PeteFree.comArkel Small Handlebar Bag — Review
© 2011 Peter Free
14 September 2011
The Arkel Small Handlebar Bag is ideal for utility and commuter bicycles
This easily removable (carry) handlebar bag is well designed and made of quality materials. And its bracketing system is just adjustable enough to work on less than perfect handlebar situations.
Arkel’s website does an excellent job of delineating the bag’s features here and here.
You can see the 29er bike that I have it mounted on here.
A useful size
The bag is big enough to carry a DSLR cameras (with a “normal” focal length lens), small purses, wallets, keys, eyeglasses, and legal envelopes — all with the top cover closed.
If you leave the top cover open, you can fit men’s shoes, magazines, and letter-sized manila envelopes inside. To secure these, just zip the cover as closed as far as it will go. Arkel sensibly designed the main compartment to open toward the rider, rather than toward the direction of travel. This makes it less likely that partially secured items will fly out.
Arkel’s mount fit — not perfect, but arguably good enough
Given that my application involved “fat” handlebars that immediately begin to slant when leaving the central steering axis, I was pleased that I could get the Arkel to slide on and off its mounting brackets.
Examine the below photograph:
Notice that the Arkel’s brackets, as mounted on my bike, are slightly out of parallel — due to the non-parallel slants of the backward-sweeping Truvativ bars.
Nevertheless, by using automotive grease on the bracket ends, I was able to get the bag to slide on and on without too much binding.
Ideally, Arkel would have —
Mounting
Although Arkel was careful to allow the user to adjust the vertical brackets on the bag laterally, the company did not think to allow swivel adjustment around the vertical axis, as well.
Swivel adjustability would have solved foreseeable binding problems on backward (or forward) sweeping bars.
Map holder
The bag incorporates a permanently attached see-through exterior map holder. It is attached to the front of the bag and folds over to fasten to a velcro patch on the main compartment’s top cover. (You can see it here.)
If you use the map holder, its inclusion is a good idea. If you don’t, it detracts from the bag’s appearance. And the plastic of the map holder reflects skylight into the bike rider’s eyes.
Since I don’t use the map holder, it just gets in the way. To avoid its reflectivity, I have to tuck it into the slender pocket that sits outside and in front of the bag’s main compartment.
Arkel probably should have made the map holder detachable by incorporating a zipper between it and the bag. As it is, cutting the map holder off would probably leave unsightly fabric ends because the edges of the holder’s see-through portion are bound in sewn cloth.
Generally speaking — handlebar bags can turn most recreational/fitness bikes into utility transportation
Handlebar bags can turn most any bike into a convenient errand bike, similar to the Schwinns — which were often equipped with baskets — that some of us used to ride to school in the 1950s and 60s.
Bike-mounted bags reduce the number of instances in which carrying a backpack is necessary. They avoid (a) the sweaty shirt that packs almost always occasion and (b) unnecessary added weight on the rider’s anatomically vulnerable crotch.
Even so simple a thing as carrying a larger-than-pocket sized letter to the Post Office in clear weather can be an inconvenience on a recreational bike that lacks a place to store it safely. Tucking such items into one’s shirt often results in rumpled or sweaty envelopes. Not good, if one is trying to avoid negatively impressing whomever is on the receiving end.
Handlebar bags have the added advantage of being visible to the rider at all times. That means that cyclists can be more confident in putting wallets and keys inside them. No one is going to be able to grab these without being seen.
Arkel Small Handlebar Bag is highly recommended
This bag works really well.
If I lost it, I would immediately buy another one.