Has anyone tried the new Carradice "Classic Saddlebag Rack"?

[rabbit]

Thank you, that's great 

[Cudzoziemiec]

The Super C Audax is the same size as the Barley, just a bit posher, isn't it? I attach my Barley to the saddle loops - actually a steel (supposedly steel, I suspect it's really cast iron) clamp, cos I have a normal person saddle rather than an olde worlde one with a tweaker in the nose* - and the seat post. Works fine, but as Deano says, can swing a bit, depending on how it's loaded and other random factors. Sometimes you can actually hear it creaking as it sways. Unless that's my hip. The other thing is it sometimes rubs the back of my thighs - this mostly happens when it's been leaning against a wall and one end of the saddlebag has got squashed up.

*In as far as any of us are normal person... 

[drossall]

Can you attached an Audax SuperC saddlebag to the saddle without a supporting rack?

You need to consider the height of your saddle above the mudguard or tyre. If your saddle is relatively low in the frame, the bag may rub.

[rabbit]

Can you attached an Audax SuperC saddlebag to the saddle without a supporting rack?

You need to consider the height of your saddle above the mudguard or tyre. If your saddle is relatively low in the frame, the bag may rub.

Good point 

[L CC]

It'll also catch on the back of your thighs and have a hideous testicular swing.

[drossall]

I have to say that I have used saddlebags for years, but never favoured them without a supporting rack of some kind - either the various types mentioned in this thread, or a pannier rack.

[Aidan]

One slight downside ( for me anyway) discovered this morning.  The tangs to go through the saddle loops aren't quite wide enough to fit a Cambium properly  , which really restricts the usefulness for me.   Will have another much better look later , as there is not much in it, a few mm at most,  so may be able to do something without any drastic filing,bending or bodging.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

tkatzir OTP used his brand new rack with a borrowed Cambium last weekend for a 200. Once he had the technique sorted, getting it off and on was pretty easy.

[drossall]

I hadn't seen a Cambium before. I've just looked. Is the underframe metal, or is it some kind of rubber/resin? If the latter, I'd be really careful about load. You'd want a support that did not hang off the bag loops, in my view - then the loops would be fine, just retaining the bag in place.

Even if the loops did not break, you'd get wear with the tangs moving around and carrying a lot of the load. Metal against rubber is always going to wear - ask your brake blocks.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The backplate on a Cambium is cast aluminium, with integral loops.

[Aidan]

tkatzir OTP used his brand new rack with a borrowed Cambium last weekend for a 200. Once he had the technique sorted, getting it off and on was pretty easy.

Thats good to know, maybe it just needs a little more " technique"   

And yes they are a cast alu underframe with integral loops, whih are slightly wider spaced and more deeply set than on, say, a B17

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Because of the different 'rear end', the rack leans backwards on a Cambium, compared to a traditional Brooks, giving a little more bum room. Still not enough room for me.

[tatanab]

Even if the loops did not break, you'd get wear with the tangs moving around and carrying a lot of the load.

I use my old Karrimor version without the uplift with my Berthoud Aspin saddles which have a plastic cantle with deep saddlebag loops in the moulding.  The tangs do not engage as they do with the thinner metal loops of a Brooks but it is perfectly adequate, especially since I cinch my restraining strap tightly.  It is this tightness (I think) that puts a few marks on the plastic.  I would not use an uplift version (I have one of those as well) on these saddles except for a short time.

Like you I was brought up that a saddlebag should have its weight supported.  I am lucky that I ride 22" frames which put the horizontal platform of a pannier carrier at just about the right height.

[drossall]

My frames are about the same size and I get the same effect.

Even alumium loops might wear more quickly than steel?

I'm learning quite a lot of new words in this thread though - tang, cantle, cinch??

[tatanab]

Tang - A projecting bit of metal.
Cantle - correct name for the curved area at the back of a saddle http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cantle
Cinch - to cinch something up is to tighten it.  See any cowboy film.

Beats undecipherable abbreviations any day.

[Aidan]

update.   A few very gentle taps from a hammer on one of the tangs to move it outwards a tiny  fraction allows a Cambium fit so just a tolerance thing.  Once in place and cinched up with the strap it doesnt really move perceptibly, but no doubt there is a tiny amount of movement so it will be interesting to see how the alumininium saddle loops hold up, or wear, as the case may be.  May not be  a problem  as I may seek out a more elegant solution for the Roubaix which the cambium is fitted to anyway.

[drossall]

Yes, I could see what the words meant from their contexts, but I just hadn't come across them before

[Cudzoziemiec]

I could really feel my unsupported saddlebag swinging yesterday - but only sometimes, depending on... loading? road surface? cadence? Whatever causes it, I think the leather patch through which the seatpost loop threads is slowly wearing out - probably faster than it should because I can't get it very tight. Hmm, one solution might be to ditch the leather buckled strap Carradice supply and use something with stepless adjustment, a toe strap maybe?

[bumper]

a toe strap maybe?

I use toe straps on the saddle loops and a velcro strap on the lower bag loop. Still swung a bit when loaded, it's great now it's on the bagman 

[andyoxon]

I've had chance to use the rack/barley a bit more now; enjoying the 'one click' detach/attach.  I use the top of the rack - as a carry handle, when off the bike, and, on bike, somewhere to easily loop my cable bike lock around.