rolling saddles

I've been wanting a bigger saddle bag for a while now. The one I've been using for the last few years works great but (there's always at least one...) it doesn't hold everything I want to take with me when I go for a ride.

I've been using a handy little blackburn saddle bag that a friend gave me. It's a nice design and it fits snug under a saddle no matter how close to the frame said saddle is positioned. However, while it fits my tools and a tube nicely, there's not any room for much else. Such as a snack. Or my phone/wallet/keys. Or some gloves and an extra shirt - and when it's cold out I want these. I figured my saddle floats pretty far above my frame so I've got a bit of extra room for all that stuff - why not make something that'll fit everything I want? I make bags after all.

So thus begun a fun filled journey from past tool-lugging saddle bag to present tool-gloves-snack-etc holding saddle bag. You can see past to present lined up right to left in the above pic. I went through various upscaled rip-offs of the blackburn design, which seemed to function worse and worse, the larger they got. The final direction was more along the lines of Porcelain Rocket and this totally killer bag from Ruth Works SF. You could call them my "inspiration." (Or you could say I ripped them off too - as a friend of mine likes to point out, the word inspiration is usually used interchangably with this phrase. In any case, the two folks mentioned previously make seriously amazing bags and you should go buy them right now.)

I took the red one out for a few spins and I am pretty damn happy with it. Not only does it fit everything I want to take with me, but it also serves as a decent fender!