I bought one of those PlanetX Podsacs bar bags that were on special offer. It came with no fitting instructions, and I’m struggling to get it on securely and not dangling down at mudguard like an old mans ball sack. Any clues for me please??
Is this the right place for the center strap? If I tighten it up, it’s going to affect the steering and/or tug the bag, but the spacers or stem seem way too high.
The top straps seem to have too much space between the velcro strips to tighten round the bar .
Should mount higher than this surely? Does it need some kind of frame to keep it up in the right position?
I’ve had on one on the go since early last year. Works well but the stock straps are hopeless. I’ll post my solution up at the weekend when I have more time.
It is from On-one, but not that style. It has a separate harness thing that wraps round a single opening dry bag. Not on the website at the moment, unfortunately. I looked there hoping some of the alternative views might give me a clue.
I used one of these for an overnighter last summer. I think I used some alpkit velcro straps on the bars, to keep it tight up to the bars; and wrapped the headtube strap around the stack of spacers that sit between the stem and frame – though my stem has more rise. It seemed to work ok, but scuffed the headtube badge.
Is the only thing attached to the bar the harness? Or have you used some long straps cinched up around the bag and the bar as well?
As designed, only the harness appears to be strapped to the handlebars. Putting extra straps around the whole drybag and harness combo would seem to defeat the object of having a harness, may as well just strap the bag on direct. Maybe that’s the rub, hopefully montgomery’s later post will explain all.
Do the top two straps not wrap around the bottom of the bag as well as your bars?
No, definitely not long enough for that, and again would negate the point of the separate harness. I think what you are looking at is the excess strappage for clicking the front of the harness round the drybag.
Cheers all for your suggestions though, it is appreciated.
The Bar-Bag is the least of your worries…….. The angle of your handlebars is shocking! and have you changed your bar tape recently? Hope you didnt pay someone for that workmanship!
The Bar-Bag is the least of your worries…….. The angle of your handlebars is shocking! and have you changed your bar tape recently? Hope you didnt pay someone for that workmanship!
You need some spacers between the bag and the bars. That’ll both take up the slack in the straps and allow you to hold the bars, fit lights etc.
The lower strap should be long enough to wrap around your fork crown so that you can rotate the bars freely without stressing any straps or rubbing them or the bag against your frame.
And again, tape up everything or you’ll return from a trip with severe paint wear (or worse).
As designed, only the harness appears to be strapped to the handlebars. Putting extra straps around the whole drybag and harness combo would seem to defeat the object of having a harness, may as well just strap the bag on direct. Maybe that’s the rub, hopefully montgomery’s later post will explain all.
The harness part stops it bouncing so much and keeps it’s shape. If the harness was separate to the bag I would run the straps around both otherwise the harness get’s pulled apart.
I’ve got a and Aplkit Kanga which raises the bag up a bit so you can get a bigger bag over the top of a suspension fork. I attach the drybag with the center strap, the velcro loops around the brake hoses, and the two outer straps around the bar and bag loose enough that the whole thing hangs forward a few inches (which also give somewhere fot your hands to sit near the stem).
I reckon a good design would be a ‘Z’ shaped carbon rack, the top bit zip tied to the stem (or replaces a spacer and hooks onto the bars), then the vertical bit and the tongue just keep the bag from sagging onto the suspension fork with a couple of straps and a basic harness hold the bag/prevent chaffing.
@thisisnotaspoon – there are some lightweight racks similar to what you describe, I’m sure I’ve seen reviews or press releases on bikepacking.com but I’ve not used any nor seen one in the flesh.
I prefer being able to pack/unpack things off the bike so have a Wildcat Lion harness. Harnesses have the advantage of being able to use different sized dry bags depending on what you plan to take – I’ve used bags from 5L up to 20L for example. That also means if the dry bag gets damaged you don’t have to replace the harness as well.
That’s it basically, plus the less stitching (i.e.webbing attachments) through an ostensibly waterproof bag the better. I’ll do something over the next few days, but meantime here’s some Milletsbiking last Tuesday:
I’ve just gone to fit my PODSAC bar bag from PX (SO1777138 btw), the straps are definitely too long, got through to PX chatbot Garry who said sorry but they don’t have anything else. I’ll try and track down some gravel specific duct tape or something.
Thanks Andy, slightly different kind of bag, but a similar fitting process. I skipped to the bar bag mounting bit, (27 mins! Wow) even so picked up his comment about the too long straps on the frame bag too.
I’m going to put a stiffening rod in it like an old Carradice saddle bag, think that’ll solve it.
Right, update! I found a piece of doweling behind the kitchen cupboards when I pulled out the the washing machine to repair it, (no idea why it was there) so I’ve done what I said and it’s made a big difference!
Cut some slits above and below the horizontal webbing to make the mounting point wider, (much wider!)
Looped these around the stiffening dowel behind. I think the dowel could do with being a touch longer. Not permanently attached as it needs to be movable, drop handlebars need to have the straps mounted on a different webbing.
Better position on the handlebars with the harness mounted.
And the dry bag in place. Much less saggy now. I reckon it’ll fit everything I need for my commute, (when I don’t have to cart my laptop back and forth, just in case of enforced Covid WFH).
The supplied straps are still crap, and the ones I used probably aren’t strong enough so I’ll get some proper little webbing straps, might even use old toe-straps.