I want to go touring with my KH29 and am researching about rack/panier solutions. There is unicyclegear.com which probably is very good but also quite expensive, around 2000 USD for the whole set. Are there any other suppliers around? I don’t really want to design/build something myself.
From one traveller I saw the recommendation not to use a backpack, as it puts additional weight on butt which is already a pain point. Sounds logic to me and hence additional importance for a good luggage system.
There is nothing else off the shelf that you can get. Unipacking is a niche within a niche. For something that you don’t really have to do any big modifications, I’d personally start with one of those bike racks that attaches to your seatpost and strap some drybags to it.
A bike rack for the seat post is definitely the cheapest way to go. And also my favourite since it’s easy go travel with by train and especially plane.
Here is a video where I go through my last set-up (minute 14, english subtitles available): 160km auf dem Einrad! 4 Tage, 4 Länder Unipacking Tour mit Becky zum ELSBET | Teil 1 - YouTube
But for future trips I am adding a bigger self made front bag to balance the weight a bit better. Definitely will still have to carry a light backpack with it. But carrying on the back and uni as less as possible is the key to make ride more comfortable.
I have for my 36" the setup from unicyclegear.com. Definitely the best and probably nearly the only way to do it on a 36". But decided against modifying it for my 29" since the weight is too far out which makes the uni a bit less handable for offroad riding and mostly because it can’t be taken apart, so flying with it would mean an oversized box.
Great, thanks for this. Will definitively buy one of these racks which can fix on saddle post and then strap some dry bags to it. Should be enough for shorter trips not too far away from the civilisation.
For packing, I understand weight should be in front, on the KH T-Bar so mounting doesn’t get too complicated? Backpack should be as light as possible, except maybe for the camel bag drinking bladder.
On a 29" for mounting it doesn’t matter that much if weight is all in the back or not (on a 36" it certainly would). But having a bit weight in front makes riding more compftable.
For the drybags, make sure to get some with loops. I use two 20 L Sea to Summit big river dry bags on my unpacking set up. One on top and one below the rack.
The lighter the backpack the longer you can sit on the saddle. I personally consider everything below 10 kg as light. On my previous trips I had 12 kg to probably sometimes 16-17 kg on my bag. 12 kg still was okay. 16-17 is way to much. Everything below 10 feels nice. And I am aiming to stay below/ around that nowadays.
So I unipack on my 29" for 100km day/9 hours of riding. I find a backpack is honestly very comfortable if you’re under 25lbs of gear.
I have a Kumo 36 by Gossamer Gear and it’s a very comfortable pack. If paired with higher end backpacking gear that is low weight/small volume I find I can have all of my gear is about 11-13lns, and leaves plenty of extra weight room for food and water.
The bag itself is 0.55kg and compared to the weight of a rack is very reasonable as you’ll have the weight of the rack and bags which will be more.
A good quality backpack for trips and a good saddle with padded shorts works out very well if you get good ones that work for you.
When the weight is making me a bit uncomfortable I’ll just take a break from riding. I usually take a break every hour to reapply sunscreen and have a food/water break anyways.
It’s not for everyone and pannier/bags has its advantages too, but backpack being “bad” on its own is not a huge issue in my mind. It just has different strengths/challenges as opposed to other methods of carrying gear.
I agree with @Becky98, keep the weight on the back as low as possible.
It’s pretty easy to attach one or two panniers to the back. It can be with a seatpost carrier or without. I really like the saddlebags that normally attach to the rails of a bike seat, but you have to use a bike seat or handlesaddle or modified unicycle seat.
It’s better to be able to counterbalance by fixing a pannier on the front, but it’s often more complicated (thule tour rack, triangular frame pannier…).
And then, all the choices depend on the capacity of each one to travel with the least amount of stuff possible.
At the beginning of June I plan to cross the Pyrenees by road (900km, 20.000m elevation, 13 days) with a new setup without backpack. I can’t wait to test it all and share it with you.