Pannier weight distribution

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(The reason for my weights being in old money, BTW, is that my weigh scale is a lovely old item I bought in a Mennonite hardware store in St Jacobs, ON, about 112 years ago.  It has a beautiful 6" black-on-light-grey dial with a suitably long and ornate black indicator needle.  The whole thing works very well, ...

If you ever decide to upgrade to a digital luggage scale, my only suggestion is get one that uses batteries that you already use for other devices.  When in a rush to pack for a trip, that last thing you need is a luggage scale with a dead battery when you have no spare.

I have luggage scales that use AAA batteries and other scales that use CR 2032 coin type batteries.  Fortunately, I also use those batteries in other devices and carry spare batteries on tours, so my luggage scale will work when called upon.

My Nomad Mk II and the S&S Backpack case weigh more than the airline weight limit, so I have to use my luggage scale to decide how much weight to shift from that bag to a different bag when I travel.

And my tour last summer on Amtrak (the USA rail system) had a limit of number of checked pieces of luggage and weight limits.  My bike was one checked piece of luggage and my four panniers that were all packed into one duffle was the second checked bag, all four panniers with duffle had to be less than 50 pounds, or roughly 23kg. 

[Andyb1]

Or remove the batteries when the scales are not in use.

[John Saxby]

Thanks, George.  I do have a battery-powered luggage scale, and it goes about its job with digital assurance.  No quirky traits or fond memories attached to it, though.  My "Way Scale" sits on the corner of my workbench, and its 25-lb limit works for mist of my tasks in the shop.

(I do occasionally wrap a strap around Freddie's top tube if I want to measure "dry and "loaded" weights. For that, the digital scale works well.)

I've used Amtrak only once with my bike, on the return to upstate NY from Everett, WA, after my 2016 tour through the Rockies & the Pacific NW.  Amtrak was very helpful & accommodating:  I used two trains, one to Chicago and a second to Utica. I don't recall any concerns about weight, and Amtrak provided the box. One momentary panic when I reached Utica:  they couldn't find my bike!  Seems it had been put onto the part of the train that, at Albany, would go to Boston rather than NYC.  Happily, the fellow in charge of the luggage van was able to locate it for me.

We regularly use Amtrak from Utica to Manhattan & return to visit friends in NYC.  It's an easy 3 hours' drive from Ottawa (at least, it has been so in the past...) and parking is free.  Makes for an 8 or 9-hour journey to NYC.

Cheers,  John

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I've used Amtrak only once with my bike, on the return to upstate NY from Everett, WA, after my 2016 tour through the Rockies & the Pacific NW.  ...

I probably have used the same two trains you used.

Amtrak now has the old boxed bike sytem for checking your bike as baggage, but they also have two different options, one is where you take the bike onto the train and the other is the train-side checked luggage option where you wheel your bike to the train baggage car (need reservation) and lift your bike up to the baggage person in the baggage car where they stow it in a rack, this needs a reservation to make sure that the rack will be available.  Different train lines have different options available, depending on how their baggage cars are configured.

Last summer I used the train-side checked option, I wheeled my bike to the train baggage car for them to put in the baggage car, and I also checked my four panniers (all in one mesh duffle) as one checked bag, which had to be below 50 pounds, but the size limit was much more generous than an airline size limit.  Limit of two checked items, in my case one bike and one duffle with the four panniers in it.  Photo attached, my non-Thorn touring bike.  The yellow duffle and handlebar bag were carryon luggage.