I bought a load of Restrap bags at the start of the year and they've performed variably on the four adventures I've been on this year outside lockdown. I like the seat bag, it's performed well, as has the half frame bag, although I've worn a hole in the bottom of it already. My main issue is with the bar bag and harness and how I've set my bike up.
Given that my bivvy rides so far this year, make up about 17% of my riding, it's understandable that my bike is setup for all the other riding I do. The front end is low and I have normal width drop bars. I struggled on my first couple of bivvy rides with fitting the dry bag in-between the bars and with the dry bag buzzing off the front wheel.
On my third, I ended up mounting it along my tri bars in an effort to stop this happening, which it appeared to do. I tried the same thing on this months bivvy, but I hadn't noticed that the dry bag had rotated and was rubbing on the tyre. The upshot is that I've worn a hole in the dry bag and rather than buy a new dry bag, I'm considering cutting my losses and trying something different.
My fork is carbon and doesn't have any mount points. I was considering buying a couple of Topeak VERSACAGEs, as they come with mounts, cages and straps. Pairing those with a couple of Alpkit Betonga bags and one of their new Toploader barrel bags. This would give me around 10 litres of storage, which is considerably less than the 14 + 3 litres that my Restrap setup theoretically provides.
My main concern is fitting cages to a fork that's maybe not designed for them. However, another thing I'm considering, is changing the fork to a Lauf Grit SL. The Lauf website says: We do not have cargo mounts on our forks but there are 3rd party solutions that can be used; one of which they sell in their store. I know this has been covered before on here, but I'm just wondering how much of an issue it would actually be, if at all?
Assuming I can find a new job quickly, I have also considered buying an expedition bike, and keeping the gravel bike as a speed machine. This would mean any cages and bag I bought, could be transferred straight onto the expedition bike, as it would have the necessary mount points. It would also open up the possibility of participating in events that wouldn't be suitable for a gravel bike.
I'm not really sure what I'm asking here, but I'd quite like the thoughts to stop rattling around in my head. Does it sound feasible to use fork cages and bags? Should I just buy n+1? Should I reduce bulk by buying a Lunar Solo and a quilt?
Happy to entertain any thoughts or suggestions, especially about any solutions I may not have considered.
) obsess about weight, it's worth obsessing over bulk too.
