While I believe that my gigantic Berthoud handlebar bag is the best bag for randonneuring, I am not suggesting you go out and buy one right away. I road most of my early brevets with a Little Joe bag and a map holder on my handlebars. Use what you have because you may find that after riding a few brevets you don't enjoy it so why spend a lot of money up front? Second if you do like it you can spend your first rides looking at what other riders use and determining what you do and don't like about your current setup. You can then make changes to your rig as the $'s allow.
While there are a good number of steel bikes with classic randonneuring bags at brevets more people are riding go fast racing bikes with minimal bags, especially at the shorter distances. Even at the longer distances you will see riders who are on go fast bikes with just a small trunk bag. You need to do some rides and see where you fit between the carry everything riders and the minimalist riders. The big plus to a handlebar bag is that it has a great out of the way map case on top of it. It also supplies a place for the things you want to get to easily while riding: cell phone, camera, food or wind breaker. I have found that the mid to large handlebar bags that do not use a front rack did throw off the handling of the bike more then I liked. Smaller bags can be OK but most of the bags that mount to the bars hold the bag very high. early on I used a Boxy Baggins on a Nitto handle bar mount and as long as I kept the load light it was not a problem. The Boxy Baggins/Little Joe was my second generation brevet rig. Note that a handlebar bag can cause some real issues with cable routing. The Berthoud bag on a front rack with a decular works very well on my Rambouillet as long as I don't over load it. I still use some type of bag under my seat to carry a few small heavy items. If you decide to buy one of these buy the model with all elastic loops. I bought one with leather straps and buckles and it is a nightmare getting in and out of the pockets while riding. Good luck Larry Powers Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live. - Mark Twain > Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:19:03 -0800 > Subject: [RBW] Bag Recommendation for First Brevet > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > One of my goals for 2012 will be to complete my first brevet - > probably a 200K for starters. I need to add a bag to my Rambouillet. > I'm thinking of starting with one bag - hoping that will be enough for > this type of ride. Would you recommend a front bag or rear bag? I > know the front bag would give me a place for my map, but not sure if > there are other factors I should be considering. > > Feel free to reply directly to [email protected] > > Thanks, > > John > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
