the curious randonneur: 02/09/11

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Randonneur Handlebar Bag Stiffener à la Dr. Codfish (and others)

I got the idea from The Dr Codfish Chronicles Blog by Paul Johnson, but others have been onto this coroplast idea too. Will de Rosset posted about building the handlebar bag itself from nylon with a coroplast top frame for stability while keeping it extremely light weight, and then my neighbor across the street, Dylan the blogger behind if i had a bike blog..., built up his very own coroplast handlebar bag together with his partner Grace. Beautifully constructed and finished! And of course, old reliable Kent Peterson has already posted on this subject with his artfully crafted coroplast handlebar bag.

No way I was going to go that far, but I did have a hankerin' for stiffening up my Gilles Berthoud bag for the same sag-prevention reasons that Dr Codfish outlines. I love my bag stiffener, and it was a fun little project.

See that little gap between the white coroplast liner and the canvass of the bag in the right side of the photo above (the front of the bag)? I discovered last weekend it is the perfect new pocket into which I can slip my little plastic bag containing my brevet card! With this arrangement, any time I get the obsession to look "one more time" to make certain I still have my brevet card I can scratch that niggling obsessive itch. Very satisfying!

I also really like the way it brightens up the interior of the bag for finding little lost items.

Here you can see that I bolted right through the coroplast with the decalear-mounting bolts.

This is a photo of a Gilles Berthoud decaleur from the Peter White website.

Thanks, Dr Codfish, Dylan & Grace, and Will! Also, all you other unknown-to-me coroplastic pioneers. I may not be an early adopter, but I do know a good idea when I see one. And all these stiffening benefits without the need of any prescription. Positively stimulating!

For other posts about handlebar bags and their racks, please see:

Keep it stiff,

CurioRando

What the heck is a Randonneur?

In General

In general terms, the French word randonneur is what in English we'd call an ambler or a rambler.

In Cycling

In cycling terms, a randonneur is a long distance cyclist who participates in non-competitive, organized cycling events called brevets. Brevets are typically 200k, 300k, 400k or 600k in length with specified time limits. The grandpapa of all is the Paris Brest Paris event which is 1200k in 90 hours. It is held every four years; next up is this August 21 - 25.

In France

Randonneuring began in France when the limits of cycling as a practical form of transportation were being explored and the bicycle was perhaps the central form of transportation for work and leisure for the masses.

As for me...

See my first post (May 31, 2009) for more on why I began this blog, and my personal randonneuring objectives.

Of Interest to the Curious

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Randonneur Handlebar Bag Stiffener à la Dr. Codfish (and others)