The Bar bag Part 1: Let there be light


The build of Phil my cyclocross/gravel/whatever you want to call it was more or less complete.  However what was lacking from my previous build was a luggage system.  I had decided a while back that instead of going for a Carradice saddlebag I would go for a handlebar bag system instead.  The advantages of this are direct access to it whilst riding, whereas the Carradice saddlebag system would more or less require you to stop and dismount.



The first step was to buy a rack to support the weight of the handlebar bag as well as provide a point to mount the light.  I went ahead and got a Nitto M18 rack which has three fixing points, the lowrider mounts and the brake bridge.  The construction of this rack is beautiful, all the welds are nicely smoothed over and the cromoly tubing is finished with a nice shiny satin silver. However, for mounting a light there isn't anything off the shelf you can buy so I went ahead and fabricated one.


The donor brake was from a local community bike shop, these are very common and I used to run a pair on a bike.  They aren't particularly great as brakes in stock form, however the arms are a nice shape for a lighting bracket.


I sawed off the lower half of the arm and cut through the large pivot to make it thinner to fit underneath the bolt on the Nitto M18 rack.


The mounting point on the rack was also filed with a recess for the struts to fit into.


After a bit of filing we have a nice fit.  The side strut sits into the recess and allows the nut on the backside to get sufficient purchase on the threads as well as preventing the bracket from rotating around.


A little bit of polishing and it looks like a proper bracket.  Stay tuned for Part 2 where I document handlebar bag installation.



4 comments:

  1. What kind of yellow bar tape are you using? It really pops! PHIL is a really great looking bike!

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  2. Hey there, Thanks! It's Cinelli Carbon tape in Gold.

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  3. Hi, did you need the extra long struts to reach the lowrider mounts or were the standard struts long enough?. Thanks

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  4. Hi the standard struts were long enough to reach the lowrider mounts. Even if they are a little short you can adjust the fixing points to match.

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