WTB: Mouseproof handlebar bag

[Drw]

I'm looking for a medium capacity handlebar bag with a few specific requirements. 

-rackless/decaleurless

-larger than the little tube barrel style bags

-uses a zipper or multi roll closure 

The last requirement is on account that the bike gets left in a rural shed and any bags with flap openings, like a carradice, become mouse nests really fast (also if anyone knows how to keep mice out of nesting in lawn mowers, that would be great intel).

Id have bought the velo orange mini rando bag but its sold out. Open to something bigger too, like a roadrunner jammer. Would like to keep it under 100$

I have a honey brooks conquest, green guru triangle bag, soma osprey handlebars if a trade is of any interest. Also happy to pay. 

email is  Dr ewbeck meyer @gmail.com

Drew. Los angeles.

[Julian Westerhout]

FWIW, the only way to "mouseproof" a handlebar bag of any sort that is used on a bike shored in a rural shed is to remove it from the bike and take inside your house, where, presumably, the mice do not reside. 

If you ever carry food or other comestibles in your bag the smells will attract them even after the food is removed -- even through a zipper or a roll up flap. They'll then chew holes in your bag to get in if there's not a convenient opening, and then you're done for. 

:) 

Julian Westerhout

Bloomington, IL 

[Drw]

We have these weird mice in our area that only seem to care about breeding and storing tree nuts. Not once have they gone for any human food...the rats do, but not the mice. I keep several zippered bags in the shed that have received no mice attention, but anything with an opening becomes a nest. 

[dougP]

Is there anything that repels rodents?  For instance, putting moth balls in a bag?  I know there are things they like to chew on, such as electric wire insulation.  A friend lost a Brooks leather saddle bag to rodents chewing on it.  It only had tools, no food.  Maybe they also like to chew on leather.

dougP

[Peter Adler]

Rodents chew on food-free bags (cloth, leather, PVC - whatever) for exactly the same reason they chew on electrical wire: To get the salt.

salt is a vital nutrient that all animals need for survival. For most non-humans who can't mine it or set up big seaside condensation ponds, it's hard to get. Historically, it was very valuable; that's why the word "salary" is allegedly derived from the Latin salarium - the money the Romans paid their soldiers so they could buy salt.

Livestock owners put out salt licks for cattle and horses; rangers sometimes do the same thing for deer. If you, a primate bicycle bag owner, have been handling your bicycle bags, there are traces of salt on them from your dried sweat. If you're a bag-chewing rodent, you've got to get your vital minerals wherever you can find them.

In the case of electrical wire, the charge of the wire crystallizes salt out of the water vapor in the air, which contains whatever trace minerals are in the local water supply. Uninsulated wire crystallizes better than insulated wire, but I assume that the shock of chewing on bare copper wire discourages rat/mouse/squirrel nibbling with pain and/or electrocution.

Peter Adler

who has lost multiple Ortlieb panniers in both Cordura and PVC to rats/mice in

Berkeley, CA/USA

[George Schick]

All rodents in the entire order of rodentia have incisors that continue to grow throughout their lifetimes, hence they like to gnaw on just about anything in order to keep those teeth worn down to a manageable length.  This is why they like to gnaw on electrical wires.  During the years I worked in the telecom industry we used to have repetitive rodent damage to our twisted-pair cables due to mice getting into the pedestals and gnawing on the wires.  Ground hogs (or woodchucks if you prefer) did the same thing to buried cables that got in the way of their burrowing. 

But this is a different problem from the one of chewing through fabric and nesting.  They will do that whenever and wherever possible in order to build a nest from refuse they've dragged into the chewed out space.  As the OP, I used to live where I had a small outdoor storage shed where I stored a lawn mower and other yard maintenance equipment.  Mice used to invade the space in numerous quantities until I finally sealed all possible entry points around the shed and, after closing the door, used a c-clamp to make sure that there was no possible rodent entry there, either.  That finally solved the problem.

[jeffbog...@hotmail.com]

Peppermint essential oil will keep the rodents away.

[Jon Dukeman]

We went to Home Depot and bought those electric  plug in mice repellents.

The seem to do the trick. They don't bother the dog food. Won't keep the bears out.

We put two per garage.

Jon

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/bc47b108-bd97-496c-b096-ca0691e005e0n%40googlegroups.com.

[rlti...@gmail.com]

I had mice create a nest under the hood of my camper van. Since we’re in SoCal the nuts of choice to store were from palm trees. I still have some down in the engine compartment that I couldn’t get out with a vacuum.

On tours I have had some animals chew through panniers I left outside of my tent. I also had raccoons unzip my panniers to get food out. Raccoons are definitely more considerate.

I use a Middle Earth Jammer on one bike and really like the bag. Very stable and it can hold quite a bit of gear.

Robert Tilley

San Diego, CA

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 12, 2021, at 8:34 AM, Drw <drewbe...@gmail.com> wrote:

We have these weird mice in our area that only seem to care about breeding and storing tree nuts. Not once have they gone for any human food...the rats do, but not the mice. I keep several zippered bags in the shed that have received no mice attention, but anything with an opening becomes a nest. 

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/2d84763b-9740-4893-9df0-515adcb16978n%40googlegroups.com.

[Marty Gierke, Stewartstown PA]

Irish Spring soap (shaved or grated) seems to deter mice. I had a nest in my AC unit beside the house, and one in my snowblower. (And we have cats!) A pile of soap shavings took care of them. They recommend the same for pop up campers that have lots of fabric to chew on. Maybe a cheescloth bag of soap shavings in the bag would work? 

Marty 

[Drw]

interesting. i ordered some mint oil, but irish spring is even cheaper.  

I knew about the nests in bags and stuff, but I got a new lawnmower and it sat for a couple weeks. Went to turn it on last weekend and out shot 3 mice looking like they were gonna run off and die somewhere. Had to disassemble much of it to get all the nest stuff out and found a dead baby inside too. pretty gross.