Show Me Your Bag-Damaged Frames (Or Don’t)
The internet is full of doom and gloom about not protecting frames from bikepacking bags including scratches causing rust and paracord “sawing” through paint. I’d like to see photos of how your unprotected frames have held up to having bags, cords, tubes, and whatever else you’ve managed to fix to them.
I never protected my aluminum hardtail and have had no issues in nearly 15 years, however, it only had bags affixed for bikepacking trips, and those were infrequent. When I bought a steel framed bike last year, I chose not to protect it. Throughout its short 10ish months life, it has had a top tube bag with Velcro attachments and a half frame bag secured with paracord or shock cord along the top tube and Velcro around the down tube and seat tube at least 95% of the time. There are some scuffs, but no scratches or marks through the paint so far.
Validate my decision or prove to me that I’m an idiot. Show me your damaged frames!
TLDR: show me photos of your frames after having bikepacking bags attached. Show me what damage they’ve caused… or haven’t.