Cost effectiveness of MYOB?

[zuren]

Considering something like a Revelate or Porcelain Rocket is $160-180, how cost effective is making your own bag with similar fabric and features?  I'm curious if there is significant savings or if it is more about going custom. 

I learned a long time ago that building your own stuff (bikes, fishing rods) rarely saves you money overall (even when assuming your time is free), it simply gives you the features you want out of the gate.

Just curious what experienced builders have to say!

Thanks!   

[Adam Alphabet]

If you've never made gear before and you simply want a single frame bag and be done with it, get Scott (Porcelain Rocket) to build you one. He's the best in the game by far and you'll receive a finely crafted piece of custom kit you won't have to worry about and will look awesome.

If you're wanting to get into the hobby of making gear and want to apply energy and time into learning and making, order up some material and go nuts. With many places requiring minimum 1 (linear) yard orders your minimum order will be enough to make a whole kit or multiple frame bags.

[roadpacker]

If you've never made gear before, go ahead and make it! I had never even sewn a thing before, and i had some extra tough gore-tex (in camo, no less) from a military bivvy sack. I watched a youtube video and hand-sewed, with dental floss and an old needle, a framebag that works great and has held up for the past year. Needs a patch where it has rubbed a hole on the bolts where the bottle cage used to be. But saved me a chunk of dough, taught me a skill, etc.

I've now sewn a custom bedroll bag and also a tiny triangle bag for spare tubes and little bits. It's a good skill, just take a crack at it. Total cost for all my projects: about $8, for the webbing that I already had and some 1.5" buckles for the front bag. Total cost for buying them all individually: about $150 for the bedroll, $160 for the frame bag, and $40 for the tiny bag, or $350 total thanks to $1.50 dental floss and some spare time and fabric. The cool thing about this too is you end up with a box of fabric, webbing, buckles and stuff and you can just make different stuff. Do a cost analysis on specific fabrics if you must. Otherwise just use what you have. Fight the man, and fight consumerism. Teach yourself to fish, don't be beggin' for fish all day. Your money is your blood!!

[sean salach]

Unless you have a decent ability to sew right off the bat, you won't get 'all of the features' that the pros I'm familiar with give you. The semi quote was because without an industrial sewing machine, or at least a really high quality one, it's going to be very difficult to replicate some of the features they give you.

For a basic bag, if you're relatively crafty, you can definitely save money making it yourself, especially if you want to make other things as well. You'll probably be looking at upwards of $40-50 for the same fabrics they use , $20-25 for zippers, velcro and other things, $10 for needles and thread, $30-50 for a usable garage sale sewing machine. You can save a lot of money by going with less fancy fabrics, or even repurposing the fabric and hardware off of old clothes or duffel bags. If you plan on making a lot of stuff in the future, a nicer sewing machine might be worth spending more, but you should be able to make a lot of stuff with a basic one from craigslist or a garage sale.

[Racingguy04]

I already had a machine, thanks to my wife, but had no sewing experience when I started, but for $5 of fabric, I learned, and then made 2 frame bags with $50 of fabric, zippers, and velcro from rocky woods. Honestly, I think it's worth making your own frame bag, since you usually need a custom bag which cost $150ish retail. I bought a revelate harness and seat bag and they are fantastic, so I'd bet that their bags, or someone else's frame bags would be well polished as well. Where as my bags are definitely an amateur effort.

A frame bag was the first piece of gear I made, but because I learned to sew, I've made several other bike bags, several storage/stuff sacks, mended several pieces of clothing, and I'm working on an ultralight sil-nylon tarp. It's fun and satisfying to make gear, And I feel proud of the gear I make and more self sufficient.

So,  I think it depends on what your ratio of time and money are. If you're short on time, but have some spare cash, I think it's worth it to buy a bag. If your a student or have plenty of time, but not tons of spare cash, I think it's worth making some bags. However, I think some bags are worth buying, I would have spent more on materials just trying to make a suitable seatbag than it cost me to buy one from revelate.

[fotooutdoors]

From a cost perspective, I found that making a frame and handlebar bag were a net gain, since neither require r&d. Personally, I have yet to make a really solid seat bag, so I figure I will probably have the iterations before it is really solid, so that is 3x the material cost.

Ultimately bike bags' primary cost is for labor, not materials, unlike, say, a bicycle. So if you enjoy sewing our have time, you can come out ahead on the expense side

Sent from a one-finger keyboard...pardon my autocorrect

[dream4est]

My take on MYOG is this:
If you are a very analytical person, have small motor skills, see designs in your head 3D and then can engineer/sew them go for it. If you are going to simply copy existing bags from a design standpoint IMO it makes no sense to try to outdo Revelate or Nuke Sunrise or Bolder Bikepack or Phantom Pack or the rest. Your attempts at copying the bags will take many iterations and cost more than just buying those guys bags. And they wont work as well. Sway and wear points will be worse than with stock offerings.

My gear works really well and I have no sway or play and love the performance of my own designs. However I still have wear point issues. Each new model fixes that a bit but without serious extra protective paneling (which requires more complex sewing) I will still have some minor wear issues. Mainly in the seat bag and harness I have those issues. I go for the lighter weight/less complex top stitch designs, which lends itself to wear point issues. The big boys have most of that all figured out with reinforced areas.

My bags weigh a lot less than the usual suspects, but wear out quicker. I am willing to accept that, but if I didnt get materials cheap (wholesale) I wouldnt do it. And remember that buckles, webbing , zippers etc are where the real cost lies, not the material. No wholesale deals there usually.

[ROADHOG]

Cut out a cardboard box, like a cereal box with wider flanges to fit the space you’re filling. Use the disassembled box for patterns.

Wrap fabric around box n tape. Glue flanges with Weldwood Red, Loctite adhesive. Sew thru unglues areas or thru glued areas driving a nail hole then threading thru.

Fabrics n hardware available at Seattle Fabrics online.

Roam local thrifts, esp Salvation Army, for discarded bags n packs for use able pockets, zippers, straps, hardware…almost free, ready to sew on your creation.

'Sew' a rain cover.

No machine necessary only patience.

[Whistle]

Roam local thrifts, esp Salvation Army, for discarded bags n packs for use able pockets, zippers, straps, hardware…almost free, ready to sew on your creation.



No machine necessary only patience.

Check that Roadhog ... My best creations have been modified "thrift shop"

or Boot fair finds ... and keep all the bits ... always useful for the next project !!!

Makes new gear cheap as chips !!!

Cheers Whistle

[ROADHOG]

 Plans were launching a DIY bag video but I'm out of available time trying to wrap up before stuff here for an Alaskan trip. Next winter !

DIY bag is good for the head, good for road skills, good for road karma.

Dream4est is on about development but at $160 for a purse surly DIY can go one better in materials and focus. Then he may have procedure backwards..that DIY produces the cutting edge.

Bikepacking isn't racing with speed/durability/winning as an end but experiencing. Going DIY with SOMETHING supports the means.

Your info has me poisoned with ultra lightness. Now I wince moving my steel cyclocrosser but then riding I forget.

[2morrow]

I found it to be very cost effective. I made a seat bag, frame bag, and fuel tank all for under $70. I still have left overs to probably make one of everything again if necessary so really I could have done it in closer to $35. I was fortunate that I only had to make one seat bag before getting it right on the second try. But the time it took was significant.