Killer! Added to the project list.
Yea, but can you still suck whippies out of it?
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You mean mid-ride? But then you’d have a deflated tire.
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Yea, doubt I’d care much for a minute or two.
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I see what you did there
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Time to bump this thread rather than disrupting the xenomorph reports in non-bike arts & crafts.
Two years ago, I picked up some lovely orange knock-off Cordura and decided to try my hand at making a rando bag. My little sewing machine wasn’t really up to the task - lots of broken needles, jammed thread, bad seams. And, I made some bad judgements about not reinforcing seams or trimming seam allowances too close. The bag came out about 2" shorter than I was aiming for, so it wouldn’t hit the decaleur on my bike. It fit my wife’s bike perfectly, which of course she didn’t mind. She’s really hard on her gear, and the bag’s in rough shape at this point, with back pockets blown out and a couple of the hooks for elastic closures pulled out (I used boot lace hooks). One round of repairs and reinforcements gave it an extra 6 months of life.
So, time for V2 before the bag completely disintegrated. I ordered some XPac VX21, better grommets, hooks, grosgrain (thanks to whoever it was here that pointed out SailRite). I also discovered basting tape, which makes lining up layers of technical fabric for stitching so much easier than pins! I increased the size a bit to better fit a laptop and lunch for commuting. It’s somewhere between a small and medium Swift.
Last year, my uncle picked up a heavy-duty sewing machine for a bag-making project, and he loaned it to me at Thanksgiving. It’s a Morse Super-Dial. Strictly speaking, it’s not an industrial sewing machine, just a 1950s or '60s solid steel machine built by Toyota. All it does is straight stitch with a 1/15 HP motor, but that meant that 6 layers of X-Pac were no problem. The wiring is funky - there’s a junction box that the machine and the foot pedal plug into. If you swap the plugs, the pedal isn’t in the circuit and the machine takes off full speed.
The bag came together in the evenings over the past 3 weeks. It’s not a casserole carrier, but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out 
. Supplies cost roughly half an Ozette, including stockpiling extra hardware and capital investments in a better grommet setter. Obviously, since I’m here, my dithering labor is worth nothing.
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That second bag is very nice; do you have elastic banding on all of the inside walls?
Elastic on just the side walls, not the front or back. it seemed like all 4 was overkill.
That is really stellar. For a 2nd attempt it is especially impressive.
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Very nice bag! How many cans of sardines does it carry?
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Thanks, all. @Rusty_Piton, I’d estimate 60 tins of sardines, plus a few kippers in the outer pockets.
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Who made the 3d printed downtube shifters?
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I just did the worst job ever of sewing this patch to my enduro fanny pack. Teen punk me would still be proud.
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How do I replace the foam on this flite? I thought my biggest hurdle was going to be stretching and adhering the cover but that seems simple now. Should I try to find dense foam from the specialty foam place up the road? Or should I try to use expanding foam and then shave it down?
I’d definitely bring that down to the specialty foam store and see what they say.
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i think that’s what the people at the specialty foam store live for.
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If there’s a specialty foam store down the road you’d be crazy not to use it!
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