Monday, July 27, 2009

Chrome Mods

On Friday's I give my self the luxury to spend a bit of time on my own gear. I feel like its the shop equivalent of surfing the internet. Usually appearance goes out the window and I just try to get things functional again. This day it was my faithful Chrome Messenger bag.

I've had this thing for about 5 years now, if you cant afford a re-load, Pac or some of the other more custom bags, they are pretty nice. My first gripe though was the lack of padding under the big (heavy) buckle and the lack of reflective stuff on the back so I added this pad under it, with a lower cross strap attachment point and sewed on some 3m tape - note the hack job dating the sewing skills 5 years ago...


Friday though I wanted the bag to hold more volume. This 5" vinyl flap extension was the end result:


For some reason Chrome does not have reflective tape, or blinky light attachments, that's been fixed too. I also chopped off the lower straps and added about 12", and now I can run straps through the loops on the flap to attach more crap to.

Next up is replacing the oh so hip & stylish, but oh so heavy chrome buckle - the people I wack this thing with on airplanes are going to rejoice for sure.

3 comments:

fxdwhl said...

If the need should ever arise, I'd highly reccomend one of their backpacks as well. I've sworn off single strap bags forever after tiring of a twisted spine and compressed lungs when touting a heavy load.

cornfed said...

Oh, one with magical skills...

Would you take a bag in for some alterations? I've been loving and using my North Face Base Camp messenger bag for 3 years now and love it but it also lacks reflective striping and a blinky band. (could use an ED badge too).

I've been using reflective tape and it serves the purpose but doesn't stick on too long. Pretty cheap to replace though.

Timbuk2 offers reflective panels, but not really an option to put them where you'd want them (depending on load), plus they don't offer the lid pocket options my North face has or the full zip feature. Alas...

I've often dreamed of the luxury of an ED bag, if you ever need a Guinea pig for testing, I'm there for ya. :-)

-Thad

Unknown said...

What do you think Specialized thinks about these guys ...
http://epicbicycles.com/
Hope you are having a blast in Colorado!
You definitely need to get back in your buttboat next summer ... we are finding a number of gems this fall!
Cheers,
J.T.