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When deciding between trailers and panniers, remember that it’s not a case of which is ‘best’ but rather which is right for you.

Also, it’s possible to combine a bit of both. For example, you could have two back panniers with a lightly loaded trailer – or even more if you’re two people, cycling through a remote part of the world.

Here’s how to combine a trailer with a few panniers. Photo by Patrizia & Bro.

To help you figure out which option is the most appropriate, here are some pros and cons to both panniers and trailers.

Pannier Advantages

• Easily carried one-by-one into your tent or hotel room and over obstacles like fences and streams (no single bag is very heavy)
• Your luggage can be sorted into different parts and stored per bag, making things easier to find (in theory!)
• Accessible while riding; you can reach things strapped on top of panniers or stored near the top, without getting off your bike
• Simply designed, with few moving parts that can get lost or break
• Versatile. Use all 4 for longer trips or take just one on a short day trip; carry a single pannier as a ‘day bag’ when visiting cities

Pannier Disadvantages

• Put strain on a bike, particularly the back wheel, possibly causing broken spokes
• Increase tire wear and wind resistance
• Need to be reasonably well balanced between the left and right sides or the bike will feel unstable

Panniers are perhaps the most common option for bike touring.

Trailer Advantages

• Ideal for carrying bulky, heavy items such as lots of water across deserts
• Kids trailers give the children a place to rest, away from strong sun or bad weather
• Handy for home use as well as touring (carrying groceries, collecting large purchases from shops)
• Often built with a wide profile that encourages cars to leave more room when passing
• Easily unhooked so you can ride a ‘naked’ bike without racks
• Aggressive dogs tend to chase the trailer, keeping them away from your legs

Trailer Disadvantages

• May be harder to pack for train, plane and bus journeys
• More mechanical parts that could need repair or replacement (spokes, tire, skewers)
• Can be tricky if you need to back up, park or navigate through narrow gaps

Read more:

• Why we personally prefer panniers over trailers

Once you’ve bought panniers, you’ll need racks to hang them on and – like panniers – you get what you pay for when it comes to racks.

If you plan on doing any amount of touring, it’s worth spending a bit of extra money for a decent set that will withstand months of bumping and jostling on the road.

As long as you don’t scrimp on quality, you shouldn’t need to do much to your racks during a tour. Just check occasionally to see if any screws or bolts are coming loose. With a cheap set of racks, pack some hose clamps and zip ties in your repair kit. Less expensive racks are more likely to break under the strain of a heavy load.

What To Look For?
Our favourite racks are made of steel; not because there aren’t good aluminium racks on the market but because steel racks can be easily welded back together, if necessary.

We also look for racks with a high load capacity. The most robust back racks are rated for about 40kg (90lbs) of weight. You won’t likely carry that much but it’s nice to know the racks are more than strong enough for the job.

As a bit of extra insurance, get a rack with a guarantee.

If we had to pick out just one brand of luggage racks to highlight, it would have to be Tubus Racks. They have a well proven track record in terms of strength and durability. Even better, they come with a 30-year guarantee, including shipping of free replacements anywhere in the world for 3 years.

A good value alternative is the Topeak Super Tourist DX rack. After buying two of these racks in 2009, we can definitely recommend them for light touring. They’re fairly light (700g), fit almost all bikes and have held up admirably on 10-14 day tours of Denmark and Spain, as well as numerous shorter trips and countless trips to the grocery store.

A Final Word On Racks.
No matter which one you choose, chances are the paint will wear thin with time, especially where the panniers rub up against the racks.

Keep some touch-up paint handy (nail polish will do the trick in a pinch). This helps keep the racks free of rust.

You can also wrap duct tape around your racks at the points where the bags make contact with the metal, to prevent scuffing.

Read More:

• Quality Luggage Racks For Touring

Panniers are the most common way for touring cyclists to carry their equipment.

In case you’re not familiar with the lingo, panniers are bags that attach to luggage racks, so you can carry equipment over the front and back wheels of your bike. Most panniers are commercially made out of heavy-duty fabric but you can make your own out of backpacks or even plastic buckets.

A standard touring set-up is 2 large bags on the back and 2 smaller panniers on the front. You can also strap a tent and sleeping mat across the top of the back panniers.

A touring bike loaded with panniers, a handlebar bag and a dry sack. Photo by Stephen Lord

Pannier Advantages
Panniers are popular for several reasons, starting with versatility. A well designed set of panniers will let you clip and unclip the bags from the racks within seconds.

That means it’s easy to get your panniers off the bike and inside your tent in a rainstorm. You can also quickly grab a single pannier (for example, the one with your laptop and other valuables in it) to take along as you go supermarket shopping.

In a city, an empty pannier can be used as a day bag while sightseeing. When you fly with your bicycle, you can check your panniers as normal luggage. A “Chinese shopping bag” is helpful for this.

Panniers help you stay organised as well. You can sort your equipment into different bags. One for food and cooking gear, one for clothing and yet another for tools and emergency supplies. Most importantly, there is very little that can go wrong with panniers, especially if you get a good set to begin with. They have almost no moving parts. Any problems that do arise are usually small and easily fixed.

In addition to front and back panniers, you might also want to add a:

• Handlebar Bag – Clips to the front handlebars of the bike. It’s ideal for storing your wallet, camera and other valuables and can be easily taken along when you need to leave the bike for a few minutes. This brings peace of mind and makes it much easier to lock your bike up and run a few errands because you know the most important items won’t be lost, should disaster strike. Most bags also come with a map case on top to make navigation easier. We like Vaude’s Road I Handlebar Bag.

• Dry Bag – A waterproof sack, often used for canoeing or kayaking. Cyclists use dry bags too because their tubular shape fits a rolled up tent and poles perfectly. This protects the tent from rain and sun damage, and keeps it in one compact package that can be easily strapped onto the bike with bungee cords or compression straps. Read more on dry bags.

Brands to Consider
Everyone wants to know which brand of panniers are best. The better question to ask is “Which panniers are best for you?”

Almost any pannier on the market will be fine for occasional tours but don’t expect cheaper brands to perform well over time or in heavy rain. When you spend extra money, you’re paying for durability and ease of use. That means panniers made with more robust fabric, better quality zips and a system that makes them easier to remove from the bike.

For a good set of panniers, you won’t go wrong by investing in a set of Ortlieb panniers. They’re by far the most popular brand and relatively expensive but for your money you get waterproof panniers that are a breeze to get on and off the bike and will last for a lifetime of bike touring. We only recently replaced our Ortliebs after over 60,000km of touring and we only bought another set because someone sold us their nearly-new Ortliebs for a bargain price. The old ones are still working (if a bit sunfaded).

There is one big downside to Ortlieb panniers: most models don’t come with pockets and that annoys people who like lots of compartments to organise their things. However, Ortliebs are so popular that even if you don’t like them, you should have no trouble reselling them to another cyclist.

Read more:

• Our review of Ortlieb panniers

Other Options
Other pannier brands to check out include Vaude, Carradice, Jandd, Lone Peak and – at the luxury end of the scale – the exceptionally well designed but expensive Arkel bags.

As you are researching panniers, consider these features:

• Waterproof or Not – Some panniers, like Ortlieb, are 100% waterproof. When it starts to rain, this means you don’t have to jump off the bike and put on rain covers to keep everything dry. Other bags are more water resistant than waterproof – fine if you’re cycling in a dry climate or are willing to protect sensitive equipment in waterproof bags. If you choose non-waterproof bags, you may also be able to patch them up more easily with a sewing kit.
• Type of Closure – Zippers. Rolling tops. Clips and buckles. Who knew there were so many ways to close a bag? In general, try to minimise the number of zippers on your bike bags because the dirt from the road and repeated opening and closing motions make zippers prone to failure. We prefer other options such as bags that roll closed like a dry bag. They can be rolled very tight to form a waterproof seal in even the heaviest rainstorm. Equally, you can leave them open when you need room for extra food. Panniers that have a clamshell-type top and buckles aren’t quite as easy to overstuff when you need to carry extra supplies (in our experience) but they are a little easier than roll tops to open and close.
• Weight and Volume – Like backpacks, panniers come in all different shapes, materials and sizes. There’s no point getting a bigger, heavier bag if you don’t need the extra space.
• Attachment Systems – Make sure the panniers are easy to put on and take off the bike. You’re going to be doing this at least twice a day, if not more, so it shouldn’t be a long and tedious process. The best panniers unhook automatically when you lift the bag up by its handle.

Pannier Packing Tips
Packing your bike panniers can be confusing, especially when you do it for the first time. Here are some quick tips to get you started:

1. Everything In Its Place – Sort gear into categories. Cooking equipment and food can go in one bag, clothes in another. Bike tools should have their own spot that’s easy to access, so you can quickly find what you need when a tire goes flat.

2. Balance The Weight – Make sure that your bike is balanced. This means that bags on the right and left sides should weigh about the same. Between front and back, most people go for a 60-40 split, though you’ll find differing opinions on whether more weight should be up front or in back. Putting more weight in front takes some pressure off your back wheel, lowering the risk of things like broken spokes, and can also make the bike feel more stable when going up a steep hill. However, because your back panniers are bigger it’s sometimes easier to put more weight in back and often the difference in handling isn’t really noticeable.

3. Leave Extra Space – Don’t fill your panniers to the brim. You’ll want extra room for food and souvenirs as you travel. Ideally, leave home with at least half a pannier’s worth of empty space.

Read more:

• Tips For Packing Bicycle Panniers

Now that you have camping gear, clothes and a whole pile of other stuff to take on tour, how will you carry it all on your bicycle? The options are numerous.

Will you use two panniers or four? Or maybe a trailer?

You could go for the classic combination of panniers and luggage racks, or you might opt to tow a trailer behind your bicycle. Some people have both luggage racks and a trailer. Other folks travel ultralight and get away with barely more than a handlebar bag.

There’s no one correct answer. The only way to know for sure is to try some different combinations yourself and see if you’re happy with that solution. That said, here are some starting points to get you thinking about what might be best for your trip.

1. Panniers
2. Luggage Racks
3. Trailers
4. Still Confused? Trailers vs. Panniers