What size panniers and how many

[bent4me]

I am a recumbent rider and have toured with Arkels t42, 2550ci.  Which I think are outstanding and the company to be one of the best customer service oriented I have come across. Enough room for a 4 day tour without carrying food and utensils.  I have looked at the new RT60, 3650ci which look humungus.  I am more inclined to get a second set of panniers for my underseat rack, probably 1700ci from Inertia.  It seems 2 sets of panniers may be more convenient for accessing.  As I am new to self contained touring I was wondering what size panniers people feel they need and whether they prefer 1 set of large bags or 2 sets  

[wanderingwheel]

Although I don't ride a recumbent, I like smaller panniers because I can more easily balance my load and I can find things quicker.  Also, the smaller panniers prevent me from carrying lots on unneeded gear.

Sean

[JayH]

When possible, more smaller panniers are more flexible and better than a one or two large ones, in most circumstances, better weight distribution, more redundancy if one craps out. and it's easier to compartmentalize stuff to find things.  And it may encourage you to pack less for some people. Panniers that will lock or connect to each other are fairly useful in that you can lock both halves together so you can carry both the front and rear panniers in one trip.

One advantage I can think of with just one large set of panniers is if you only want to bring one rack, say you were on a MTB and there were some trails you wanted to hit but don't want to bring the racks with you, you could take the rear rack off and go MTB'ing...

Jay