GearAdvent Day 5: Frame Bags

I am so stoked about my frame bags that even my stoke is stoked.

Frame bags are definitely in fashion, but to be honest I hesitated a little on this purchase. They are perhaps the most expensive per liter of volume of any bag, for someone short like me. The problem is I like having water bottles in my frame, plus I am not a tall guy, so the available space within the frame triangle ends up being quite modest. I bought a Wolf Tooth widget that lowers the back water bottle down toward the bottom bracket, but still there’s only so much space.

Add to that the requirement that to look good, bolt on to existing bosses wherever they happen to be, and fit well, a frame bag pretty much has to be custom made for your specific bike, around other gear like the bottle cages. You can purchase off-the-shelf designs but they will never fill the whole available space. So the frame bag looks terrific but, if we are being honest, it’s not huge inside.

Anyway, I got this matching set of bolt-on top tube and frame bags custom made from a wonderful guy named Sam at Buckhorn Bags in Fayetteville Arkansas. Sam works from a specific profile photo of your bike, which I assume he scales in the computer, to make bags that fit exactly. He can do either a “semi-custom” bag, pre-designed but adjusted in dimensions for you, or a more fully custom design.

I sent him the order with a list of wishes and a photo. We had a brief e-mail correspondence about some details, but then the bags were made, shipped, arrived, and fit exactly to the bike. It was pretty amazing.

The Kona has three sets of water-bottle-spaced bolts on the top tube, one pair facing up where the top bag bolts on and two facing down that support the front and back of the bag within the frame. Sam added an additional velcro strap in the center, no doubt from experience of how far a bag like this can span without sagging if unsupported.

His design has an opening for a power USB cable to come up from my power bank to my phone, which is going to be sweet.

I will have to experiment a little with how to use this long, narrow space, but for the first trip I have my two power banks side by side at the front, and then these small Rubbermaid containers that fit perfectly in there, for powdered stuff like coffee, Gatorade, and dry milk. On the opposite side of the bag there a second zipper with a much shallower pocket that I’ll probably use to stash my wallet and a couple of other small loose items.

One compromise I knew going in is that while these are made of waterproof fabric, they do have zippers, openings for the bolts, and an opening for the wire. That makes them water resistant, but not waterproof the way a roll-top bag is. So I am also considering that the stuff in here, especially the lower bag, will want to be water-tolerant if I get caught in a big rain.

Another compromise, to do again with being short, is that there’s not a lot of space between the front prong of my seat and the back of the top tube. Without making this a TMI moment, I will say that when I get off the seat and stand over the bike, this bag does, shall we say, impinge on my particulars a bit. Something to be aware of at stop lights.

I have to say I am super impressed with the quality of how these are made – premium design well executed. Very cool. Of everything I researched and selected this was one of the most satisfying purchases. Thanks Sam!