Camera Bag/Handlebar Bag Hack
 

I dunno if anybody else has ever done this. Found this camera bag at the thrift store for $3. Even has a built in rain cover. I might eventually replace the zip ties with toe straps. Holds quite a bit of stuff. Will see how it does over time, worked pretty nice today.

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Forgot to take a pic of the inside. That’s a 16oz insulated travel mug, cable lock and padlock and keys, wallet, spare tube in the box, phone - and there’s still room for a couple Allen keys, a mini pump, a sandwich, and stuff a pair of gloves on top and it’ll still zip closed. Nice because it opens toward me, i.e. I can easily open and access the contents without having to get off my bike. Like while I’m stopped. It almost looks like a handlebar bag. I like it. I hope it lasts a while. Maybe toe straps will make it easy to take on and off. Or carabiners. Or something like that. If it doesn’t work, no biggie. I still have my backpack and usually wear it anyway. This time of year the backpack is a welcome extra layer.

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Holy **** dude, you scored big time. I wish my thrift store had something like that for $3. Nice hack.

I do the same, just have the bag supported on a front rack. Camera bags are great cheap handlebar bags, good ones with side pockets and compartments are barely $30 on Amazon.

Nice find!
Not to denigrate the effort, I spent time and effort looking for a camera bag for a small digital, better than my phone cam but not as big/heavy as a full frame digital 35mm, that I could carry along on rides. A member pointed me towards this..

Topeak Compact Handlebar Bag

​​​​​​...not $3 by any means, but a second bracket/base allows swapping between my two bikes instantly. If you have a similar need, might be worth checking out.

I found a kalahari insert that fits in the Ortlieb L Ultimate handlebar bag, at my local camera store. Oddly, Kalahari is made by the same company as Ortlieb. I don't know where the insert is made though, probably the far east. The rounded bottom fits perfectly to the form of the Ultimate.
The S size is the one that fits:
https://www.kalahari.de/accessoires/...eins%C3%A4tze/

I think it was $10-$15. It has a top flap, which the Ortlieb camera insert dangerously omits. However, the top flat only has 2 tiny velcro closures. So I stitched another velcro strap all the way across the top to keep it more secure. It also comes with 2 internal dividers (my photo shows an extra one that I took from a different bag).

Oh, and I found that the clip end of the shoulder strap on my Ortlieb Ultimate sometimes dangerously falls off. So I wrapped the clip with a string with a quick release clamp. So it can't fall off anymore.

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string wrapped around the end of the shoulder strap clip to prevent it from falling off.
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Effort not at all denigrated, I have 2 bikes and the one pictured with the hack is my 2nd bike. I’m seeing it as a cheap opportunity to test the waters for a handlebar bag long-term. I’ve generally used a backpack and or/rack and pannier. A handlebar bag a little smaller than this camera bag even would suffice for most of the trips I currently make by bike.

I still miss my 35mm equivalent digital Nikon. It's pretty d@mn heavy. I'm going to try a rear rack with another Topeak bag. The shock bothers me a bit so a good deal of padding is likely in order.

I’ve been using handle bar bags for years and they are very handy and wouldn’t be without one.

My first rear rack bag was a fishing tackle bag I found for not much more than $3 many, many years ago. When I needed to replace it, I went shopping for a camera/video camera bag, but was turned off by how expensive they were in the camera shops.

I love extending the lives of outmoded non-bicycle items by somehow using them on my bike. Your camera bag - especially with the rain cover(!) - is a spectacular find.

Nice! I wanted to put a handle bar bag on my 12-speed...but with interupter/ross brakes on the top-bar I coundn't figure it out. The vamera bag with its side tabs and rear loop may jusr work!

Thanks for posting!

I think the zip ties are fine. And even better, they sell reusable zip ties.

https://www.cabletiesandmore.com/rel...BoCSl0QAvD_BwE

I mounted the bag to my other bike. It’s been a few weeks I guess and I’m still using it every day. The rain cover works pretty well. Having the front rack to support it is pretty nice but also moves it up and forward in relation to the handlebars, blocking part of my headlight beam. I zip tied this little 200lm aaa flashlight to the front rack and it helps. I don’t go riding at night for fun in the winter, and my commute is only 15 minutes so I’m not worried about having to change batteries too often. I’ve thought about taking the front rack off this bike several times but I just like having it so much. I bought a couple carabiners to experiment with, for now just have them clipped through the loops on the bag to the rack. They do rattle a little bit but not enough to drive me nuts, and they hold the back and bottom of the bag in place pretty well. I have a braided paracord lanyard I was looking at that made me wonder if I could braid some straps to specific lengths and use carabiners or rings or something to facilitate a quick release. So with the carabiners now included I have $4 invested. So far so good.
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Well it turns out my thrift store did have a camera bag for around $3 ($3.41 all told). It's in place now held by 3 small bungie cords, two to the bars and one around the stem, all hooked into where the bag's shoulder strap used to go. The longest part of setting it up was using a permanent Sharpie to make the color match my frame. I wouldn't mind it being larger and I'd love a flat top and map pocket, but there's not much more room in front anyway, and you gotta start somewhere. Pretty cool idea, thanks for suggesting it @Phamilton .

I have front canti brakes and the bag is touching the cable. I don't think that'll impact the brakes but the bag may not wear well. No front rack, I'll just have to see how that goes.


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I can't call this a hack, but a member put me on to this bag. Bought a second mount so I can easily move it to either of my bikes. Perfect for my Nikon B500 and phone.

https://www.google.com/shopping/prod...:1,prmr:3,cs:1

re: the map pocket, I want one, too but I’d never use it. I like the irony of using a touring bike for everything BUT touring.