New Product for bikepacking

[Christophe Noel]

Anyone who has ever tried to put a full compliment of camping gear on a mountain bike has surely come to grief getting things mounted to the handlbars. The easy choice is to go with custom bags by Carousel Design Works or Revelate, but those systems get spendy and getting them can take weeks.

Outdoor Research, famous for their various accessories including dry bags, have designed the best handlebar bag I've ever used. Here's the best part - they did it by accident.

This isn't designed to be a handlbar bag, but if you had given them the task, they couldn't have done a better job of it. It's 100% waterproof, holds a perfect 10 liters of kit, compresses gear nicely, comes equiped with two straps to mount to the handlbars, and even has a slick little window so you can see your stuff inside all happy and dry.

The only size to consider is the 10 liter bag. That is large enough to hold my sleeping bag and pad. My other favorite part, they're only $40. Impossible value to beat.



Rating: :bike_rider::bike_rider::bike_rider::bike_rider:

Other bar bag options:

Revelate (Formerly Epic Designs) - The Harness
https://www5677.ssldomain.com/revel...action=store.catalog&CategoryID=3&ProductID=4

Carousel Design Works
http://carouseldesignworks.com/main.html


If you need a simple solution to just mount a small bit of gear to your bars, many of us have found the Outdoor Research Durable Stuff Sacks to be nice solution. They have a small daisey chain running down the side which helps keep your mounting straps from slipping off the ends of the stuff sack.
http://www.outdoorresearch.com/site/durable_stuff_sacks.html

 

[slowtwitch]

Educate me on this. Seems like having a bunch of weight on the bars would really be a nagative from a steering standpoint, and it's also weight mounted up high.

Granted, cyclo tourists and randouneurs love bar bags b/c they provide a place for food, a jacket, and map, thereby minimizing stops.. but those bags are easy to open while riding and have clear map pockets.

What's the skinny?


st

 

[Christophe Noel]

Educate me on this. Seems like having a bunch of weight on the bars would really be a nagative from a steering standpoint, and it's also weight mounted up high.

You are correct, too much weight on the bars is bad juju. It makes it difficult to pop your front wheel over those little obstacles in the trail, and mid carve can as you point out, disrupt the flow of your steering. It's a delicate balance. I find 2.5 to 3.5 pounds is the max I can carry up front. I've been reserving my handlebar real estate for my Nemo GoGo LE bivy/tent. At 2.5 pounds I don't even notice it. Plus, it's a hassle to access those bar mounted items, so having my tent up there means I mount it in the morning and leave it until the end of the day.

Here's a photo of my Nemo mounted up front:

 

[FurthurOnTheFly]

Very interesting, I've actually been looking at ordering some Revelate stuff the last few days. I really like the Carousel stuff but the threads I've read going back even a year on a couple different forums about his lack of communication and people paying deposits to not see any product has my common sense saying 'no no no'.

I'm a bit confused though because you said they were $40 but the link you have takes me to a page where the 10L bag is only $15.50....am I looking at the right stuff?

And do you have any closer, larger pics of it on your bike? :bike_rider:

 

[slowtwitch]

The old time Euro rando frame builders really perfected frame/fork geo for carrying front end loads.. I wonder if/when this will carry over to the bike packing mtb crowd. Certainly suspension would add to the complexity.. and the fact that susp fork offsets are very limited (to understate it).


st

 

[mcgovski]

very cool! any trips planned?

 

[Christophe Noel]

very cool! any trips planned?

Oh yes. Indeed trips are planned. Intensive training has already begun, new gear acquired, it's going to be a sweet year for backcountry riding. I'm not ready to announce my big project, but it will without a doubt be one of the biggest rides I've ever attempted.

And with that...I'm off to log another 4 hours on the bike. :wings::bike_rider:

 

[Christophe Noel]

Very interesting, I've actually been looking at ordering some Revelate stuff the last few days. I really like the Carousel stuff but the threads I've read going back even a year on a couple different forums about his lack of communication and people paying deposits to not see any product has my common sense saying 'no no no'.

I'm a bit confused though because you said they were $40 but the link you have takes me to a page where the 10L bag is only $15.50....am I looking at the right stuff?

And do you have any closer, larger pics of it on your bike? :bike_rider:

The OR dry bag is $40. The more basic stuff sack with the sewn daisy chain is $15.

I think some of the challenges with ordering bags from Jeff at Carousel or Revelate is the fact many people don't realize not only are these guys making these products one-off by hand, they're also avid riders and enjoying their own ride time. If you order long in advance and make your own efforts to follow the process, they'll get bags to ou no problem. Jeff is a super nice guy. Tell him you're a part of the Overland Journal, Expedition Portal community and I know he'll be stoked.

 

[FurthurOnTheFly]

The OR dry bag is $40. The more basic stuff sack with the sewn daisy chain is $15.

I think some of the challenges with ordering bags from Jeff at Carousel or Revelate is the fact many people don't realize not only are these guys making these products one-off by hand, they're also avid riders and enjoying their own ride time. If you order long in advance and make your own efforts to follow the process, they'll get bags to ou no problem. Jeff is a super nice guy. Tell him you're a part of the Overland Journal, Expedition Portal community and I know he'll be stoked.

Yes, I finally made my way to the right page. An interesting option for sure! I'll have to see if santa brings me a new Nemo Gogo for Xmas this year.

I know there there are probably just as many folks out there who have had good experiences with Jeff as there are bad...but I guess at this point I'm just not willing to take a chance. I've had way too many bad internet purchasing experiences where people just can't communicate and the recent posts about not answering emails or returning phone calls has my spidey sense on alert.

Thanks for posting ip about the bags....I'll see how the holidays pan out and may end up ordering one.

 

[Christophe Noel]

I know there there are probably just as many folks out there who have had good experiences with Jeff as there are bad...but

One of our local riders just received his Carousel bags last week. He ordered them in late October. That's about the normal turn around for a set of 4 custom bags. I got mine in about 4 weeks. The one thing that worked in our favor was ordering the bags in the fall and winter and not in June when Jeff is slammed with orders. I think Jeff is a victim of his own success. He has extremely high standards for his product, which means he does most if not all of the work himself. The word is out and his bags are in very high demand. I will say, when you get him on the phone, you'll know you have the right guy for the job. His enthusiasm for bikepacking is unparalleled. He's selling the experience as much as the product and I enjoyed that as part of the transaction and was pleased to support him.

I do however understand your concern. I felt the same concerns when I sent off my deposit a couple years ago.

 

[Christophe Noel]

And do you have any closer, larger pics of it on your bike? :bike_rider:

For this particular trip I went super light and only needed to mount my Nemo GoGo LE to the bars. To do that, I didn't use my 12 liter Carousel bag, or the OR Dry Bag at 10 liters. I just used a small OR Durable Stuff Sack and two OR straps. That made for a tiny little 2.4 pound bundle up front that I couldn't even feel.

I'll also point out, how you mount these various systems is really critical regarding cables. Extra care has to be taken to make sure cable length is cut to accommodate any unusual bends required to move around the bag. Yet one more reason I love my singlespeed. Two less cables to worry about.

 

[kmacafee]

Revelate, formerly Epic Bag system

Here are pictures of the Revelate frame, seat and handlebar harness rig on both my Pugsley and Karate Monkey. I have panniers in the one picture because I was leading a group and carrying some group gear. Otherwise, I don't need them.

I have used them extensively over varied terrain and find them to be the best set up for off road adventures. The front harness typically only holds light items -- sleeping bag, down jacket and maybe an ultra lightweight tent. On twisty. technical single track, you definitely know the weight is there but for forest service roads and non-technical single and double track, you really don't notice much difference in bike handling.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Kevin :bike_rider: