Dropanniers

Dropout panniers, aka Dropanniers: Experiments in bikepacking with low trail geometry.

Grant has a pretty minimal touring setup and wanted some extra carrying capacity without resorting to the weight and stiffness of a lowrider rack and panniers.

Attempt #1: Simply hanging some custom made bags under the platform rack. Everything fit, but with so much weight up high the handling was subpar. Back to the drawing board.

Attempt #2: Get some King Cage Manything cages and mount them along the fork blade bikepacking style. The load was still too high and I think too far back resulting again in unsatisfactory handling. It would be fun to set up a side by side test with a higher trail bike and compare the differences.

Attempt #3: Move the load to the tried and true location of the front hub. My fork ends have some rather solid rack/fender mounts and I thought we could get a strong wiggle free setup by mounting the King Cages to the fork ends. Success! The adapters were finicky to make and next time I could improve the setup by making it all one piece eliminating the need for the separate cages, but as is, it’s a working prototype. A very light setup that still allows the spaghetti legged fork blades to flex the way they should. I’m looking forward to refining this concept some more.