What are people's views on carrying a rear pannier on the ride? I ride a hybrid with a rear rack, and was thinking of putting some gear in a pannier for the ride. But watching last year's videos on youtube, very few of the riders carried a pannier...
I say go for it, especially with the weather looking like it is and keeping in mind this is not a race. Makes it much easier to carry some layers. There will be lots of food and drinks approx every 25KM so there's no real need to carry much of that unless you have a special diet. I'm using a pannier on my road bike.
I had one of the MEC Handlebar bags ($49) last year and it worked great, had easy access to my coat when the hail storm hit!! Kept motivational bits in the map holder which I got to stare at the entire way
I ended up taking my rack and rear pack off at lunch time day one last year and handing it off to one of the amazing horny goat volunteers. It was far too heavy to lug along with me. Careful about how much weight you place on your rear wheel because you'll feel it 100 fold on the hills during the first half of day one.
From what I learned last year I'm keeping it simple this year. I'm bungy'ing my raincoat to my bike, have a very small triathlon bag upfront and a tool bag under my seat.
Especially on a hybrid, keep the excess weight to a minimum. Stick extra supplies in your camp bag to replenish for day two.
