Experimenting with new gear designs...

In my quest to travel light, I am going to try a bike-packing approach. To those that may not be familiar with bike-packing it's a light-weight set up used primarily by single track tourists. Since my actual touring bike is in London and I'm in Colorado, I'm using the bicycle that was rescued from the dumpster.  I have since added a Brooks saddle to see if that is really worth all the hoopla (the jury is still out on that one, "they" say it needs to be broken in). I'll give it time and then decide.

Of course by putting a Brooks on this bike, I've just added one more rather heavy piece of equipment to this bike set up.

Here is the bag I am experimenting with. This particular item is a front handlebar bag.  I would like to try this instead of a front rack.  The location of the bag being so high up on the bike may affect the overall feel of the front end. As I discovered by putting an Old Man Mountain platform on the front of the Salsa Fargo, with more than about 4 or 5 pounds there is quite a bit of shimmy in the front end. If I go back to a front rack on the Salsa, I would replace the platform with a set of low riders for bags.
These are made by a local guy here in Durango, Colorado. 

I would like to experiment with some local rides just packing the kind of gear I will be taking to Europe. I will be giving a report on my experience with this bag. According to the blog, there is an accessory bag that will fit onto the harness. This could be useful for a camera or something small that I want to be accessible quickly. Right now, I've got rain gear and some warm layers for cooler evenings.

http://www.bedrockbags.com/