Keeping it simpler

  So, I really wish I'd've stumbled upon this video before I'd made THIS post back in April of this year.  This, I suppose, might be best explained because of my lack of boating experience, but, looking at the final result I feel this strong sense of "ooohhhhhh!".  Self-deprication is one of those things I'd prefer to leave in my past (unless it offers comic relief); but, a token of honesty that will simply *shock* regular readers:  I do tend to overcomplicate things.  

This revelation supplies a re-title for the previous post, which might read like:  "A complicated home-brew saddlebag bracket for saddles without saddle loops when all you have laying around is some 90°-angle aluminum and a dowel rod, and no internet connection".  For those criteria, I stand by my beautiful results.  I also satisfied the battle cry of the frustrated inventor:  I figured out a great way to NOT make a saddlebag support.  Yes, it worked, but not as well as hoped.

The solution in the video:  genius, even if it doesn't 100% satisfy my personal preference for having things super tight ... and that could be easily remedied with a single well-placed toe strap cinched around each of the cleat horns on the outside of each saddle rail, or something even quicker like a figure-8 loop of bungee passed thru the cleat's center cutout and stretched across the top to keep the cleat snug to the saddle rails - not super tight, more of a rattle preventative. 

 It really makes me think farther outside my own box:  it never would have occurred to me to seek a bicycle baggage solution at my local marina.  The internet is truly a beautiful place.

I'm beyond this particular stage now, as I've moved up to a new saddle which seems to have provided the best of all worlds for me, and it has bag loops:  but, for the adventure bike (gravel bike, whatever it's called), this may provide a great solution - that's where the saddle mentioned in the April post ended up, and who knows what lay ahead for that bike as far as configurations go.

Credit where it's due:

Video comes from the Carradice Hacks page, a subpage of Wallingford Bicycle Parts.  The original post comes from one of my new favorite reads:  epicureancyclist.com, described as 

"Reviews of all things touring, commuting and lifestyle related for the discerning cyclists with a mildly sardonic tone". 

The post is a share of a video by Chris Quint.  

I very much appreciate the hard work and hours which go toward the creation of pages like 'Epicurean' - these are the sorts of pages I look to for great ideas, time savers, and succinct commentary. My niche is, by contrast, storytelling.


Oh, yeah... and riding, eh?
Gotta go . . .