This Space for Rent

Bicycle luggage discovery of the day

The lid of my handlebar bag is not a very tight fit, so when it rains like the dickens, as it did for about 6 miles of my loop through east portland today, water actually leaks in and collects in the bottoms of the side pockets.

Fortunately my Olympus D510 CBC recovered from the shock of a cold shower after I popped open the battery bay and let it dry out for a hour or so.

But the next bag (I’ve a yard of a more brick red cordora, as well as a yard of a lovely orangey cordora, and Mill End is going to be getting some waxed canvas soon, so I can make up some bicycle luggage for the more hardcore randonneurs) will have the lid be just a little bit wider than the body so that the rain will have to work harder to sneak on in.

Oddly, my saddlebag, which tends to gape when it’s loaded (and which is kept pushed back by my saddlebag support), didn’t get any leakage, and the double layer of shell + lining kept the rain out without any drama. But I don’t tend to open and close the saddlebag nearly as much as I do the handlebar bag.