Handlebar harness catching mudguard

[ericrobo]

Just come back from my January BAM... (more later on that)

I have a Wildcat handlebar harness, had it a few years. Thought I’d got used to it.

Both yesterday and today it’s been driving me nuts... I can’t stop my dry bag catching the front mudguard every time I go over a bump.

In the past I’ve had it so that it never caught the mudguard, but how I managed that is a mystery.

Tightened the straps as far as they’ll go, and I have a third strap in the middle in an attempt to pull it a bit higher.

The straps which go under the top bar of the shock then thread back into themselves are sitting quite low down.

Anybody any ideas ?

Or have Wildcat redesigned them so the dry bag sits a lot higher ?

The dry bag weighs between 4 and 5 pounds (that’s about 2 kilos for our European brothers )

On the December BAM on my rigid fatbike I had the same problem.

[Mariner]

I had that problem to the extent I unclipped the mudguard and carried it.
The bar bag/ pressed on the mudguard pushing the mudguard onto the tyre.
Found out some time later I had been routing the straps incorrectly.
I had contacted Wildcat to see about modifying the straps and they pointed me at a video of how to mount the harness.
Its all to do with the buckles at the top of the bottom straps. These fix the height of the harness. If you miss these out the straps just become a loop which allows the harness to move.
Hard to explain but once the routing is correct it stays put.

[ericrobo]

Thanks Mariner,

Does nobody else have this problem ???

Anyway I’m nearer to solving it !

It looks like it’s my front suspension, which in its ‘resting’ position only gives 68mm of travel (a bit more than two and a half inches !)

On my other bike it’s 100mm (4 inches) of travel, which is more like it.

Shocks were serviced last June, so something in there has gone adrift. It’s in my LBS now, they’ll investigate tomorrow....

(Checked the fitting instructions, it’s a Wildcat Lion, and they suggest attaching the tongue as high as possible on the harness.... BUT I wonder why they didn’t put the Velcro on the harness higher up ?
It could be 3 inches higher.. I’ve emailed Wildcat about this, awaiting their reply.... (hopefully they will reply)