On Friday, February 6, 2015 at 10:33:13 AM UTC-8, Tim Gavin wrote: > >> Panniers on the side of the wheel, but hanging from the top of the rack > (imagine side panniers on a Nitto Big Front rack, for example) should feel > more neutral. >
I'll like to add that panniers hung on a front rack that is *not* balanced will adversely affect handling to a very large degree, much more so than unbalanced panniers hung on a rear rack, and even to a degree that the bike may be unrideable*. Example: I have a low-trail Boulder All Road with a solid front rack, and it is a nice-handling bike, regardless of whether there is a rando bag up front. However, one time, I strapped a single-sided pannier up front (contains laptop) and the bike pulled *way* to one side, so much so that it was virtually unrideable; I turned back home after 1/2 block. I was surprised because I always ride my rear-racked commuter lopsided without any issue whatsoever. I tried balancing the pannier by adding another pannier but further experiments revealed that one needs to balance front panniers to within a T-shirt or two in order to not feel like the bike's pulling to one side. Yes, it is possible to ride lopsided front panniers but the constant need to counter the sideward pull will leave a knot in one's shoulders. Don't ask how I know. * rideability is obviously subjective. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
