I need handlebar bags for my “touring bike” and I thought tarck would have experience with this shit. I never used one of these things so I don’t know shit about them, but I don’t want a historical reenactment canvas thingie with its own little rack. It needs to just clip onto the bar. The bike has oversize drop bars with cyclocross inline levers so the mounting has to work with that. Need a map holder on top. Nuclear waterproofing is not essential. Mainly it has to a) not fall apart b) stay on the bars without flopping about/falling off and c) not get in the way of cyclocross levers.
What do I buy? Arkel? Ortlieb? Is there anything decent that doesn’t cost a million dollars?
Without havin to much experience with the touring stuff, I’d say a Carradice Super C is a solid alternative! I mean it has held up for my friend Hommus for the last couple of years including a PBP (with all the brevets before to qualify), touring for a year from Texas to Cali and up’n’down the coast. Hella miles.
And now he’s probably taking it on the Transcontinental Race (yeah he’s all about hella long fucking rides).
I’m getting one for my randobrotouring rig.
On a side-note he now works for the big S in he Swiss alps…
Having a front rack is not a bad idea, though. Once you’ve got a (proper; 9x9 and up) front rack, you can attach a wide variety of bags and boxes to it and they’ll sit lower and not be quite as enthusiastic about dragging the front of the bicycle around.
There are people who make standard rando bags in modern fabrics, too, so you wouldn’t pay the cost of an additional 2 pounds of canvas, leather, and wax.
i’ve got one, but without some fucking around/ a front rack i can’t mount my lights, so i took it off a while back
those super-Cs bags; without anything much to compare to it was sturdy and spacious
Thanks, I’ll keep the Carradice in mind. It’s super ugly tho…
I really like the look of last year’s small arkel bag (they fucked it up for 2013), and its mounting hardware seems like the best for my situation. It’s expensive as hell tho - if I can even get it shipped here.
Will have a look in a couple of local shops and see if they sell anything that’s not shit.
everything rackless kinda sucks
and you’d need to totally give up on the interruptor levers
[quote=match avatar]everything rackless kinda sucks
[/quote]
That Arkel mount looks like it might have enough space for interrupter levers? Or is 2.5" not enough (I’ve never run them so have no idea) ?
That said, I use a re-enacty setup with a Berthoud 28 and really love it. I’m sure one of the more modern-looking rando -style bags would meet all your requirements - besides the “no rack” one - quite nicely.
[quote=match avatar]everything rackless kinda sucks
and you’d need to totally give up on the interruptor levers[/quote]
I always assumed that they do, if you stuff them to the brim with all sorts of shit for your epic 400k. But I don’t rando. I do loaded tours so I will be using it in conjunction with panniers. I won’t need to put much weight in it, mostly just snacks, wallet, phone and the map on top. I expect that it should work fine with that sort of light load. The main problem I see is that these things ride very high for some reason. Still, with little load it shouldn’t be an issue.
I think the Arkel would probably work with the cyclocross levers, which is why I’ve been eyeballing it. They are mounted almost vertically so I just need enough space for my knuckles.
what rack/bag to use with mid-fork braze-ons?
is there anything commercially available that doesn’t break the bank?
doing a merry order and thinking about maybe an Ostrich bag? but can’t find a cheap smallish rack that doesn’t make the whole thing into a $200 luggage project…
this leads me to believe the Nitto M18 has stays that mount to Rivendell braze-ons, but those aren’t in the same spot as ones found on a Surly etc. fork? (I question the author’s authority tho, as he admits to liking VO and ordering many things from them) so I would need some adapter stays (that aren’t currently available)?
What front rack boxy bags are there aren’t reenactment wax cotton construction?
i have an ostrich bag and a nitto rack but without the mid fork braze ons coz don’t have them…so used clamps. can’t remember the part number for that nitto rack.
the thing works pretty well can carry a fair amount of stuff…but the bag is sort of a pain to take off so it just stays on all the time.
yesterday i had
soap
shampoo
tube
allen wrench
mini pump
tire levers
lights
chain tool
jeans
shirt
undies
wallet
keys
using the VO decaleur
Low rider braze ons are all over the map. Tubus specs 165mm from the drop out eyelet up, but bar bag supports are measuring down from the crown, so… confusion. Many fork makers are sort of haphazard with spec location, too.
The M-18 and the adjustable legs very well might mitigate that. Not sure how much adjustment room there is in the legs.
looks like if you need longer legs for the nitto rack you can get them from rivendell
they sell them as an option with the marks rack nitto M1
The Riv brazeons are 140mm(135?) mm down from the fork crown bolt; Surly mountpoints are ~210mm down.
Swift. Zugster (but expensive.) Ruth Works used to make bags out of modern fabric, though they seem to be concentrating on historical reenactment bags these days. Dill Pickle (Emily O’Brien.) Me, though mine are nowhere near as polished as any of those.
[quote=Eric Estlund]
The M-18 and the adjustable legs very well might mitigate that. Not sure how much adjustment room there is in the legs.[/quote]
they dont, there isnt. the fork you built me didnt fit the m18 standard struts (edit: the standard m18 didnt fit the fork you made me - - potato/potato). i bought the $$$ replacement/extra struts and cut them down.
re:boxy bag that’s not reenactment
I just built a superlight/water resistant thing out of the vx21? ripstop fabric (same stuff on revelate bags). my design needs a little more tweaking but it works for what it is. not sure I want to make any more of them but i’d give plans to anyone with the means
[quote=Sneaky Viking]what rack/bag to use with mid-fork braze-ons?
is there anything commercially available that doesn’t break the bank?
[/quote]
The ones that come to mind (that aren’t Nitto)
Civia pizzeria rack, Specialized Porteur Rack, Blackburn MTF-1, Racktime Topit, Salsa Minimalist.
I have a Civia Pizzeria that I’ve been impressed with, actually. The hoop that goes behind the crown is a nice feature, and their flat tang is at least 3x as thick as the one on my V-O porteur. (I measured), it’s a seriously stout piece of metal. I’ve got this mounted on my mini -velo, which is essentially like having it mounted to mid-fork mounts on a normal bike. It is definitely fiddly to mount up if you’ve got caliper brakes, though. You’ll want a Sheldon nut.
If you want a smaller platform and a cheaper pricepoint, I’d go with the Blackburn (assuming you’ve also got dropout eyelets available -which if you’ve got mid-fork bosses I assume you do). And if you’ve got dropout eyelets and want inexpensive, then maybe you can abandon the mid-fork eyelets all together and get a Soma mini front rack, or find a vintage Blackburn or Schwinn like this one.
Berthoud, Not sure of name, but shown here:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/berthoud.asp
(there’s one on eBay that I’m bidding on, so back off).
MAYBE?
Toba Romeo
Sunlite cargo king
Basil
Damn, Jimmy has research databases for days.
We should make a Frequently Asked Dumb Question (FADQ) wiki and have you unload all that research.
RE-ENACT THIS
Ok.