On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 8:33 PM, Reed Kennedy <r...@notfine.com> wrote: > 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 >
Wow, well done - that's a fantastic and beautiful fix. The bag looks great. -sv -- 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.
