Rackless bags were conceived by mountain bikers as a way to carry camping gear for cross-country touring adventures. The iconic Tour Divide race, which runs north-south along the Continental Divide through Canada and USA, has been the testing ground for small bag-makers such as Bike Bag Dude, Revelate, Porcelain Rocket, and more recently larger bicycle accessory makers such as Salsa and Blackburn.

But for about half the cost of the high-end gear, here’s a set of bags that will let you get out in the great beyond and still have money left to replace your bottom bracket after immersions through the creek crossings.

The handlebar bag

The Azur handlebar bag is a double-ended roll-closure waterproof bag. Many second-generation handlebar bags provide a way of off-setting the bag from the handlebar, to give room for brake and gear cables. Not this bag.

The Azur attaches directly to the handlebar, and there’s no adjustability of the width of that attachment point. I found that bringing the bag in under the cables was best for my bike, using Shimano SLX controls.

But in its favour, the attachment is a velcro strap with a metal buckle and rubber padding. The bag is well secured. There are also two straps that you can feed around the head-tube or stem of the bike, to prevent the bag bouncing up and down when you ride over obstacles.

The bag also has slots that you can feed a 25mm webbing strap through, for strapping extra stuff to the bag.

Although this bag opens at both ends, the opening is smaller than my previous handlebar bag, a 12-litre dry bag.

After some pretty hefty shoving, I managed to get my sleeping bag and liner and pillow, and sleeping mat in the bag and still get it to roll up and clip shut.

Once a handlebar bag is loaded and strapped in place, there’s not much more to say about it. The contents stayed dry through a week’s touring in Tasmania, including two days of steady rain.

As the contents of the handlebar bag weigh barely a kilogram, I had no compunction about strapping a hiking tent to the top of the bag, using 20mm webbing straps fed through the slots and wrapped around my handlebar.

The rear bag

I’m not a big fan of the inline large saddle bag. I prefer either a transverse saddlebag such as the Carradice Super C, or a rack-mounted rear bag.

I have two main issues with the inline saddle bag. The first is sway. I’m not alone with this problem because at least three other US companies have released saddle bags with alloy support struts that prevent it.

The first time you’re out of the saddle up a hill you will notice the Azur bag moving around behind you. Depending on how much stuff you’ve jammed in there, this might be a real problem or might be a minor annoyance. For me, it’s more of a minor annoyance.

As is the second issue with the inline saddle bag: access. It’s difficult to get to the stuff you put in there. Like the Azur handlebar bag, this is a pack-it-and-forget-it type of bag. Even the gear packed last into the bag is hard to access, because of the roll-top enclosure.

This saddlebag also suffers from the same problem as the front bag that the opening is somewhat smaller than other bags I’ve used in the past. I have a 5-litre dry bag that just wouldn’t go into this bag when packed with clothes.

To make this saddlebag waterproof, Azur have lined it with a rubberised, quite grippy material. This makes it hard to slide other bags or rolled up items inside.

But even with these minor issues, this bag in combination with the handlebar bag would give enough capacity for a weekend bike-packing expedition, especially in Queensland where a tent is often not necessary.

If I compare this bag with a well-known UK name brand, it does everything pretty much as well, for about one-third of the price. That’s good value. This bag would also be useful for someone doing a long weekend on the road bike or cyclocross bike staying in pubs or B&Bs. The bag will mount on just about any bike with at least 8cm of exposed seat post.

Pros
- Waterproof construction
- Entry-level pricing

Cons
- Difficult access
- Limited stability and mounting options

RRP:   Handlebar bage - $50; Saddle bag - $65

From: bikecorp.com.au