Advice please carradice bagman qr

moorjohn

Hi, I'm thinking of getting one of these, and I want to know if I can remove the bag support bit, so I'm left with just the qr bag loops.

That way I can have a little cape roll for the short trips, and put back the support when I want to take the kitchen sink in my carradice cadet/nelson.

I've seen some pictures on the web, and there look to be a couple of allen key type bolts which secure the support loop. Is there anyone out there with a bagman who can confirm that removal of bolts allows easy removal of bag support.

(I rang carradice and their answer message goes, "Thankyou for your call, there is no-one available to take it at the moment, and you cannot leave a message, so please ring later." I'm kind of glad in a way. They seem to have good products, and I wouldn't want to distract them...)

thanks for your help folks

PHcp

You could, but you wouldn't want to.
As you thought, the support is held in the block by two small grub screws, it's a hard enough job keeping these in place without frequent removal. I have two, a QR and a standard, one still holding with threadlock, the other needed Araldite.
It'd be a lot easier to remove the whole thing when not in use, just one large allen screw.
Won't your cape roll go straight on the saddle?

moorjohn

thanks PHcp, that's exactly the information I needed.

I probably could fix the cape roll to the saddle rails. Shame to lose the qr option, though I suppose there's always the buckles.

D'you have any other comments on 'Bagmen'? - do the little qr pins stand up ok to the strain of having a big bag bumping up and down on them?

I wondered a bit how the bag was fixed to the support loops. I guess you loop the seatpost buckle around the 2 vertical parts of the bag support.

Cheers for the info anyway - I'll probably get the different bits and see if I can bodge the cape roll to the saddle directly.

Moorjohn

andrew_s

The support does remove quite easily. I've done it on the bike with the rack fitted as the support was close enough to the rack to be pretty noisy on bumpy roads.

If you were going to be removing the support regulary, I'd suggest putting a couple of notches into the support using a dremel or drill. The ends of the grubscrews or of replacement bolts can then sit in the notches and do a proper job of fixing the support.
Note that the support is pretty hard stuff, and doesn't drill easily. Take care to get the notches in the correct place.
I did the above with the Bagman QR on the other bike, and have had no problems with the support coming out since.

The pins are plenty strong enough. I would recommend loctiting the little trigger rods that you release them with, as if the trigger fell out, the pin would probably go missing shortly after.

paul_smith_srcc

This may help clarify, pictures taken today (as Carradice have upadted the QR model), the QR realeases like this:



Where as the standard version looks like this:



Paul_Smith
www.bikeplus.co.uk

moorjohn

thanks Paul. good pictures!

I went for the bagman, + v. happy with it, tho' haven't done any long rides yet, and haven't tried removing the supports just to take the cape roll.

I had to move the saddle back about 1cm to get the fitting onto the rails, so took the opportunity to get a shorter stem to compensate. The bike is startlingly easier to control, especially when out of the saddle. Guess I had too much weight over the front wheel before.

thanks for your help