Craptacular8

For the items you're looking to pack, would Revelate Design's mountain feed bag work if the smaller sized frame bag doesn't? I got the VO Croissant seat bag to use to carry the items you mention, but I've got more clearance than what I'm seeing on your bike. I have a Revelate gas tank on a gravel bike that I typically use for multi tool/tube, phone, small snack, but it won't hold any layers if I've got that stuff in there, and certainly not enough food for most of the self supported longer gravel rides. I'd need to have tools/tube in a traditional seat bag, phone in my jersey pocked to have a compressible wind break/arm warmers in there, and still wouldn't have room for snacks, if I didn't have room enough for the VO Croissant bag.

Witterings

I use a Blackburn Outpost which are worth having a look at and no rub at all, it'd drive me nuts of it did but again I'm not packing it until the sides are forced out.

Only thing I don't like about a frame bag is, we've had an awful lot of strong wind recently and if you're sideways into it you can feel it catches the wind and the bike gets swayed slightly.

79pmooney

Is it going to potentially alter your riding style (probably unconsciously) as you ride, just perhaps altering your foot/knee relationship to something your knees cannot tolerate.

The answer - probably not. But if it does, there is the possibility that this will not show up until deep into that long day and the damage is done. I broke the "rules" of allowable injustices to my knees 40 years ago on one 100 mile flat ride. I have been paying for that ever since and will until I either die or get knee replacements.

So again, probably not an issue for you. But, just returning the bag and taking a different approach (and the good thing is there are many) and you know it won't happen. Another approach, be the engineer who devises a way to use that bag with no knee interference. Maybe take a "Speedy Stitcher" and put some very loose stitches between the two sides so in the line of your knees, the sides are only (say) 1.5" apart. Yes, this will affect stowage and usefulness. But happy knees can be worth that and far more. Trust me!

Ben

TimothyH

The solution isn't to modify an ill fitting bag but to get one which fits the frame in the first place.

Just get the right bag. Problem solved. That's all.

Sell the old one. Relevate bags are wildly popular. Ask $15 less than new and it will be gone.

Nejat

If my knee rub it would make me go crazy. Like the others mentioned, I too would sell the bag and find a better fitting one.

ksryder

Sounds like you've reached the same conclusion I did but it didn't take you as long as it took me.

Speaking of DK - I rand a JANDD frame bag my first DK. I also WAY WAY WAY over-packed. Too much food, spare parts, etc. I didn't know what to expect so I overcompensated.

In addition to rubbing my knees if I over-packed it, that was the infamous muddy year of the DK and I found out that frame bags make it really hard to shoulder your bike as you're slogging through three miles of mud.

Finally settled on spare parts in a saddle bag (tubes, tool, levers, etc.,) and food on a small gas tank bag. (I also tried the Revelate mountain feed bag but my knees hit it when I climbed out of the saddle).

The gas tank bag is more than sufficient - Even if a race is 200 miles, usually I only need to pack enough food for 50-60 miles until the next checkpoint/gas station/whatever. I also found out that I need a lot less food than I thought -- basically there's a limit to how much calories the body can process in an hour so eating more than that is pointless. So I only need food for 50 miles, which is roughly four hours, which for me = 8 medjool dates.

As far as a windshell or jacket -- I just stuff it in my jersey pocket.

hman0217

well that's certainly re-assuring. To be clear, I'm not even doing the Dirty Kanza but the Rasputitsa Gravel Race: https://www.rasputitsagravel.com. It's only 45 miles, rather than 200 miles, though with far gnarlier terrain (albeit no flint to cut up the tires)

I appreciate all the other replies, including getting a smaller frame bag. But if the tank bag/tube bag/jersey pocket combo works for 50-60 miles of riding, then I'm gonna run with that. (was able to return my too-large tangle bag for full price. It still had the tags and it was in mint condition)

I think I'll revisit the frame bag idea should I build up an adventure mountain bike-packer setup in the future.

Thanks again

Nachoman

+1. It would be like a click or squeak on steroids.

3949dxer

I have a Revelate frame pack and really like it, but sometimes it rubs and often it feels a little too close. Ive found that fastening all the straps very tightly kind of stretches it out though, which minimizes the problem.

one4smoke

What size bag is it, the large at 21"? How long is your top tube in inches?

Edit to add: Can you tell me exactly how wide your bag is, as it doesn't give that particular measurement on the Tangle Sizing chart. I've been considering an Apidura frame bag, and they are 2.3" wide.

one4smoke

Ben, can you elaborate on that statement a bit more please? As someone that's having minor (as of now) knee issues, I'm very curious.

Milton Keynes

Or when you need to carry the real necessities:

hman0217

The bag, which was a medium, was 19.75" long. The top tube, measured along the bottom from the inside of the head tube to inside of the seat tube, is 20". For that reason, I thought medium would make sense but I guess you gotta go quite a bit smaller than the actual top tube length.

The width is tricky to measure because it's really a function of how much you stuff it. Empty, it is less than two inches wide. When stuffed, it can bulge to well over 3 inches.

Hope that helps.

hman0217

Now that's pretty sweet! (though I'm not sure how it would endure a bumpy ride.)

At any rate, Here's the bike with a top tube bag and a saddle bag. Looks a bit funky right now, but The rack will come off for the gravel ride. I find I can store all the necessities for a 50-mile ride in these two little areas, my pump is below my top tube and I have over a quart of water below. Think I'll be set without a half-frame bag.

FML123

I bought a small Revelate Tangle a few months ago, for a small size (51cm) cyclocross bike. I’m 5’6-1/2” (169cm). On test rides in my apartment parking lot my knees kept rubbing (I ride slightly knees-in), so I never really wanted to ride with it mounted. Yesterday I rode about 50km with it and I was pleasantly surprised to discover my knees more or less auto-adjusted after 1 km or so, and the frame bag never bothered me after that. My knees would occasionally lightly brush the bag, but not enough to annoy (and I get annoyed easily!). So now I can get my frame pump off the down tube and also load it with a rolled-up windbreaker, wallet, and oversized cellphone. I did have to get a bottle cage adapter to mount the cage lower, and a side-entry cage, which eased access to my bottle.

79pmooney

Do you ride in expensive clothes? Tights? Rain pants? Knee warmers? That rubbing could add up to $$s cost. Or will you be riding with your knees furhter apart, perhaps bringing on knee issues that might have otherwise lay dormant another decade or two?

Just stuff to consider.

Edit: I see I said the same and more further up the page last year.

Ben

Koyote

This post reminds me of why I prefer handlebar bags. Sure, there may be a slight aero penalty -- but not that much, really. And they are so much easier to use.

Spoonrobot 

Handlebar bags have an aero and handling penalty that is not insignificant.

You have the right size bag, you just packed it wrong and/or have a different riding posture than works with the bag. If it's the former, pack the narrow, dense items like tools/tubes/etc at the rear so there's no bulge. Clothes and such that can be stuffed into the bag go in the front where extra width won't rub. If it's the latter, you can get a smaller bag but generally it won't solve the issue as packed wrongly the smaller bags will still budge even under tension.

wphamilton

I used a frame bag for a while - a couple of years maybe - for commuting. Probably larger than yours since I carried a change of clothes and sometimes lunch. I could adjust to the width but eventually it was a deal-killer. My knees normally are very close to the top tube and it did force me to compensate.

In more aggressive riding, or hypothetically racing, I wouldn't want it interfering with my concentration or mechanics.

A small triangle frame bag at the seat tube side could probably carry that stuff without rubbing.