Ostrich Bag, Velo Orange decaleur and Nashbar front rack

I've been wanting a large front bag for a long time. They make great sense for long day rides where you want to have a shell, food, camera, map all handy so you don't have to stop. Problem is they tended to be very expensive and very hard to come by. For the longest time your only real choice was the Berthoud bags. While very nice they tend to be extremely expensive with a bag, rack, and decaleur combination easily topping $425.00!! People try to justify this price by claiming they're durable. I'm sure they are durable but let's keep in mind this is a handlebar bag on a touring bike - not a backpack being dragged through the muck by a Navy SEAL (whose bags incidentally cost less than a Berthoud even though they see far more abuse!!)

Fortunately for big bag fans the unlikely combination of Velo Orange and Bike Nashbar have come to the rescue! For less than $175 you can have a system with all the functionality of the Berthoud set-up that will work on almost any bike (unlike the Berthoud system!)

Let's start with the bag. It's a nice olive color, canvas, and generally looks like something from an Army surplus store. It's a good size though I find it too small for commuting. It'll carry my clothes but not a pair of shoes. For day riding it's plenty large. I took mine out on one of those sketchy Seattle days where the skies look like they could open up at any moment. My bag easily handled my camera, rain pants, rain jacket, cap, gloves, and food. You can see the size of the bag compared to my helmet.

Inside the main compartment has a pair of flaps with an elastic cord to help keep the elements at bay during light rain. For heavier rain you'll need a rain cover (not included). The rear compartments are capable of holding 3 Clif bars each. They're ideal for storing food since they're easily reached. The front flat pocket is useful for small, flat items and the side pockets are a handy place to stash gloves, warmers or glasses. The flap covering the main compartment is secure with 2 elastic cords in the front. I first wondered about how hard this would be to open while riding. While it does require a reach is easier than fusing with the zippers on most bags and quite a bit easier than the old style buckles on the Berthoud and Carradice bags. It's also a very light and fool proof way to secure a bag.

The decaleur is a robust and shiny unit. I didn't place items on the scale but it wouldn't surprise me if the decaleur weighed more than the rack. It could probably be made from lighter tubing and Bicycle Quarterly reports the Velo Orange is doing just that. Weight aside, it's an elegant and simple device. I would strongly suggest gently bending the tubes that the prongs slide into so as to create a tighter fit. Once I did this I have no problems with the bag rattling or bouncing loose even when going over speed bumps.

The rack is a very generic welded alloy rod affair. Millions like them have been made. Some will insist steel racks are better but their arguments don't pan out very well. First they claim steel racks are repairable. True, but so are aluminum racks (my welding instructor confirmed this). More importantly, if you're in the middle of nowhere I pretty much guarantee you'll have an easier time getting a new rack FedEx'd to you than you will finding someone in an unfamiliar town to repair your steel rack. Chances are the new rack even with shipping will be cheaper. The next complaint is that steel racks are stiffer. While this might be a bonus for racks hauling panniers it's a non-issue for a handlebar bag rack that's never going to carry much more than 5-10 pounds, max. The Nashbar rack is only $10. At that price you could buy 15 of them for the price of one Berthoud rack. The only issue with this rack is that the lip on the back interferes with the rear facing pockets on the Ostrich bag. This was easily solved by hacksawing the lip off. If you look closely in the bottom photo you can see where I cut the rack.

Overall, the Ostrich, Velo Orange, Ostrich system works as well as the fancier Berthoud system but at a price affordable to people who don't have six figure incomes. Should also mention that I had no delivery/shipment/ordering problems with either Velo Orange or Nashbar.