One of the more wonderful items available at yesterday's Rivendell garage sale were Nigel Smythe Country Bags.
Apparently the first run of these bags had the saddle rail straps and support dowel quite far back, on the flap of the bag rather than the enclosed body. As a result of this, the bag hangs slightly oddly, especially when loaded: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gzahnd/249889284/ (Not my bag or my photo, credit to Gino.) The fine folks at Rivendell decided this was unacceptable and declined to release the bags to the public. The official solution was to comission a second run of bags with the dowel and saddle straps moved forward, off the flap. Yesterday at the garage sale folks were given the opportunity to purchase the original, slightly flawed bags for only $30. Many were available, and I think nearly every person there left with one. Most of the folks I spoke to were entirely untroubled by the way the bags hang, and planned to simply use them. This was originally my intention as well, but on the way home I remembered that I own some leatherworking supplies. So I decided to see what I could do. In the end, I decided to sew the flap down an extra inch so that the dowl-and-seat-strap portion would be fully supported: http://notfine.com/pics/nigel_smythe_country_bag_upgrade/2-in_progress.JPG It worked pretty well! http://notfine.com/pics/nigel_smythe_country_bag_upgrade/3-after.JPG (Compare to Gino's picture above.) Unless you look very closely, you can hardly tell the bag has been modified: http://notfine.com/pics/nigel_smythe_country_bag_upgrade/4-close-up-one.JPG http://notfine.com/pics/nigel_smythe_country_bag_upgrade/5-close-up-two.JPG The only downside that I can see is that the opening is now slightly smaller: http://notfine.com/pics/nigel_smythe_country_bag_upgrade/6-smaller-opening-one.jpg However, given where it sits relative to my saddle I don't think it could open much more anyway while on the bike: http://notfine.com/pics/nigel_smythe_country_bag_upgrade/7-smaller-opening-saddle.JPG All in all, I'm very happy with this bag and with my modification. Thanks to the wonderful folks at Rivendell for the generous deals on such lovely objects, and also for a idyllic ride. Cheers, Reed -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
