Handlebar Bag Mounts??? Cable interference

[Colorado Cool Breeze]

Hi All, I am trying to build a second bikepacking bike one for a little tougher off road/singletrack outing.

When I install this bar bag carrier I noticed it really interferes with the brake and shifter cables.
For those that use this type of front handlebar mount how did you solve this issue?

thanks for any suggestions or ideas.

[adelorenzo]

IME this is a major pain with handlebar bags that nobody seems to talk about much.

Make sure your cables (except the front brake) wrap around the top tube. So the rear shifter should go onto the left side of the bike and vice versa. You can criss-cross the shifter cables underneath the down tube. That should help them wrap in between the bag and the handlebar better. You will probably have to re-cable your bike.

You can even run them behind the handlebars, I did this for a trip last weekend. Come out of the shifter, behind the bar, over the stem and back down the other side. Although this might not work with down tube cables, my bike has top-tube routing.

I also find that with a front bag I can't have my brake levers at the angle that I like them, I need to keep them a little flatter so they don't interfere with the bag.

[bmike-vt]

criss crossing is pretty key for me.
i'm on drops. so while it is easier / harder in some aspects, its just a problem of a different kind.

[Buttermilk]

try high density foam spacers between your bars and the sling. This will give a bit of working room. Put a slit in the foam and run the strap through it. Either run individual ones on each strap or a longer one through both straps (I use a combo). This helped a lot on my set-up and let me keep my brakes where I like them and allowed for a good amount of room for my fingers on the brake levers.

[intheways]

try high density foam spacers between your bars and the sling. This will give a bit of working room. Put a slit in the foam and run the strap through it. Either run individual ones on each strap or a longer one through both straps (I use a combo). This helped a lot on my set-up and let me keep my brakes where I like them and allowed for a good amount of room for my fingers on the brake levers.

Any suggestions on where to find the foam?


For shifter housing, I have been using Nokon cables and the extra flexibility seems helpful

[Buttermilk]

I had some of those garage floor mats and cut some off of it.  maybe a fabric store...

[Slim]

All of the above:

Adjust controls a bit( but not much, don't want to give yourself hand/wrist pain)

Use long cables

Use Nokon cables and Goodridge brake hose, as the are more flexible.

For cables, if you have to, get creative and add a noodle(or two) inline in the housing, after all, those are made to allow sharp bends, and they don't kink.

Use spacers. Balsa might work nice too, they sell that at model/hobby shops.


Good luck!

[Yogi the Barry]

Foam yoga blocks... usually in purple EVA foam...

Any suggestions on where to find the foam?

[Colorado Cool Breeze]

Well, I hope this thread helps other with cable interference when using a handlebar bag mounts. The suggestions posted are great.
My fix however was to sell the handlebar harness and go a different direction. Stopped by J Paks and met with Joe
we tossed a few ideas around. I hope to have picts up by Monday on my solutions for this gravity bike.  Nothing ground breaking just
a couple of his pieces and a few salsa straps.

[Yogi the Barry]

Instead of a bar bag, I wanted to go in the direction of having a custom super big gas tank bag which used up all the wasted space around the head tube [even in front of the head tube] and tapered back to a thin bag as it went along the top tube. Tried three different custom bag makers and everyone denied my request. This type of bag would have avoided all cable issues and not directly impacted steering... Went with a Sweet Roll and made thicker foam spacers. Front brake hose went OVER, not under, the bag. Shift cables and rear brake hose floated in the space made by the foam spacers.
Sweet Roll worked better than I thought it would. Only thing I changed was to move the Sweet Roll wrapping strap buckles to be in front, instead of being buried under the two feed bags I hang off the bars.

...sell the handlebar harness and go a different direction. ...

[Colorado Cool Breeze]

Instead of a bar bag, I wanted to go in the direction of having a custom super big gas tank bag which used up all the wasted space around the head tube [even in front of the head tube] and tapered back to a thin bag as it went along the top tube. Tried three different custom bag makers and everyone denied my request. This type of bag would have avoided all cable issues and not directly impacted steering... Went with a Sweet Roll and made thicker foam spacers. Front brake hose went OVER, not under, the bag. Shift cables and rear brake hose floated in the space made by the foam spacers.
Sweet Roll worked better than I thought it would. Only thing I changed was to move the Sweet Roll wrapping strap buckles to be in front, instead of being buried under the two feed bags I hang off the bars.

Sweet Roll!?!  Ah found it.


That is very similar to what I am doing. Except no sweetroll just a Outdoor Research Dry bag
and 3 salsa straps to the hb and fork. For the front side of the bars I'm adding a Jpaks snakcan and 2 ruksaks.

kinda like this:

[Yogi the Barry]

Snak and Ruks...? Found it...
  http://jpaks.blogspot.com/
Cool that J.Paks is in CO!

...For the front side of the bars I'm adding a Jpaks snakcan and 2 ruksaks.