Frame Bag Planning

I've decide after doing some reasearch on different frame bag options to just build my own.  Should be an interesting process.  I looked all over, got some costs together, and truth be told, I don't think the price of $175-250 for a good custom frame bag is really reasonable to me.  It just seems to be a lot to spend that much.  I've spent plenty of money on bikes and bike related stuff but figure this is a good shot for me to try something on my own.

I've sewed a bit here and there, mostly back in middle school maybe when I took Home Ec class.  I have helped Kris sew things here and there and I guess what I've got going for me is a bit of a technical mind, being able to visualize where things will be if I sew different angles/cuts/etc and picture all of that. 

So, to start I have done some learning about materials.  I can say for sure what I'm going to use is X-Pac ripstop nylon, it's waterproof and rugged.  I'll do waterproof zippers, I'm thinking 2 on one side into the main compartment and one on the other for a map/thin stuff pocket.  I'm going to do some internal dividers to separate out parts so I can get a bit of organization going, and I'm thinking about some mesh pockets inside the big part as well so I can make some small items easily accessible.  I saw some bags use a lighter colored liner fabric to keep things easier to see - if I can find lime green I think I'll do that but may have to settle for yellow or white even. I think under the velcro that will attach to the frame I'll put some soft fleece to hopefully avoid scratching my beautiful Yampa.

I decided to find somebody with a bag I could look at for ideas - George lent me his Revelate/Salsa bag.  It's got a lot of room but with my XL Yampa I have a lot more room to work with.  The bag is nice with a lot of the touches I want to include on my finished bag.

Next step is to make a template to start thinking about measurements and what amount of materials I'll need, along with design ideas.  I don't think anybody is reading, but if you are and you want to give input, please do.

I'll get a more close up picture of my design ideas soon.

Rough material list so far:

• x-pac material - enough for 2 x side panels + top, bottom, rear wrap piece about 120mm wide, I think 1 linear yard should be enough
• liner material - same amount as the outer material, about 1 linear yard
• waterproof zipper material - one side will have a 22"ish zip and a 14"ish zip, and the other TBD, up to 22"ish.  I'll buy 2 yards of #8 zipper I think and a few zipper pull things.
• velcro - some 2" wide, some 3" wide, some 1.5" wide.  I'll have to decide here but I'll probably get a few different rolls. These will be for the connection to the bike, the internal dividers, and I'm not sure what else
• fleece to go under velcro on connections to the bike
• mesh material for internal pockets - not much
• elastic material for the mesh internal pocket tops - not much
•  Some nylon webbing for pulls to hold the bag when opening the zipper (George's bag has these and they are very nice)
• Some other nylon webbing for reinforcement
• Seam tape stuff to run around the seams on the inside of the bag, probably not necessary but will make it all look much more finished and nice.
• Thread - some sort of nylon, gotta figure that out. I think i'll do a contrasting color to the main bag fabric.  I'm thinking red thread on black bag to match the bike.
• Anything else?

WEMS Race @ Kewaunee, Fatbike Duo 6hr

So, this weekend was a rain date for the Marquette trip, which again didn't pan out due to rain up there.  It reminds me of Duluth where if you head up expecting good weather you're going to have issues.  Anyway, the backup plan was to head to the southern kettles, I wanted to do it but with the timing of when we'd get there I was going to end up needing to be on a conference call for the first 1.5hrs of riding time.  That didn't work out and the day ended up being really busy Friday anyway so it's probably better I didn't slow the guys down.

In exchange/trade for the days riding, I decided to do the fatbike race at the WEMS Buckthorn Buster.  I've not been training much but figured heading out and riding the fatbike was a good way to use a day either way.  I planned on the 6hr but threw a post up on FB asking for a duo partner.  Cole ended up pairing up with me, that was great in two ways - one is I would've suffered really badly with a solo 6hr, and 2nd Cole is was fast so he carried me a lot.

The race was fun, the course was slippery from the rain we've had.  It didn't rain on the day of the race, at least during ours but the turnout was low so the course was sloppy.  I ran the first lap, I was able pretty quickly to see that I was not going to keep up with the fastest guys - a combination of overall fitness and then my handling skills and learning the fatbike were bit.  I did my first lap then passed off to Cole.  On the 2nd lap I pushed harder but came in after and felt pretty awful.  I got a chance to relax and catch my breath, then get ready to roll again.  The 3rd lap felt good, but I ended up flatting about 3/4 of the way through.  Flat enough I couldn't just run to the end, so I fixed it on course.  That took us out of any contention for 1st or 2nd, but 3rd was ours (there were only 3 teams).  The 4th lap I did better, put together what felt like a much better lap and turned out to be pretty solid.  I felt much better on the bike as the time went on, focusing more on carrying momentum through corners than braking in and hammering out of them.  I was disappointed to be so far off the pace but I know I'm not too fast yet and I know I haven't trained much lately.

Commuting and rainouts

So, I finally rode my bike to work this week for the first time of the year.  Wow, embarrasing.  My issue is I need to be semi-presentable for work and there isn't a good shower at the plant so I'm somewhat holding out for weather to cooperate and let me ride in at a "normal" pace without getting too dirty/sweaty.

I like riding to work, it's fun.  Need to do that more, it helps me get some precious bike time in which I have not had much of lately since Evan was born.  3 kids is crazy compared to 2, but I know it'll get easier.  I've been trying to sneak rides in in the morning here and there but I'll be damned if every time I've got my gear all set isn't a trigger of some sort for the kids to all sleep horribly, giving me 3-4 hours of sleep.  At that point it's pretty tough to get up at 5am to ride singletrack in the dark.  Riding to work helps that out as I can still sleep a bit later but get some time in.  I'm only about 7.5mi from work and it takes <30min.  The caadx is a perfect commute bike, comfortable but fast and efficient.  I've got road tires on it for now so it's pretty noticeably faster than it was on the semi-slicks.

This weekend was supposed to be a Marquette trip with some buds, like head up Friday, camp, then ride Sat and come home.  THis was the rain date from last weekend, but now it's rained out as well.  That means we're stuck coming up with plan B which is way less appealing and isn't jiving with the work conference call I have to be on Friday morning (this was going to be during the drive up to Marquette).  I think I'm going to have to miss it.  I think I'll try to squeeze in some riding though one way or another - either a 1/2 day Friday or do the WEMS race Saturday.  The Fatbike state champs is 6hrs, I don't think I've been training enough to be anything but DFL but I may do the race anyway just to be around the scene and get time on the bike.  The yampa is fantastic and I want to ride it more than my scalpel lately.

No more front derailleur!

So, I've now finally installed the narrow wide chainring up front on the scalpel, switching it to a 1x10.  It's a 32t, I've got 11-36 in the back.  Got a chance to ride it this weekend and it was good, just like I'd expected.  I never really shifted out of my big ring on my local trails anyway so while I'm now at 32t vs 38t before it should be pretty workable most places.

I did some cross training stuff, a sparticus workout I got online Saturday morning.  That pretty much shredded my legs, then rode on Monday morning.  I underestimated how sore I was from the workout and am paying for it now.  The good news is that I'll get stronger, the bad news is that it hurts.

I've been getting some pretty solid pedal strikes lately, found some wood in the pedal after the last ride and snapped a pic.