Bar harness for under £10. No sewing required. UPDATED!

[Ray Young]

I previously made a bar harness (http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB ... ess#p48825) but over time I realized I could make the same only without the need to do any sewing.

Updated due to design error, sorry .

You'll need 4 x 25mm straps with buckles ( I used Decathlon Backpack straps, £2.99 for a pack of 2) and 6 X 3 bar slide buckles, only 4 shown (ebay £1.99 or thereabouts).

IMG_20171102_182041 by youngray50, on Flickr

This first bit is where the design error was so has now been changed, all the rest is the same.

Put both straps through a 3 bar slide buckle and slide it up to the strap buckles, note the strap buckles should face the opposite direction to each other.

IMG_20171104_151501 by youngray50, on Flickr

Feed a 3 bar slide buckle onto the straps, one strap through each side, it must be free to slide up and down.

IMG_20171102_185142 by youngray50, on Flickr

Feed one strap through its own buckle to form a loop, this will take the bar bag.

IMG_20171102_185254 by youngray50, on Flickr

In the next picture the white thing represents the handlebar and the red thing the fork crown. Feed a 3 bar slide buckle onto the other strap near the fork crown in the manner it is intended to be used.

IMG_20171102_185400 by youngray50, on Flickr

Take the strap around the fork crown and feed it back through the 3 bar slide buckle then tighten it up against the fork crown (this stops the harness rotating around the bar and fork crown).

IMG_20171102_185506 by youngray50, on Flickr

Lastly, feed the strap through its buckle and tighten it up tight. The loop to the left is around the bar and fork crown, the loop to the right takes your bar bag. (Obviously you need to make two).

IMG_20171102_185648 by youngray50, on Flickr

It should look like this when mounted.

Harness 013 by youngray50, on Flickr

Harness 012 by youngray50, on Flickr

[Fat tyre kicker]

Cheers...will have a go at that, I've got a bag of strap oddments ( keep it clean please )

[Charliecres]

Nice one, Ray! I’ve made a couple to your original design for friends, and this looks even better. Reckon I’ll knock one up as a spare.

[pistonbroke]

I made something similar using a couple of 50mm wide Podsac straps which have quick release buckles so getting the bag off is very easy. I find using an Alpkit Airlock Extra drybag is better as it has loops sewn into the bag to prevent it slipping about. Also to avoid rub on the headtube, I got a Revolution protect front mudguard for a tenner from Edinburgh cycles and using a heat gun bent/melted the front section up and attached it to the stem, the expander bolt thing holds it into the base of the steerer tube and it sits about 10mm away from the headtube so it clears everything. I ride with suspension forks and have not had any fouling problems even with a 13l drybag.
Link to mudguard here https://www.edinburghbicycle.com/info/n ... your-back/

[Borderer]

Not being cheeky, but how does this strap arrangement help then? How is it better than just using the straps that come with the Airlok? Not being arsey - genuinely curious.

[Charliecres]

IME you can get a more secure, less bouncy load with an arrangement like this. And it’s easier to keep the bag away from the headtube.

[Borderer]

Ah ok, thanks

[thenorthwind]

Just had a go at putting something like this together, not particularly successfully, I have to admit.

I was using what I had which was four of the straps that come with Alpkit dry bags, which have a quick release buckle at the end and conveniently come with a 3 bar slide. The advantage is that you can remove the bag and the harness more quickly (in theory), but the disadvantage is that you can only thread one end (male buckle end, with the buckle removed) through other components, so it took me a few goes of threading everything together, then taking it all apart again so I could put the right bit on first

The problems I had were that the middle 3 bar slide that holds the bar/fork loop to the bag loop, is able to slide up and down and so doesn't stop the bag from bouncing up and down. In Ray's photo, it looks like that slide is held nice and tight to the bag, but I've found I have a bit more movement and it slides up and down.

The other thing is that without the loop on the bars, or any other bar furniture to hook it round, the straps loop round the bar very close to the stem, which makes it less stable laterally. This could probably be solved with a couple of lock-on grip rings from some old grips (which I may have lying around anyway), but that means taking my (foam) grips and levers off so a bit of a pain.

I should say this is meant to be critical! I really like the idea and will spend some more time fiddling at some point, but for now I'm going back to my MYOG harness.

[Ray Young]

The reason for the middle 3 bar slide being able to move up and down is to accommodate different size bags. Both sets of loops need to be done up tight to stop bounce. I have stem cells inboard of the straps which helps widen the distance between them. I've also used a wrap of old inner tube round the bars in the past. Alpkit drybags also help as I feed the straps through the the loops on the bag.