Having seen the sublime Wildcat front bags Beth had at the WRT I thought I'd have a crack at making something similar.
I previously made a harness that's rock solid but a little scruffy so I thought I'd make another, taking into account some small tweeks and and the addition of a front pocket.
Instead if making it simple and easy like the the Alpkit offering I decided to make it curved and more like Wildcat's. My sewing skills are still very basic so I'm sure it'll turn out more feral dog than Wildcat!
I knocked up a template to work out size and how I might sew it. I
i'd be interested to see how you get on with this. i've tried a couple of MYOG harness type devices, but i always end up back using plain ole straps and an airlok as it performs better!
I've got a home made harness which is separate to the external bag - the bar roll is quite a simple affair with a could of straps, easier to get it tighter and in a more structured way than just straps. The additional bag which is really useful for camera, snack food, warm/wet gear etc. is the lid from a Lowe Alpine Alpine crossbow rucsac - it 's articulated on the rucsac, so you can completely remove it from it and re-strap it to the handlebar roll and return it to the rucsac once you are done.
It all looks a bit loose and low in this picture but that is partly the angle, I think it got tightened up at the bottom of the hill and then not again for the rest of the day.
For this project I've been fortunate enough to get hold of some VX21 fabric which is nice to use and lighter than Cordera.
Fabric cut.
Front bag sewn up. In hindsight, I should have made more effort sewing the folded top edge to the zipper. A little more prep work preparing the folded edge would have produced a better finish. *Reads, I made a pigs ear of it*
Now things go tricky. I found lining up and sewing a double vertical curved edge really difficult. You think it would have been easy having used a template, however, it was a ball ache.
I've more fun lined up tonight and I'll post up the results.
