I did the WRT in 2010 and i made a set of straps to lash a dry bag to the bars. What i found at the end though was it had cracked the shifters around the boss where the cables enter, it must have been putting too much load on the cables. I've glued them up with some araldite and all is good at the moment. But looking at other set ups, how do you stop the dry bag from clashing with the cables and loading them up. (without going singlespeed)

See here.
http://wildcatgear.co.uk/

Even with a harness you still may foul the cables, only sure way is to re-route/extend them, at least with gears that's not a messy/expensive job, bit of an pain with hydro discs.

The Wildcat harness holds it away from the head tube and leaves more room for the cables. I've used mine with SLX shifters and X9 on narrowish bars so not much room and it's great.

Not adjusted my cables/hoses whilst using the Wildcat harness. Completely standard. No ghost shifting at all.

You can see a bit on this photo if you zoom in

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantasticm ... 774945565/

Those wildcat harnesses look vaguely exciting. Bit too expensive for me at the moment. But will bear it in mind.

Cheers.

there are quite a few ways of doing it, being a bit of a tight git and a commited bodger I came up with the following as detailed here on the third post.
http://www.bikeandbivi.co.uk/php/viewto ... ?f=2&t=338

It works really well and holds everything exactly where you strap it, no rubbing on the headtube and space for the cables.
I spent the money I saved on beer...

Don't get me wrong, I love my wildcat harness, but it does squash the cables/hoses a bit, I think most harnesses will, not enough to be a problem and not as bad as just bunging a dry bag onto the bars with some straps.