Gorilla cages or front pannier rack?

[Cudzoziemiec]

My front panniers arrived this morning — while I was in the shower  — courier said she normally gets three a day in the shower and I was her first today! I have adjusted their clips and put — well, very little indeed — in them. Probably some repacking will occur at various times over the weekend. They are much sturdier than my Agus. So my first ride with them will be 50-odd miles tomorrow. That's sensible.

[perpetual dan]

Breathing some life into this again...

I used to use a monkii and a http://www.decathlon.co.uk/apb-300-cycling-bottle-cage-bracket-id_4766980.html on a front fork of the hybrid to carry a fuel bottle. I can bring them to Long Itch for you to play with and form your own opines if you like?

My forks are a bit too big for the monkii cage and the Decathlon bit is out of stock.
Before I go looking round the LBS, any reason why (dirty great) P-clips wouldn't be a plausible solution?

This would be for a suspension fork with the bouncing switched on, and the size / weight limit compared to panniers is probably a good thing

[nikki]

I've only limited experience of P-clips, but the ones I've used had sticky-out-bottom-bit-of-the-P bits that were quite bendy if given a little persuasion. My Monkii cage takes a bit of oomph to engage and release the cage, so I'm not sure this would be suitable. I'd guess you want something that holds the bosses-substitutes nice and snug up against the frame.

How about something like this?

[jsabine]

Breathing some life into this again...

I used to use a monkii and a http://www.decathlon.co.uk/apb-300-cycling-bottle-cage-bracket-id_4766980.html on a front fork of the hybrid to carry a fuel bottle. I can bring them to Long Itch for you to play with and form your own opines if you like?

My forks are a bit too big for the monkii cage and the Decathlon bit is out of stock.

Out of stock online and in about half the stores, but apparently available in the rest. If you click on Reserve in Store then pick a region, it'll give a little green tick where you can get hold of it (eg in London it's available in Croydon and Lakeside, but not Surrey Quays or Wandsworth).

[Cudzoziemiec]

Or other bottle cage brackets eg http://www.evanscycles.com/products/elite/vip-bottle-cage-clamps-ec114882

I guess Nikki will be able to advise if these are actually tough enough.

[jsabine]

I've added an extra cage using the Elite mounts - works fine for a tool bottle, but I've never tried putting anything heavier in there.

[perpetual dan]

Thanks.
I found a strap-on mount in the LBS on the way home, I'll give that a go after I finish this cup of tea.

[perpetual dan]

Seems to work, based on a couple of laps of the park without overloading the bags.