I’m planning some short bikepacking trips this spring/summer, and with a birthday looming, am hoping to get some suitable kit courtesy of the OH.

Dry bags are the most obvious piece of kit required? But the slings/harnesses to attach them to the bike nicely are pretty dear aren’t they?!?

So, can anyone post pictures/links/instructions for DIY solutions please? Ideally seat packs and handlebar slings, but frame bags and anything else that is cheap/easy to make/adapt would be great.

I’ve got one of the wildcat handlebar harnesses and it’s pretty good. However, my mate who I go bikepacking with just lashes one of the rubust ortleib dry bags to his bars with bungee cords and webbing. He puts a bit of foam mat around the bag to protect it and a bit of tape on the bars / frame. Both solutions work really well except his cost nothing.

I was thinking a double ended (ooer) dry bag for the bars seems the best solution, I guess those harnesses are no more than a semi-rigid board/foam wrapped in canvas with some webbing sewn on?

Handlebar harness and frame bag both home made, saddle bag just an alpkit dry bag strapped on to the bike.

I made a template for the frame bag and guessed at the widths I wanted (flares from narrow at the bottom to wider at the top, I think 70mm at the widest part off the top of my head.)

The harness has a pair of straps to hold it to the handlebars and then one to go round the stem to hold it in place and stop it bouncing.

Got all the fabric, straps and clips from Azkaban – https://www.abakhan.co.uk pretty good supplier on the cheap, and the fabric (water repellant cotton on there) is very good – no issues, some slight wear from the bottle cage bolts, but I’ve switched them out and covered the holes with Sugru. It wasn’t easy to sew the strapping to the fabric so that it was secure (I wrapped the fabric round the strap) but a denim needle and playing with tension etc. sorted it. I started using super strong cotton, but ended up using normal stuff and doing multiple passes – some of the sewing is not pretty, but it’s held out fine so far.

Can post better images if you like.

That would be good if you don’t mind?

I stuff my tarp, bivi bag and mat into a dry bag then just strap it to the front bars with webbing like straps.

In my 25+8 backpack I have sleeping bag, food, cooking stuff, clothes, water etc.

Personally i’ve never seen the need for a double ended dry bag. Twice the number of holes to let water in, and i very rarely open mine except when setting up camp/packing away. You just need to be a bit smarter when packing.

MYOG Thread Slowly Filling Up

Sorry for the delay –

Handlebar Harness

Frame Bag

Let me know if you have any questions, I made them myself – hence the crappy stitching in most places.

The frame bag is generally pretty waterproof, the stitches obviously let in water, but you need to submerge it to really make it do it, and I’m thinking about taping the seams to stop it.