oysters wrote:Kai Ming; I like the look of your large touring saddlebag. Can you provide more details? How much does that Aluminium frame weigh? How much weight can it handle?
That is one of Kai-ming's original designs too.
How much does that Aluminium frame weigh? - I have never weight it, I thing it is light.
Can you provide more details? - It is basically a hoop made of aluminium flat bars with an inverted u-shape piece fixed to the saddle rails. The interesting bit I think actually is a bag-shape net (made out of a fishing net) which I fixed to the aluminium hoop. The opening of net bag is open/close by an elastic rope with a retainer so that things can be put in/out handily, and you can see what things that are in the net bag. The deep blue bag in the net bag that you can see in the picture is a water-proof bag (one that is used for swimming gears) for storing things like camera, electric stuffs and clothing to avoid getting wet. That bike is now in a bikes house away from where I live, I may take more pictures and weight the rack when I go there next time.
How much weight can it handle? - I think it can handle at least 20lbs. With the luggage in , when I pedal hard out of the seat I can feel the rack/luggage swing a little at the back, that mean the support there is a little flimsy. After the usage of two years, the aluminium inverted u-shape piece that is fixed to the saddle rails broke during a ride. It is then replaced by a piece made from thicker brass flat bar which is a lot stronger, no problem since then.