Sans Decaleur

Look, I love a handlebar bag set up with a good decaleur, in particular the Rene Herse one.  Add a small support rack for the bag and you have an unbeatable setup. However, there are a couple of requirements that can be deal breakers. The height of the bag has to be relatively close to the height of the handle bars and you need either a custom stem or a bike that fits the Rene Herse stem. A while ago I saw a video taken at the Philly Bike Expo showing a rack/bag combo from Winter Bicycles and Ruthworks SF with a clever way to eliminate the decaleur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzCqN0-Ga7o . I thought this would be a great way to help in the aforementioned situations. Fast forward a few years and a fellow from Madison approached me wanting just such a rack/bag combo for his new Fitz rando bike. We determined the ideal dimensions, had Ely from Ruthworks make us a bag, and I made a rack to fit the bag and bike. I thought I was going to have to add some additional struts to get the stability needed as the rack now does all the work holding the bag, but the wide platform let me make some nice triangles with the supports, The result: A nice sturdy bag and rack combo. A close 2nd place to the rack and decaleur combo. This setup is a little slower to take on/off the bike and slightly heavier (26 grams, no big deal). Also, its a really cute rack.

Alternate post title: A love letter to the decaleur.