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Bar Bag

Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 2:32 pm
by sean_iow
I really like my Apidura bar bag as the fact the bag is attached directly to the bars means it doesn't rely on the tightness of the straps to hold it securely. But I also like my other myog harness with separate bag as sometimes it's handy to remove the bag completely, for example at a bothy when you want to get all your kit inside quickly as it's raining. So I came up with a way to combine the best of the two systems.

This is the harness part which fixes to my Jones loops with the 4 straps.

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The 3 fixed-on female buckle parts are for am accessory bag and the two little rectangular ones stabilize the bottom of my feed pouches. The two main straps running across it are a fixed length and sewn to the pad and the loops that fix to the bars are also sewn directly to these straps.

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This is the dry bag part-finished. The straps are sewn on to the fabric. The two hexagon-ish pathces have short lengths of 25mm webbing on them for either a clip-on spare light or to attach my SPOT to. The black strip near the top is velcro. There are two strips running normal (90 degrees) to this on the underside of the harness pad, these just add to the security to stop any 'jiggling' of the bag.

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The finished article. The bag attaches to the harness with the 4 buckles. It cant fall out even if the straps are loose as they are sewn to the bag. They can be tightened if there is less in the bag. Capacity is from 13 litres to under 8 depending on how many times the ends are rolled up. Having spare Jones to hand helps as otherwise I'd either have to keep going to the shed to try it on a bike or bring a (filthy muddy) bike indoors :grin:

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2020 2:40 pm
by redefined_cycles
Like Traverse (Prong guy) says... you're vaguely exciting. Well done Sean

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 10:59 am
by sean_iow
Cheers Shaf

I gave it a first test this morning on the commute. I worked a treat, stayed on the bars and easy to remove once I got here. It will have more in it on the way home and I'll go the off-road way to test for shaking, I don't ride in the off-road way as arriving at work covered in mud would be a pain :lol:

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Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 2:59 pm
by belugabob
:-bd

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:23 pm
by belugabob
Oops - duplicate post (and the 'delete post' button is enabled, but not functional)

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 7:31 am
by Charliecres
Good work! Is there a stiffener in the harness?

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:04 pm
by sean_iow
Charliecres wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 7:31 am Good work! Is there a stiffener in the harness?
There's a layer of thin plastic sandwiched in between the layers fabric.

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Apologies for the slightly out of focus picture. I used to use Morrisons savers chopping boards which were ideal, thin enough for my machine to sew through,. Then they 'improved' them with the addition of a silicon/rubberised print on one side. This was to stop them sliding on the work surface when used but unfortunately meant that when sewn the cotton drags on the silicon and snaps as the needle goes through. I found these ones in TK Max, again they are thin chopping boards.

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:31 pm
by slarge
Good job Sean, do you find that stitching through the drybag makes it leak, or are you lining the outer drybag with an inner bag?

I keep looking at my Wildcat bar harness with a similar idea - something to make it attached to the bag but very easy to detach, and also a way of spacing it from the bars better.

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:33 pm
by Bearbonesnorm
Nice work Sean. :-bd

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:39 pm
by sean_iow
The water will get through the dry bag, but the Apidura one I have is the same. I put my quilt etc, in another dry bag to keep it dry.

In fact, after last year's HT550 my quilt goes inside a dry bag, wrap my mat around it and put them inside another dry bag, then in the bar bag :smile: There seems little point in worrying about the weight of lightweight dry bags when the alternative is to lay awake under a damp quilt thinking how much weight I have saved... when my kit has soaked up an extra 5 lbs of water anyway :lol:

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:45 pm
by slarge
Sleeping in the damp patch is never pleasant :o

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:29 pm
by pistonbroke
Bloody hell Sean, how wide are your bars?



:wink:

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:35 pm
by Dave Barter
pistonbroke wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:29 pm Bloody hell Sean, how wide are your bars?

:wink:
I missed that, distracted by the lack of weeding

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2020 10:05 am
by sean_iow
pistonbroke wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:29 pm Bloody hell Sean, how wide are your bars?
I did a double-take when I first looked at the picture. It's a railing but it does look like I've got on-trend super wide bars :lol:
Dave Barter wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:35 pm I missed that, distracted by the lack of weeding
It is the car park at work... but I didn't take the picture at home as my garden is worse. A large conifer was been blown over last week, but as it's down the bottom of the garden and didn't hit the bike shed there's no need for me to do anything, I'll think of it as new habitat for wildlife :lol:

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2020 9:16 pm
by drjon
nice! 4 point on the jones changes your perspective of bar rolls - its impossible to put up with bags flapping around all over the place after!

Re: Bar Bag

Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2020 6:07 pm
by Alpinum
Wow, really good stuff. Very well done :-bd