Tandem Stoker Handlebar bag

[cisamcgu]

We are off on an inaugral tandem tour at the end of June and were wondering about the logic of the stoker having a barbag rather than the pilot - or indeed having two bags, one infront and one behind. Does anyone have an opinion, advice, inspiration ?

I have looked at the Gilles Berthoud handlebar stoker bag, but it seems very hard to get hold of, and costs over £60 ! Does anyone have any knowledge of this, is it a good idea - is it essential, stupid, redundant ? And what barbags are a sensible choice, if any

Thanks
Andrew

 

[Alex H]

Depends on what bike you have, I suppose. We have a pilot bar bag and a bag that goes on the top of the pannier rack at the back.

Something like this http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/axiom-randonnee-trunk-bag-12-litre-prod30838/ but not that one

 

[srw]

We had a look around, and couldn't find anything suitable. That may be because we didn't look hard enough. The fact that the stem comes towards the stoker means that any barbag has to hang towards the stoker, potentially impacting her knees.

Having said that, several people on the recent Fridays tour had tiny barbags costing them a fiver or so off eBay and attached with velcro - one of those might work.

For dayrides on the fast tandem we tend to use a rackpack on top of the rack - but I can't remember what make. We also have a couple of little tribags - the stoker's is bodged to attach to a little saddlepack rather than the stem. One of those is enough for a couple of power bars or a wallet and a phone. For the touring tandem we have a barbag that fixes using a Klick-Fix quick-release mount onto the captain's bars.

 

[velovoice]

We had a look around, and couldn't find anything suitable. That may be because we didn't look hard enough. The fact that the stem comes towards the stoker means that any barbag has to hang towards the stoker, potentially impacting her knees.

Having said that, several people on the recent Fridays tour had tiny barbags costing them a fiver or so off eBay and attached with velcro - one of those might work.

I've got one of those small barbags as sported by Jenny and others in France last weekend - they're great but would definitely hit my knees on the tandem. The Carradice Zipped Roll is a little smaller but even that would probably hit my knees. Someone has suggested bodging a small seatpack onto the captain's saddle rails + stoker's stem. I may give that a try. It may be a few weeks before I get a chance but I'll report back when I do.

 

[srw]

Depending on the relative heights of stoker and captain and the amount of captian seatpost showing, something fixed to that might work. I'll have a play with a Carradice mount.