Rocket Box Handlebar Bag

It’s a randonneur style Frenchie boxy bag made out of old yard signs and a Joe Rocket Ballistic motorcycle suit (hence “Rocket Box”).  I own a VO Campagne and a big Swift Ozette, so I had some idea what I liked and didn’t like in boxy bags before I started.

Considering the fact that it’s made entirely using borrowed coroplast, dental floss, more than lightly used ballistic nylon, hook and string and assembled by needle, pins and channel locks to help push and pull the needle thru the folded nylon and coroplast, this thing is diggity DOPE!

Measuring the bike, the space and shape between the drops, measuring from the bar flats to the top of the rack and knowing I wanted to shorten the depth of the bag an inch from the Ozette so it didn’t overhang the front of the rack, I began.  Recklessly.  Passionately.  Day-drinkingly.  Summer-offishly.  It was super fun.

Coroplast is waterproof, as is duct tape, so building the main box out of 5 pieces of plastic cardboard was a simple and obvious choice for making the basic waterproof shape of the “bag”.  I’ve seen pictures of a plain coroplast box used on a front rack for months or maybe years without issue*, so I was tempted to stop here and see how it worked.

*If I’m describing something you made, please comment 🙂

The temptation passed.

I wanted sexier.  Frenchier.

More radderer.

The finished bag has been super useful.  All 5 pockets on the bag came from pockets on the original motorcycle jacket and are HUGE.  The side pockets are double pockets accessible from the top and rear (see pictures below).  The front pocket is what was the rear vent flap and even has a reflective strip across the top!  The rear or rider facing pockets were cut and folded together from the long strip pocket along the bottom booty of the jacket.

Total cost was $3 for floss, tho I found out too late we had leftover stuff my wife doesn’t like ’cause its too waxy.  So it could’ve been free dollars.  November 2nd just came and past, so I’ll bet yard signs are plentiful in most places.  Goodwill or similar for a motorcycle jacket.  Duct tape?  Needle and some pins?  Not using a pattern, pinning schtuff to the box and sewing right into the box was essential, but what I’m getting at is – do it.  If you’re reading this and have any interest, you could pull this together.  Give it a go!

Swift, Gilles Berthoud, RuthWorks (fo real real, check RuthWorks for the crazy beauty and goodness) and others make some sweet stuff, but if you’ve more time than money or are just feeling crafting on the couch in the evenings… yea.  Dimensions on this particular bag are 11.5″ H x 10.5″ W x 8.5″ D.  The bag tapers slightly towards the top to make a bit more room for hands on the bars, so the top opening is 9″ W x 8″ D.  Customizing the bag to fit your application and bike dimensions is prolly the best part of a DIY bag like this.  I think.

         

Even more pictures here