Mine's a little different...

[gregclimbs]

So I built frame bags last year.  Learned a lot.

New 29er, need a new set of bags.

But mine's a little different (sorry it's blurry, finished at 2am):



See it?

Need a hint?

Well, there are no straps on the seat tube or down tube...

And there is velcro on the top of the top tube...

How'd I do that?  Why'd I do that?

Water bottle bolts:



The velcro at the top?  Gas tank to velcro to the top of the frame bag (project for another night).

Oh, yeah.  My bivy has a single pole hoop.  Didn't want it on the h-bars for fear of bending/breaking it.  Didn't want it loose rattling around inside the framebag.  Didn't want it under all the things inside the framebag as it will likely be the first thing out of the frame bag is the weather is crap.

What to do?  bar tack on some double sided velcro to hold the pole+stakes to the top of the frame bag:



There are detailed blow-by-blow pics of how I built it over on my flickr stream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregclimbs/sets/72157626343131544/with/5686091775/

I still have a few improvements to make (like reinforcing the waterbottle mounts (already have a plan).  Maybe ordering some reflective piping.

We'll see how it holds up this year versus the last one...

-g

[DoctorRad]

That's some sweet custom *stuff* right there...

[Ultra Magnus]

I totally dig it.  I had wondered myself about using the water bottle bolts to help secure the frame bag.  What material did you use for the seat-tube reinforcement plates?  Were you able to sew it inside out, and then turn it right side out with those reinforcement plates in there?  I had intended to do what I think is called a french hem/seam deal on mine.  I've done it on a few stuff sacks so far, and it's worked really nicely to hide the cut edges of the fabric.  If you don't know- you first sew it right side out with a small seam allowance, trimming if necessary, then turn it inside out and sew again hiding that raw/cut edge, and then you turn it right side out again to see the finished product. 

I just ordered a yard of Dyneema from Thru-Hiker for my frame bag project.  Coincidentally, a good friend of mine is sending me a C'dale 29-er frame too, for which I'll be also making a frame bag.  I had originally intended to cut each panel out individually but I like how you folded up your design.  I'm also going to order some bright yellow ripstop for the liner.  I can totally see how that will help with finding junk in the bottom of the bag.

I do have one question- how do you figure out the width of the bag?  I mean, how do you estimate how much the bag will bulge in the middle over the width of the strips that go against the frame tubes?  I also notice you did not include a center divider / bulge limiter thingy.  My first project will be for my blur xc.  The TT is real low for the good stand-over height, so the frame bag will be mostly in between my calves.  My knees don't really drop below the TT while pedaling.  It also doesn't really have that narrow of a q-factor.

How much material did you end up using for your project (not counting the re-do).  Like I said I ordered a yard, and I figure that would be plenty with lots left over, but now I'm getting that C'dale frame and that will end up being a bigger bag than the one for the Blur. 

The other design ideas that I've seen, that I would also like to incorporate into my design is to have some mesh pockes.  Maybe on on the inside, and another on the outside...

Sorry for all the questions...

Thanks,
BM

[JReeves]

Nicely done!  We definitely think alike!  I had actually played around with the idea of sewing in a rigid "spine" on my frame bag and bolting it down to the water bottle bosses!  Looks great!!! 

And for the tent pole mounting....  we're on the exact same page!  I wrap mine with a velcro strap to keep them together, and then have velcro inside the pack along the top tube that the wraps just stick to!


--Killer setup Greg!

[unsponsored]

Excellent ideas.

[boddunn]

Hi BM,
 Just thought I'd offer my two penneth worth on a few points; I guessed the width by measuring between my legs while on the bike and comparing that to the widest item I intended to use but in reality you can control the packed width by the way you pack the bag, it's not been an issue at all and in hindsight I'd make it wider.
 I made my bag using a felled seam (think that's the same as a French seam) and it was a nightmare, getting in to the corners neatly to sew the last seam was really hard, next time I won't bother, I used the Thru Hiker Dyneema too and it seems more than man enough for the job without felled seams.
 Hope this helps,
   Matt

[Ultra Magnus]

Hi BM,
 Just thought I'd offer my two penneth worth on a few points; I guessed the width by measuring between my legs while on the bike and comparing that to the widest item I intended to use but in reality you can control the packed width by the way you pack the bag, it's not been an issue at all and in hindsight I'd make it wider.
 I made my bag using a felled seam (think that's the same as a French seam) and it was a nightmare, getting in to the corners neatly to sew the last seam was really hard, next time I won't bother, I used the Thru Hiker Dyneema too and it seems more than man enough for the job without felled seams.
 Hope this helps,
   Matt

thanks- I think I'm getting ready to start on it here soon.  I originally didn't buy any bright colored material for the insides, but it's such a good idea I put of construction until I get some.  And, I forgot to order a waterproof zipper for it, so I'll get that stuff on its way and I'll start construction.  I'll post pics as I go.  Also, I didn't really take into account the movement of my suspension accurately, so I had to do a bit of a rethink in one area.  I don't want ot make it too complicated, but I don't wand the movement of my rear triangle to wear a hole in the bag either.... 

BM

[gregclimbs]

sorry for the delay BM/UM...

most of my steps are outlined here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregclimbs/sets/72157626343131544/

but what I did is this... start out with poster board.  trace the inside triangle of the bike:



from there, you have the chord lengths of each side.



the back I wanted to be roughly the diameter of the seattube.  the front, tapered to 4.5 inches.  so I drew out the rectangle of the rear/seattube panel.  then I drew out the toptube and downtube panels... with the chord lengths as the centerlines, and the width of the seattube as one end and the 4.5" at the other end, then drew in the tapered sides of symmetric trapezoid(s).  The lengths of the seattube, toptube and downtube panels fully define the triangle shape of the side panels.



I cut out all of these cardboard parts, taped them together with cellophane tape and tried to mount the structure in the bike.  This process usually leads to some tweaks in the length and/or shapes that I want to make.



After I do that, I remake the cardboard version with the modifications:



I try to make mine as seamless as possible and cut it out of as few a pieces of material as possible* so I unfold the box as a pattern:



I make my velcro straps as one piece in the pattern too, so the top panel gets expanded:



And this is my final pattern.  It was around this time I came up with the bottle bolts to hold it all on, so I made two of the sides in plastic (I used a "for sale" sign as it seemed the best balance of rigidity, flexability and cost):



Take the pattern, add an inch to work with around the edges, cut the material and get to it (I will leave you to the other tutorials here and elsewhere online to determine how to do the basics).

I learned from my last bag to do the hard parts first, in this case, the zipper and then the hardest corner.  So I attached the zipper, which also mounted the interior liner.  Sew on the velcro, make them into the tabs, sew the liner to the outside thus encasing the plastic, bar tack the bivy pole holders insitu, then button up the bag by sewing the edges.

Then, voila!



I then heated a coat hanger and melted the holes for the water bottle bolts (thus bonding the outside to the inside as well) and got it all mounted up...



If you take a look at the flickr set, I have a bunch of annotations there as well with my thoughts as I went along.

I hope that helps...

g