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This one will be going on a 64cm Rivendell Atlantis and is ready for some touring action.
It is only a little bigger in each direction than the one I use on my Roadeo, but 1/2 slimmer to accommodate the possibility of down tube shifters in the future. Perfect for a water bladder, tent poles, or other long skinny gear that otherwise might be lashed down.
At least most things, and maybe new twists on old themes. I was at the local used book store the other day. Every now and then I stop in to see if something new has shown up in the areas I like, and ran across Gail Heilman’s bicycle touring book. While skimming through this one I ran into a line of bags from Velocipac I had not seen before.
It seems they had made full triangle frame bags for a while.
This really shows the limitations of the internet as a catalog of all things. Today there are a few companies out there making bags like this for Lightweight MTN Bike touring, and me taking the canvas approach. But when you search the history of the things there is a big jump from the Swiss Army bike bags to the modern jumping right past things like this. Some other interesting bags of the era were made by MountainSmith under a BikeSmith label, and a local Ventura company was making bags under the Kangaroo label. It is near impossible to find good information on either company’s lines.
There were other bags that were quite interesting too, maybe a few good ideas I could incorporate into other bags. Nothing new, just recombining old ideas to suit my needs.
The long and light pole cam 1.0 was upgraded to a wingnut for the jam nut today. This makes the removal of the GoPro attachment much quicker.
While at the hardware store I also picked up some thicker all thread to make a short and stout model capable of slinging the GF1. It went together well enough, but I will be shopping for a lighter ball head mount.
These are pretty good for prototyping, the all thread needs something to cover the edges though, I am thinking thin tubing?
One of the challenges of being the photographer and the model is getting the camera far enough away to capture the angle of view you a shooting for while still being able to control the camera. Often times is will use a combination of tripod, remotes and timers. Other times, as readers likely know, I use the low tech solution of keeping my arm stretched out as far as I can without dropping the camera. This past week I put a little time into fleshing out a pole mount for the camera.
Version 1.0 has been going pretty well. Materials list includes; 1/4 – 20 all thread, a piece of scrap dowel and a couple of cinch nuts to keep the mount secure at the camera end. It is a little whippy, but more than stout enough for the GoPro. The bend in the first picture is cold set using an old 26″ wheel as a mandrel. The length works well for the Xtracycle. I am not sure how to carry it on my other bikes, and now I have a shorter version on the project list as well as a stouter model for the GF1
It has been a busy week. Plenty of mileage building up, but all in short little bursts. Some for errands and some just for fun, and some interesting things to see.
Two things in common to glue it all together, great weather and way better than doing it all in a car.