Having only last June taken up commuting again, after several years since earlier efforts, which weren't long sustained, I'm still discovering the finer points of front bags. In The Day, my wife and I would use the old Cannondale nylon front bags mounted on metal hangers that hooked over the bars for occasional day trips. I may still have a couple of those somewhere, but this time I've wanted to go with front bags a bit better.
On the Romic tourer, I'm using a Carradice boxy bag mounted on the Nitto bar-mounted carrier, both of which had sat unused in the parts bin for several years.
But some other bikes I have equipped with front racks and intend to use rack-supported front bags. I've mounted on the Assenmacher custom tourer the Nitto M12 rack that mounts to the cantilever bosses. With it I'm using the very nice CA-made Acorn randonneur front bag. I bought a couple of Berthoud decaleurs fom Mike Kone, but I find even the short reach Berthoud decaleurs I bought are too long. On this bike, which is a 53 or 54 cm frame, even though the Acorn is not a terribly large front bag, the top of the bag is only just below handlebar level. Also, with the loop on the back of the bag secured to the vertical hoop at the rear of the Nitto rack, the bag is only slightly forward of the bars, such the the distance from the stem binder bolt to the section of the bag where a decaleur would attach is quite short, much too short even for the shorter of the Berthoud decaleurs.
I wound up making my own decaleur, using pieces from the hardware store. For the piece that attaches to the bag I used a door sill plate, which is a piece of flat aluminum stock, pretty light, but stiff enough to stabilize the bag. One might also use a similar piece of AL flat stock used to join two sections of flooring. To connect to the stem, I used hanger strap, used to secure pipes or roof drains. I used the copper type, which looks better than galvanized. By doubling it over, it is stiff enough to stabilize the bag, but still can be bent to the proper shape to connect the bag to the stem.
Anyone else resorted to a homemade decaleur when the commercial ones didn't fit? Is it more common having trouble fitting commercial decaleurs on somewhat smaller frames? What I did not try was the undrilled stem-bolt mounted version of the Velo Orange decaleur. Since one cuts and drills this to fit, it might have been adapted to the rather tight space on the Assenmacher.
Can anyone share their experience as to just how necessary a decaleur really is? The Acorn bag is thoughtfully designed with a leather loop on the rear of the bag that hooks securely over the hoop at the rear of the rack, while four velcro fasteners secure the bottom of the bag to the rack. Even without the homebrew decaleur, this bag wasn't going to fall off, though perhaps the decaleur would prevent the bag swaying a bit when heavily loaded.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA