DIY Saddlebag Quick-Release

[jar351]

I was pretty psyched when I bought a used Saddlesack bag from a fellow poster here last weekend. My partner was not. She thinks I spend too much of my very little money on bike stuff--for the record, she's right--and besides that, we live in Oakland. So perhaps understandably she responded to my boyish excitement with a look that said, "you know that's way too f-ing fancy and it's going to get stolen." I retorted that I planned to attach it to my bike with a piece of bike chain and a crap load of zip ties, but still she was unfazed. Those things would not stop a thief. As much as I hated to admit it she was right. That's when I decided to the opposite tack: make the bag super easy to detach and carry. I know that Riv sells a Nitto-made doohickey for just such a purpose, but come on, $100? That's almost as much as I paid for the friggin bag.

Anyhow, that's how I ended up making this thing:

For the record, yes, I blatantly copied the Nitto design as much as possible, and took some cues from another DIYer who had made the same kind of thing and posted it on Flickr. I couldn't figure out the attachment mechanism of the Nitto mount from the photos on the Riv site, so I just made a back plate and sandwiched the saddle rails between it and the main plate that you see in the photo. Seems to work well enough so far.

The body of the mount I made from aluminum flat bar, so I'm sure it's not as durable as the Nitto one, which I assume is steel, but how strong does this thing need to be? The tube that the QR skewer goes through is just 1/2-inch PVC but I decided to wrap it in bar tape to avoid the toilet paper dispenser look. 

I made this in a few hours with no power tools except an ancient Black&Decker drill and if you don't count the cost of the drill bits and tap (which I wanted to have anyway), the whole mount cost me about $15 to make. Most of that was the cost of the aluminum flat bar, of which I have plenty leftover for other projects. (I already had the QR skewer from I don't know where.) Anyway, it was a fun project, not just about saving a little dough.

More photos on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/37784914@N02/sets/72157647694465480/

[Chris Chen]

That's pretty sweet!

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[hsmitham]

Very well done.

~Hugh

[Bill Lindsay]

APPROVE!!

[Anton Tutter]

Well done!  I'd like to know more about how you fastened the flat stock to the saddle.

Anton

[Patrick Moore]

Nice. I made a couple of similar brackets, cruder than yours, but mine had the arms angled upward to accommodate the inward slant of my Flite saddles (and of many other non-Brooks saddles) and therefore had to be cut from plate and bent accordingly. The Nitto design works not at all well with modern saddles for this reason -- ie, the arms slant downward toward the tire, lowering rather than raising the bag above the tire.

Someone with a machine shop and more skill than I could easily make a Nitto-like and Nitto quality bracket for modern saddles. My brother has made a few out of old fork ends, but he can braze and I can't. And it wouldn't have to cost $100, either.

(However, I solved my problem by going back to panniers on a rack.)

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[Jon in the foothills of Central Colorado]

Very nice! And you have the self satisfaction you made it yourself and it didn't cost you an arm and leg.

I would like to see how you attached it to your saddle also. Is that a B17 select saddle??

[Tim McNamara]

Mounting saddle bags continues to be rather vexations if one wishes to eliminate sway and having the bag rub against the back of one’s thighs.

I used to be able to find a bunch of clever DIY options searching the web but now there’s so much clutter from search engines that it’s hard to find what you want. A friend of Jobst Brandt made brackets similar to the Nitto one but with a pull-pin instead of a bike QR, but it didn’t provide a handle like the Nitto does. Later he used a boom arm that looked like a tandem stoker stem with a T-shaped mount at the end for the saddle straps and the seatpost strap.

BTW, for marginally better security one could use an Allen bolt style skewer instead of a QR.

Here are some options:

http://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-035/000.html

which accidentally led to the interesting (assuming the subjects get some of the cash):

http://www.bicycleportraits.co.za/

[Andrew Marchant-Shapiro]

I really want to love saddlebags. I love the concept, I've owned many, and every few years I try again. I even invented a mount that involved a loop secured with a Seat Sandwich, after bad luck with the SQR.

But for me, saddlebags don't work well.

So now I use a rack and panniers. Not so English-classy, but they do the job.

That said, that is a way prettier mount than most I've seen, and it looks well-made.

[jar351]

For those who asked, here's what the attachment part looks like:

It's really straightforward, just a metal sandwich. I tapped the back plate for the 5mm screws, but I could just as well have used nuts. I really just wanted an excuse to buy the tap, but of course it also makes installation a bit easier. As you can see from the first shot, there's a bit of bowing going on in the plates because I probably tightened the screws down a bit more than I had too. I expect that in time the plates may bend a bit more and thus loosen but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. In truth, I'm looking forward to working out the kinks and improving the design.

Thanks to all who gave a thumbs up :)

On Saturday, September 27, 2014 4:12:41 PM UTC-7, jar351 wrote:

[jar351]

Andrew, would you mind elaborating a bit about why you chose panniers over saddlebags? I'm actually moving in the other direction if anything. I've always used panniers (and probably will continue to do so for commuting) but I've also had a Carradice saddlebag on my bike for the past year or so and I've loved the convenience of having it always on there, ready to hold my u-locks, golf discs, snacks, etc. when I'm packing light for a recreational trip. Thigh rub has never been an issue. That being the case, I'm eager to try a larger saddlebag on this latest build of mine.

[Joe Broach]

Thanks for the extra info, jar351. Very slick indeed. Get back to us about whether the tapped holes hold up/stay tight over time. As you say, nylock nuts would be an easy upgrade if they don't.

Best,

joe broach

portland, or

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[Andrew Marchant-Shapiro]

Moi?

Thigh rub is part of it, though I've done some long tours with a Nelson attached and it wasn't all that awful.  I just don't care for it.  Part of it is also that I have my saddle shoved all the way back, so the attachment to the seatpost doesn't work very well (and I have tried a number of inventions for dealing with that).  I really like the stylistic notion of the saddlebag, it's just never felt like it was an ideal fit for me.  I also think that they tend to be costly per cubic foot compared to panniers, though perhaps a little less these days, since Carradice is no longer the sole source.

I've found that for small loads (and now I can handle large ones) I like handlebar bags better.  I can get into them without stopping, and there's having a map case up front, which is a real plus in my book.  Panniers provide additional storage when needed and keep the center of gravity low, and have the advantage that they are well-shaped for what I want to carry in them, be it a computer, groceries, or a pair of 13B dress shoes.

Dunno.  It's a matter of taste and particular use and, in the long run, it's all good.  Whatever works for each of us!