Your trip is going swimmingly. You’ve seen truly beautiful places, enjoyed great weather, no flats so far, and met some amazing people. In fact, you’re sharing tonight’s campsite with some fellow tourists, nice people from some far flung land. Dinner’s been eaten, the dishes washed, and you’re digging into the evening’s conversation. Then it happens. From nowhere, things take an ugly turn. By morning, you’re no longer speaking and are staggering your departures so as to never meet again. How did it come to this, you ask. You made the rookie mistake of broaching the one subject that isn’t discussed in polite touring company: panniers versus trailers.
Ok, relations may not be that bad yet, but there’s some bad blood and more than a few misunderstandings surrounding this issue. For every person who claims to have been in a trailer-induced wreck there’s someone who was, equally violently, taken out by their panniers on a fast descent, and both would cross their heart and swear that the other system is better. Having used both extensively, I humbly offer up my experiences as a bridge, to divide two halves of a bruised and divided family. In the interest of fairness, I’ll flip a coin to determine which I cover first: heads, panniers; tails, trailers. [Actually flipping coin.] Heads.
Panniers
I actually started using trailers and panniers at about the same time, and for a long time was blissfully unaware of the simmering conflict between the two clans. For me, trailers were for work and panniers for everything else. Panniers carried my lunch and change of clothes to and from work and books back and forth from class. And when I started leading bike trips, they carried trip gear. They have been around forever and, as a concept, have been tested over and over in numerous configurations.
Pros
- Your system is light-weight
- Relatively low rolling resistance
- Low system complexity
Cons
- Your things end up scattered between two, four, or more bags
- Panniers are often awkward to load/unload
- Racks have a high center of gravity (lowriders alleviate this problem)
- Your system is heavily dependent on rack quality
- Loads are generally hard to secure
- When you remove the bags, you’re left with cargo paraphernalia (racks)
Trailers
While bags are great for carrying your trip gear, they don’t do so well with, say, a lawnmower. Bike Trailers offer versatility in ways most cyclists never imagined.
Pros
- Trailers are easy like a car trunk
- You can keep everything together in one place
- Loads are relatively easy to secure
- Removing the trailer removes almost all cargo paraphernalia
- You can carry larger, heavier loads
Cons
- They add a lot of extra length
- Riding with a trailer requires some getting used to
- Heavy trailer + fast, steep descent = potentially scary handling
- Trailers have slightly greater rolling resistance
- Parts may be hard to find/replace on the road
So, which side am I on? I guess you’d say I’m doomed to pedal the no-man’s-land between panniers and trailers, sometimes using both at the same time [gasp!]. But this is just one cyclists’ experience. Which side are you on?
5 responses so far ↓
1 S Mac // Aug 18, 2008 at 12:41 pm
As someone who’s done most of their bicycling touring using panniers but is now contemplating a trailer, I have some comments on the pros and cons of each.
Panniers:
Con: I have experienced scary descents with fully loaded front and rear panniers. It’s critical to balance the weight equally.
Pro: I like being able to compartmentalize my gear — throwing everything into one big “bob” bag means I have to dig to find anything.
Trailer (this specifically relates to the bob trailer):
Con: broken spokes. My husband used a bob on a long trip down the Oregon coast and after a few days, he got several broken spokes and the situation just kept getting worse. We now think beefier spokes are in order or a trailer, like the burley flatbed, that attaches via an axle adapter hitch.
I would also recommend disc brakes for stopping with heavier loads. This is a personal preference, I simply feel more secure in my stopping power.
In a nutshell, I do not favor one over the other. I think they each have their uses depending on the type of trip.
2 Murray Langton // Sep 4, 2008 at 7:00 am
On cycling/camping trips I use both front panniers and a trailer. The panniers hold my clothes and other personal bits and pieces (toothbrush etc.), while the trailer holds all the camping gear and food. Admittedly I do have a rather large tent (5 Kg, interior 14 feet by 8 feet by 5 feet high) but I do like a touch of luxury and room to spread out.
3 Bill Heinrich // Oct 25, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Well the closest I have ever came to using a pannier was a using a back pack while hiking the AP trail in 1976. That aside I recently finished a bike trip around Lake Ontario with a friend. We were both driving Tour Easy’s and both had BOB trailers. Overall experience was very good. A few improvements could be made to the BOB Dry sac, a couple of mesh
side pouches would have been nice. Possibly a couple of compartments on the inside would also be nice. Digging through the sac is a bit of a hassel when looking for stuff. Even if I was sure that I had put something like a guide book on top in front I would usually find it on the bottom and in the back. Pre- alzheimers I’m sure. I had my bike and trailer topple over a few times which is quite annoying as it does take two people to get it up again. Now I see that there is a kickstand available for the trailer , I sure wish that would have been a basic part of the package when it was purchased. My vote is overall for the BOB!
4 David Shuey // Nov 2, 2008 at 7:27 pm
The first time I ever used a BOB trailer was on a trip from West Yellowstone, Montana to Jackson, Wyoming. I rented a hybrid bike and trailer from an outfitter and carried all of my gear, about 40 pounds. This ride include some fairly steep climbs and desents (cross the Continental Divide twice) and I had no problems with control. I was shocked at how quickly I became used to the trailer and for most of the ride, I didn’t even think about pulling that extra length or weight.
I came home and bought one and used it the following year for a ride the length of the C&O canal. Now here’s the problem…I wasn’t three miles into the ride when the fender vibrated off and swung beneath the wheel causing me to come to a rather quick stop. The C&O canal trail surface isn’t smooth so I was constantly having to tighten screws and bolts to keep my trailer from falling apart.
I am riding across America next year and will only be using panniers (four total…2 low riders in the front and 2 standard on the back) on my Tubus racks. I bought waterproof Transit brand bags which were reasonably priced and tested once in Oregon this year where it rained for an entire day…all my stuff was dry at the end of the day. I am trying to keep my net additional weight for the cross country ride to 25 pounds…a minimalist load…we’ll see.
5 dave.m // Nov 9, 2008 at 3:29 am
the debate can be further refined, perhaps for the sake of spreading even more disharmony.
single wheeled trailers or double?
i’ve ridden with the BOB yak, & also solely with panniers but now travel with the Carry Freedom Y-frame.
for me the yak doesn’t really alleviate the real problem i have with heavily loaded panniers, with panniers one has to balance the overall weight which can be tiring all the yak does is tranfer this weight backwards but because of the single wheel design the moentum still shifts from side to side when cycling out of the saddle for example.
the Y-frame simply doesn’t have this issue, therefore the handling of the bike is improved(increasing safety) and also larger loads can be carried, it’s shorter too, but it is a bit wider.
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