Acorns in Autumn

So you’re going out for a ride Saturday morning with some friends. You reckon you’ll be out for around three hours or so. When you start temperatures are going to be in the low fifties and when you finish they’ll be in the mid seventies. So where you gonna put your stuff? You know, your arm warmers, your leg warmers, your knee warmers, your wrist warmers, your neck gaiter, your thermal beanie, your long-fingered gloves, your energy bars, your gels, your electrolyte capsules, your hydration tablets, your cell phone, your keys, your lip balm – you know, your stuff.

Well, the roadies will of course stuff it all into those three pockets on the back of their Italian made jerseys and make like a domestique with a shirt full of bottles for the team. Their stuff isn’t very voluminous anyway, since they’re all on strict calory-free diets and all their clothing is purpose built with only the latest fly weight hi-tech fabrics by Italian artisans in a small factory just outside of Milan. Either that or they just stuff a newspaper down the front of their jerseys and toss it when they get too hot. And of course their team cars will be along any minute now to collect their surplus stuff anyway.

The urban, fixie hipsters can keep their stuff in one of those huge, formless messenger bags with the seatbelt for a shoulder strap. The bong and stash shouldn't be taking up that much space in there, so there should be plenty of room.  

The tourers will no doubt pack it all into one of the voluminous panniers adorning their rig. Or on their bike trailer, somewhere between the tent, the sleeping bags, cook stove and toilet paper.

The jaunty CycloChics have the delightful, flower festooned baskets on their retro mixtes, brimming with bottles of wine, loaves of French bread and hunks of cheese in which to store their goodies. Not to mention the handbag strewn over their shoulder and the pockets of their trendy cycling jackets. 

The mountain bikers have all those pockets and bungee cords on their gigantic hydration backpacks.

The Acorn Boxy Rando mounted on the '86 Fuji Allegro

But I have recently gone in a different direction. I have recently come under the spell of the old, the vintage, le retro.  I’ve started seeing the randonneurs out of the corner of my eye, and have a strong attraction to their aesthetic. It’s got a kind of Steam Punk / Victorian thing going on that speaks of whacky British explorers and faraway lands. And there’s something these randonneurs all seem to love – French Handlbar bags. After seeing a few of them around town, I simply had to have one. 

Now the classic French bags are Gilles Berthoud bags, but I have a bit of a buy American (if at all practicable) thing, so I searched around a bit to see if I couldn’t find something made by folks a little closer to home. And sure enough, there are several makers out there producing this style of bag. Most seem closer to bespoke mom-n-pop shops, and that suits me just fine. 

The one I ultimately chose is by Acorn Bags, a small two-person, husband and wife shop in Southern California. They make so few products, you have to get on a waiting list to be notified when the small batches go on sale. So you get an e-mail on Sunday night that says, “Tomorrow a batch of bags in [one of three colors offered] will go on sale starting at 9:00 AM, Pacific Time.” Then, when you go to the site, you have about 20 seconds from the time it becomes available to put the item in your cart or they will be sold out. I got lucky on my first try and scored a Boxy Rando in Saddle Tan. 

There is no denying the attraction. These boxy bags, made from waxed cotton with leather and brass, nestle neatly between the handlebar drops. Contrary to what the name might imply, they don’t actually hang from the handlebars, but are propped on a small rack above the front wheel right where you can reach it while you’re riding. And because it doesn’t hang from the bars, the bag doesn’t impede the placement of your hands near the stem. Brilliant, intuitive design, obviously honed over years of practical experience, these bags have pockets on the rider’s side, and a top flap that opens toward the rider with a map case built in. Good design is simply eternal. 

I’m currently riding it without a decaleur, the metal stabilizer typically mounted to the stem or head set with these types of bags. It seems pretty stable, but the bag only just fits between my extremely narrow handlebars (the bike, an ’86 Fuji came with 40cm Nitto bars, typical of the era) and stabilized only by the cords attached to the d-rings on the sides, the bag kind of crowds my thumbs when I round corners.  I’m still fiddling with it and will write a follow-up report as I either figure it out or get exasperated by it. 

Related reading:

http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2010/09/allure-of-handlebar-bag.html 

http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/fell/PBP1975.html