Doug Kline
Guru
I’ve done some overnight bike touring this year. While I’m set up for panniers on the S40, for a long ride down towards the coast, I prefer my V20 and have dialed in my Scarab bag usage. This write up comes after I did an overnight bike tour with a group of 14. We rode 105 miles, checked into upscale cottages at a vineyard, had a nice dinner, played cards, crashed into bed, got up and rode 105 miles home. It was a fun outing.
This is what I’ve learned.
(1) The Scarab bag wraps around the frame making two halves. The Scarab bag is much lighter than a rack and panniers. It's water resistant, but not waterproof. An 8 liter Sea to Summit eVac Dry Sack fits perfectly in one of those halves and is completely waterproof (I’ve definitely field tested it). The eVac dry sack uses eVent fabric which makes it so you can squeeze the air out of it. Just roll the top down, seal it, squeeze, and you have a compact package to put into half the Scarab.
For this trip, I carried overnight clothes for both my wife and myself and a small toiletry kit, shown here ready to be tucked into the Scarab.
(2) If you work at it, just like backpacking, you can fit a lot into a small space. This trip was for summer, so I have a pair of zip-off pants, without the legs, a small belt, a golf polo shirt that doesn’t wrinkle, boxer style underwear that can double as shorts in the hotel room. For this trip the group I was riding with wanted to wear a team jersey on the first day, so I packed a second jersey. Normally I wouldn’t, I’d just wash what I’m wearing in the sink. In the winter that space was used by a long sleeve shirt. And also a small water resistant, wind break jacket. That set of clothes can cover a fairly wide temperature range.
I have a small two-port Native Union USB charger, a small CreatePros iPhone cable, and a Duttek 3-way micro USB cord. It’s enough to charge my phone, lights, and computer. And a toiletry kit with travel size stuff. I was even able to get a tiny Panasonic shaver.
(3) Shoes. My shoes are large, so I’ve been using Pearl Izumi X-ALP Journey shoes with Egg Beater petals. I can both cycle and walk in those shoes. However, for this social outing, which was also the hottest day of the year so far, I Velcro’d my sandals onto the frame. Its OK, we weren’t going at race speed, although the contrast with my 60mm Boyds was silly.
For this outing, the Parkers came up and joined the gang. They were also going self-contained. Most of the group came from 30 miles away and they had one of the husbands drive their luggage. But the rest of us didn’t have luggage service from the start. I can tell you the Scarab bag is unobtrusive and a lot nicer than carrying a backpack.
We never got a very good group photo. It was a bit hazy when we left and raining when we got to the vineyard, and then foggy for the Sunday start.
This is what I’ve learned.
(1) The Scarab bag wraps around the frame making two halves. The Scarab bag is much lighter than a rack and panniers. It's water resistant, but not waterproof. An 8 liter Sea to Summit eVac Dry Sack fits perfectly in one of those halves and is completely waterproof (I’ve definitely field tested it). The eVac dry sack uses eVent fabric which makes it so you can squeeze the air out of it. Just roll the top down, seal it, squeeze, and you have a compact package to put into half the Scarab.
For this trip, I carried overnight clothes for both my wife and myself and a small toiletry kit, shown here ready to be tucked into the Scarab.
(2) If you work at it, just like backpacking, you can fit a lot into a small space. This trip was for summer, so I have a pair of zip-off pants, without the legs, a small belt, a golf polo shirt that doesn’t wrinkle, boxer style underwear that can double as shorts in the hotel room. For this trip the group I was riding with wanted to wear a team jersey on the first day, so I packed a second jersey. Normally I wouldn’t, I’d just wash what I’m wearing in the sink. In the winter that space was used by a long sleeve shirt. And also a small water resistant, wind break jacket. That set of clothes can cover a fairly wide temperature range.
I have a small two-port Native Union USB charger, a small CreatePros iPhone cable, and a Duttek 3-way micro USB cord. It’s enough to charge my phone, lights, and computer. And a toiletry kit with travel size stuff. I was even able to get a tiny Panasonic shaver.
(3) Shoes. My shoes are large, so I’ve been using Pearl Izumi X-ALP Journey shoes with Egg Beater petals. I can both cycle and walk in those shoes. However, for this social outing, which was also the hottest day of the year so far, I Velcro’d my sandals onto the frame. Its OK, we weren’t going at race speed, although the contrast with my 60mm Boyds was silly.
For this outing, the Parkers came up and joined the gang. They were also going self-contained. Most of the group came from 30 miles away and they had one of the husbands drive their luggage. But the rest of us didn’t have luggage service from the start. I can tell you the Scarab bag is unobtrusive and a lot nicer than carrying a backpack.
We never got a very good group photo. It was a bit hazy when we left and raining when we got to the vineyard, and then foggy for the Sunday start.
