Relevate Designs Seat Bag, Gas Tank, Sling, and Jerrycan

I just got my Relevate bikepacking bags in the mail, including the Viscacha seatpost bag, top tube-mounted Gas tank (fore bag), and the Jerrycan (aft bag), as well as the simple Sling handlebar-mounted strap for attaching my sleep pad and a drybag full of stuff.

Together with the Salsa-Relevate frame bag that I've already blogged, I can carry an huge amount of gear and food. For the backyard dry run, I just stuffed a 40 degree down bag and bivy sack in the rear, and a silicone tarp in the drybag to add some volume. I definitely have enough room for a real backpacking cookset and stove, a few days worth of food, tools/tubes/pump, 4 liters of water in the frame bag. The toptube mounted bags should cary some easy-to-access essentials like sunscreen/lip balm, gps (if I get one), energy bars, etcetera. I'll cary a small backpack with my warm clothes and I should be set for long range touring.

Just like a quality backpack, little details like tie-on points, inner stability clips. The attention to detail and overall lightweight design is far better than any cludgy job I could come up with:

That rear-mounted dry bag held together with 5000 straps sort of worked---This photo is from a few years back on the Great Western Trail.

The Gas Tank carries lunch, basically.

The attachment points for the post bag are beefy. Its essentially a three-foot long-ish roll-up drybag. The Jerry Can will be perfect for camera/gps and other essentials.

I got the simplest Sling handlebar carry system. The more sophisticated ones were out of stock. It works well enough. I'll need to put a few more straps on to attach it to the fork crown and the drybag+sleep pad will be snugly suspended in front of my head tube.

The verdict: I don't have one yet, but yes, I know the bags will work way better than anything I can put together myself. The bags offer the only real option for riding trails and carrying a full backpacking kit. There is no other way to do it without skimping on something, or carrying an utterly large back pack.... 

Stay tuned for my first overnighter with the rig in a few weeks.