How many litres a weekend or a two-week bike setup holds
Built from the median bag in each position, a rack-free weekend setup holds 13.15 to 22.15 litres. A touring setup with a pair of rear panniers holds 43.5 litres. Push every rack-free position to its largest bag and you reach 53 litres. The largest pannier pair we list holds 70 litres on its own.
We don’t know what you pack, so this article doesn’t tell you how many litres you need. It shows what the common setups hold, so you can compare them with your own kit list.
What we assume each setup contains
These setups are our assumptions, not a standard. A weekend setup is a handlebar bag, a frame bag and a saddle bag, all strapped on without a rack, with an optional top tube bag. A two-week setup adds a pair of rear panniers on a rack. Each line uses the median bag for its position in our catalog of 457 bike bags.
| Setup | Litres | Empty weight |
|---|---|---|
| Weekend: handlebar + frame + saddle | 13.15 L | 0.77 kg |
| Weekend with a top tube bag | 14.15 L | 0.89 kg |
| Weekend with a top tube bag and a saddle bag of 8 L or more | 22.15 L | 1.15 kg |
| Two weeks: rear pannier pair + handlebar + top tube | 43.5 L | 1.94 kg |
| Rear pannier pair alone | 37.5 L | 1.53 kg |
The jump from 14.15 to 22.15 litres comes from the saddle bag alone. The median saddle bag holds 5 litres. The median among the 25 saddle bags of 8 litres or more holds 13.
How much each position can hold
The median says what a typical bag holds. The range shows how far you can push each spot.
| Position | Bags | Median | Smallest | Largest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handlebar | 91 | 5 L | 1 L | 20 L |
| Frame | 94 | 3.15 L | 1 L | 10 L |
| Saddle | 73 | 5 L | 0.5 L | 20 L |
| Top tube | 55 | 1 L | 0.4 L | 3 L |
| Fork | 15 | 5 L | 1.5 L | 10 L |
| Rear rack, per bag | 120 | 18.5 L | 5 L | 37 L |
| Front rack, per bag | 6 | 17.5 L | 14 L | 30 L |
A rear rack bag has a median of 18.5 litres, against 5 for a handlebar or saddle bag. That is where touring setups get their volume. Frame bags top out at 10 litres, and 83 of the 94 list the frame triangle as a requirement.
Fork bags are sold one at a time in our catalog. If you plan to fit one on each fork leg, double the figure. 10 of the 15 need fork mounts; the other 5 strap on.
The largest rack-free setup
Taking the largest bag in each rack-free position gives 53 litres:
| Position | Bag | Litres | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Handlebar | Arkel Rollpacker Front 20l | 20 L | 0.75 kg |
| Frame | Apidura Expedition Full Frame Pack 10L | 10 L | 0.5 kg |
| Saddle | Arkel Rollpacker Rear 20l | 20 L | 0.93 kg |
| Top tube | Tailfin Long Top Tube Bag 3.0L | 3 L | 0.288 kg |
Two caveats. Both Arkel Rollpackers weigh in with their aluminium hangers, and Arkel rates each for 7 kg. And the full-frame pack only fits if your triangle is big enough, so check its size against your frame in the bike fit tool.
On the rack side, the largest pair is the Ortlieb Back-Roller XL, at 70 litres for the set and 2.4 kg. Pairs in our catalog run from 20 to 70 litres a set.
Choosing a size
Lay out what you plan to carry and pack it into a bag whose volume you know, such as a backpack. Then pick the setup in the first table that holds at least that much. Stated litres are the brand’s own figure, and brands measure in different ways. Our article on what backpack litres mean shows how far apart two bags of the same stated size can be.
If you land between 22.15 and 37.5 litres, a rack-free setup with the biggest bags or a pair of small panniers can both work. Our comparison of panniers and bikepacking bags covers what each costs.
To browse by position, start at bike bags or one of the guides: handlebar bags, frame bags, saddle bags for bikepacking, bags that need no rack and waterproof rear panniers.
How we counted
Volume and weight are stored per bag. A pair’s set volume and set weight are twice the per-bag figure. Volume is the brand’s stated capacity. A setup’s total is the sum of the median bag in each position, not the median of real setups people ride with. Racks and the gear inside are not counted.