bike messenger bags?

what is the deal with bike messenger/courier bags?

i mean, with the one strap slung diagonally across your chest.

how are they better than a regular backpack?

seems to me like they would always be trying to rotate
so that the pack would be in your way.

wle.

Quick access. It's a pain to either reach into a back pack or take i
off to get the required item out

--
CommuterSteve

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 13:33:01 -0700, wle wrote:

what is the deal with bike messenger/courier bags?

i mean, with the one strap slung diagonally across your chest.

how are they better than a regular backpack?

seems to me like they would always be trying to rotate
so that the pack would be in your way.

Mine has a strap that connects from the other side to hold it in place.
They are easier to get things out of than regular backpacks.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | And what if you track down these men and kill them, what if you
_`\(,_ | killed all of us? From every corner of Europe, hundreds,
(_)/ (_) | thousands would rise up to take our places. Even Nazis can't
kill that fast. -- Paul Henreid (Casablanca).

"wle" wrote in message
om...
what is the deal with bike messenger/courier bags?

i mean, with the one strap slung diagonally across your chest.

how are they better than a regular backpack?

seems to me like they would always be trying to rotate
so that the pack would be in your way.

wle.

Well. the higher end messenger bags usually have a waist strap also. Cuts
down on rotation. I have one made by Ogio, and it doesn't have the waist
strap. It does rotate, but it's nothing too awful. Most I have to do is
throw it back over my shoulder while taking off from a stop. I use it when I
get my mail, or run small errands. It holds a surprising amount. I keep a
cable lock in the outside pocket, and it even has a pocket for a phone. I've
had two 2 liter bottles of soda plus chips and stuff in it. It gets a bit
uncomfortable when carrying that heavy a load. That's probably due to my
bag's design. Chrome makes a cool looking bag, and their chest strap is two
seat belt halves connected with a seat belt buckle. How cool is that? :-)

Mike

gooserider wrote:
Chrome makes a cool looking bag, and their chest strap is two
seat belt halves connected with a seat belt buckle. How cool is that? :-)

it's cool right up to the point where someone figures out they can drop
your entire load just by hitting one convenient well placed chrome button.

besides it's kind of a poorly heavy point on the bag .. if i use it i'm
pretty likely to whack my toptube with it. i prefer the plastic buckle the
older kozmo chrome bags had.
--
david reuteler

In article ,
CommuterSteve
wrote:

access. It's a pain to either reach into a back pack or take it off to
get the required item out.

What Commuter Steve said. Having used both backpacks and courier bags on
short trips, I can confirm that a courier bag is generally an immense
pain. But for actual couriers, fast access via the big flap is much more
important.

Given the choice, I use my pannier. When I'm riding the race bike, I use
a backpack. I don't use a shoulder bag on the bike under normal
circumstances.

Used to be a motorcycle courier; used a hella big shoulder bag,
--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.wiredcola.com
Verus de parvis; verus de magnis.

Ryan Cousineau wrote:

Having used both backpacks and courier bags on
short trips, I can confirm that a courier bag is generally an immense
pain. But for actual couriers, fast access via the big flap is much more
important.

Given the choice, I use my pannier. When I'm riding the race bike, I use
a backpack. I don't use a shoulder bag on the bike under normal
circumstances.

Used to be a motorcycle courier; used a hella big shoulder bag,


On a workday I wear my courier bag
usually about ten hours, and don't take
it off one single time, not even for
lunch.

When I get home and need to get groceries,
I ditch the sling for a backpack. It's not
that the courier bag won't carry the load--
if it held half as much it would still be too
much--it's just that the backpack carries
it better.

Unlike courier bags, there seems to be
a large variance in the way different
brands/styles of backpacks fit and feel.
And, with both courier sacks and back
packs, the configuration of the items
in the pack, the distribution of the load,
will have a massive influence on how the
pack fits and feels.

Panniers would be nice, but imo if you
like to do long trail rides, it pays to wear
a backpack all the time, even if you
don't really need it. Don't give your
back a taste of freedom.

Robert

I've been riding with my circa 1995 timbuktu bag quite a long time and
I like it a lot.

Backpacks can be dangerous on a bike -- they tend to flip back and
forth in time with my cadence and really mess with my balance. If you
wear a courier bag properly it wont turn around. I think that most
people wear them too low on their backs. I wear mine so that the bag
itself goes over my left shoulder a little bit. The other big
advantage of a bag, in my opinion, is that it doesn't try to flop over
your head when you are down in the drop bars. A backpack with any
weight tends to work its way up to rest on my head, while my bag,
cinched just right, stays put.

If you go for a timbuktu bag, be sure to put a d-ring in the strap loop
under the buckle... it makes it much easier to tighten the bag up in
the saddle.

The one downside of wearing my bag this way is that it blocks a bit of
my over the left should visibility, but not in a terrible way.

n9 wrote:
The one downside of wearing my bag this way is that it blocks a bit of
my over the left should visibility, but not in a terrible way.

yea .. that sucks. if i had it to do over i'd buy my chrome bag w/ the
right shoulder option.
--
david reuteler

In article ,
"n9" wrote:

I've been riding with my circa 1995 timbuktu bag quite a long time and
I like it a lot.

Backpacks can be dangerous on a bike -- they tend to flip back and
forth in time with my cadence and really mess with my balance. If you
wear a courier bag properly it wont turn around. I think that most
people wear them too low on their backs. I wear mine so that the bag
itself goes over my left shoulder a little bit. The other big
advantage of a bag, in my opinion, is that it doesn't try to flop over
your head when you are down in the drop bars. A backpack with any
weight tends to work its way up to rest on my head, while my bag,
cinched just right, stays put.

Well, perhaps it is the same deal: a properly-worn backpack won't
misbehave either. I find my moderately hefty backpack (which I was using
on my weekly 80 km "ride-to-the-race" sojourns) gave me no trouble even
on my race bike. Perhaps I need to drop my handlebars more .

The one downside of wearing my bag this way is that it blocks a bit of
my over the left should visibility, but not in a terrible way.

There's a pretty clear difference of opinion here. It may be that packs
and shoulder bags, like bike saddles, are a personal matter.

--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.wiredcola.com
Verus de parvis; verus de magnis.