Morning on the lake with coffee and breakfast from the neighborhood cafe. No fire this morning. Nagging bug working its way through the family has me down – spinning a low gear and being a bit of a tourist in my own neighborhood.
I moved on from the Acron Boxy Rando Bag. It was a fine piece of luggage – but just not for me. I’ve missed having a place for my camera and a few snacks up front – until I found the Mountain Feed Bag from Epic Ride Research. So far it is a winner. Small and out of the way – works on the IF or the Surly. I can pack it full of food or the camera and cell phone. Outside mesh pockets can hold gels, bars, or discarded wrappers. Solid product, made in the states and simple simple simple. Almost a modified climbers chalk bag for the bike.
The first photo is wonderful!
My wife just *got* me an Acorn handlebar bag. However, I have the smaller one that mounts on the bars themselves. A little more accessible while riding, I imagine.
Thanks on the photo… was the best of three taken with the Blackberry.
Nice bag… I read that on yout blog this morning. (also like the vids and photo collage you did descending)
I just kept overloading the larger front bag – and I had a matching saddlebag… so I ended up always carrying a ton of gear. And I needed the rack for mine – so it was a pain to strip the bike down to minimal mode and then back up for longer days…
Lovely bags, great service, etc. The gent I sold mine too was thrilled as he’d been trying to get in the queue for quite some time.
That small bag looks perfect for carrying a snubnose .38 on my daily commute where I have to contend with rabid pelicans and dim-witted badgers.
The Mountain Feed Bag looks great. Do you use anything to hold a map now that you don’t use the boxy rando bag? Does your knee hit the bag when you pedal hard out of the saddle?
I like my Acorn boxy bag because it’s really practical, but it’s often too much bag for what I need. The front rack and boxy bag combo doesn’t make it easy to switch bags between bikes either. I tend to use a big saddle bag (Carradice Prima Maxi) and a small stem/bento bag (Jandd stem zippered), but I have yet to come up with a good place to put a map/cue. A chipclip cue sheet holder is not quite enough.
It’s funny, the fancy bags are really well made and look great, but they make my bikes just a little too complicated.
Steve –
The mt feed bag is working great. If I lean really far into a climb… yes I will touch my knee to it. Hasn’t been an issue and it reminds me to keep better climbing posture.
I’ve done the bento thing and I found unless it was perfectly aligned I’d drag my knees against the velcro as it sits even further back on the bike.
Yeah, the Acorn was great – but too much bag for me. And not easy to swap. I’ve got an Epic Standard on the way from Epic Designs. It will be about as large as the SQR Tour I used to use all the time – but will weight about half – and be compressable – and not require the hardware.
For the cue, I use my homemade cue clip, out of a recycled Honjo fender strut.