60 lb in them, and my weight about 180, I was knocked over by a dog that ran into my front wheel. 75 lb steel mountain bike was weighing about 140 lb rear 20 lb front without me on it. Lots of weight was behind the rear axle lifting the front axle even though I loaded the 2 liter bottles in the front of the baskets. That is one reason I bought the $1500 stretch frame cargo bike left, and $200 in rear pannier bags instead of the metal racks. I'm still spending summer days 25 miles from the grocery store, and I'm not eating or drinking any less out there. I use 2.1" tires at ~60 PSI on both bikes.
BTW the yuba bodaboda has bosses for a front rack welded into the frame, so the front rack doesn't swing with the front wheel. I have the battery mounted up there, over the front wheel. If the battery catches fire it is not between my legs toasting my body.

So you are saying that it is better to put the pannier weight in the front?

 

[indianajo]

If you sit upright, most of your weight would be on the back. Will the front tire steer with 20 lb on it? Mine didn't. Does your bike make your steer the front cargo? big nuisance. Get two bathroom scales and weigh your own load.
In 2 years I haven't fallen off or been knocked off the cargo bike once. About 100 trips with 50-60 lb cargo. Even in town house I carry groceries home on the bike, 5 miles. Four times with two MTB's with rear baskets, the front wheel whipped sideways on obstructions, the tire grabbed & threw me on my chin. The roadbikereview.com guys said "hold onto the handlebars". Great advice. Not.

 

[Yamahonian]

If you sit upright, most of your weight would be on the back. Will the front tire steer with 20 lb on it? Mine didn't. Does your bike make your steer the front cargo? big nuisance. Get two bathroom scales and weigh your own load.
In 2 years I haven't fallen off or been knocked off the cargo bike once. About 100 trips with 50-60 lb cargo. Even in town house I carry groceries home on the bike, 5 miles. Four times with two MTB's with rear baskets, the front wheel whipped sideways on obstructions, the tire grabbed & threw me on my chin. The roadbikereview.com guys said "hold onto the handlebars". Great advice. Not.

I don't follow - your saying you would have been more stable with the weight on the front rack vs the rear rack?

 

[john peck]

Ideally, weight should be distributed equally between both wheels, otherwise one wheel produces more drag which can
wastes power & effort. However, surface & terrain can change that in a heart beat.

 

[indianajo]

I'm saying weight needs to be on the front wheel to make it steer. I'm saying weight behind the back axle on a short MTB or cruiser frame takes weight off the front axle. I'm saying upright riding position on MTB or cruiser frame puts weight on the back axle that needs to be balanced by weight on the front. Being knocked over by a dog in the middle of state road 3 was embarassing, groceries went all over the pavement.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Like I've said, with light loads it shouldn't really matter:

 

[john peck]

I put my large panniers in front & the small ones up high behind, not because of weight, but
because I have size 14 feet & need to avoid heel strike. Sometimes I just go bare bones
with a bivvy behind, & an inframe. Sometimes with nothing on the bike & a small trailer
I've built that converts from 2 to a single wheel for trails. Doesn't matter, use whatever's
comfortable for you. The advantage of the trailer is that I can cache it somewhere &
free ride when I want to explore. Sometimes I tour with just a heavily laden wallet.
Before electric, I went with something like Coffee's upper video, a 'vega mixte with
tange pro chromo tubing, frameset, 3 1/2 pounds.

 

[PDXzap]

...a small trailer I've built that converts from 2 to a single wheel for trails.

Show some pics here?

 

[Hectors Ghost]

I always start adding weight to the front of the bike, both bar-bags and then panniers. The weight over the front wheel stabilizes the bike when putting the weight behind me destabilized it. I only add weight to the rear after the front is fully loaded and the trailer is full. Over 6K miles last year with front panniers and bar-bags in place. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Cnpc96B1tyLV3yMW7