I’m a ghetto cyclist.



I’m not ashamed to admit that I like cheap and effective solutions to problems when it comes to touring.



I recently got a Carradice Saddlebag (£1!) which I’m really enjoying having. It’s great for chucking my camera in and fits a copious amount of sandwiches.



As I (Surprisingly) don’t ride a brooks or any other old saddle, I don’t have any bag loops which poses a problem when using these saddlebags.



Not willing to shell out for Carradice’s universal saddle-loops and fed up with my bag swinging about like nuts, I made the following support. Using a pair of old pannier stays and a couple toe-straps, I’ve essentially made a very cheap, minimalist Carradice Bagman!

Read on for instructions!

First off, you’ll need:

Your Saddle Bag

Strip of aluminium sheet

Two pannier-rack stays

Two Toe Straps

Nuts and bolts

Penny Washers

Drill

A good vice

Block of wood.

Start off by emptying your bag and stretching it out to shape. Cut a strip of aluminium that is as long as your bag and almost as wide as the panel you want it to sit on.

Clean up the edges of the sheet (Square is good!) and make sure there are no horrible raggedy edges.



Remove your two stays from the pannier rack and flatten them in your vice.

Once you have flattened your stays, attach the saddle bag to your saddle using one toe strap per rail of the saddle, making sure the straps wrap around the dowel inside the bag. Then attach the stays to the pannier rack mounts on your bike.



Orientating the stays on the bike to the angle you’d like them to hold the bag, mark roughly on each stay where you’d like the bend to be to. Where the bends end up is obviously totally dependent on your bike and bag, but just so you know, mine came out like this!





Re-attach the stays to the bike and mark two holes on either end of the sheet so that they will intersect with the pannier stays.



Take your bag off the bike and drill the holes through both the sheet and bag. Re-attach the bag to the bike and bolt to the stays and centre. If you’re overly concerned by the potential leakiness of this system, you could also add an O-ring between the sheet and bag.



I added one other bolt in the centre-rear of the bag to add some extra structural support to the base of the bag but this isn’t vital.



So far the system works very well with everything staying put and not wiggling at all! I’m sure the bagman support is far superior if you’re taking anything of reasonable weight, but for a ton of bananas and a couple lenses, this works just great.





Please link me up with any of your favourite ghetto luggage mods!