will a bagman damage my saddle/bike?

[velo-city]

I used a Carradice longflap and the support bracket on my road bike (binachi alu/carbon) for a trip to paris.

i was more worried about the carbon seatpost as the bag does put a bit more rotational force on the post as the weight is further back from where the riders weight goes.
it was fine but I guess you can't easily tell where any stress/damage is with carbon?!

Would re-iterate the balance issue someone else mentioned though. Both my fiend and I had similar setups, and the bike wheelie-ing, especially when you're not on it, was a bit of a problem and we both had the chainrings cut our legs at some point and had a few interesting moments grappling with the bike.. All part of the fin though, and it was definitely the best solution we could come up with for carrying loads on a road bike with the minimal fuss.

I've got a practically new Carradice and would consider selling if you;re interested (PM me) as I've switched to a touring bike with panniers.

[willem jongman]

Personally I would be a bit concerned with a fully loaded Camper Longflap (not with the smaller bags). I have had problems in the past with one bolt seatposts, so I would at least prefer a two bolt design. A more stable support for a max size saddle bag would be the Nitto R 10 support.
Willem

[nmnm]

Another option is a light rack (tortec ultralite claimed to be 400g on Wiggle) and a stuff sac (200g or so?), plus another 50g for securing the load with bungees perhaps. Not as graceful, of course, as there's no wee side pockets for passport, camera etc.

[CJ]

The use of a Bagman saddlebag support, even without any weight or even a saddlebag attached to it, can indirectly make it more likely that your saddle rails will break. Here's how.

First off, it's your weight, sitting on the back of the saddle that breaks the saddle rails. When saddle rails break, they break at the rear edge of the seatpost clamp. That is where the bending stress is greatest. The longer the distance between the back of that clamp and the back of the saddle, the greater the stress. So if that clamp is near the front of the saddle rails, so there's a long stretch of straight rail behind the clamp, it's more likely that the rails will break.

In order to fit a Bagman, you need a long enough straight piece of saddle rail behind the clamp. Q.E.D.

A lot of saddles nowadays have markings on the rails outside of which you are not supposed to clamp them. Provided you do not need to attach the saddle outside of those marks in order to make space for the Bagman, the saddle ought to be okay. And provided you weigh a lot less than the spaghetti-scoffer they designed this saddle for, you'll be okay even if you fit an in-line seatpost and clamp it right at the front. But if you're a bit heavy...

So the Bagman will not damage your bike. But it might cause you to make adjustments to how the saddle is fixed to your bike that might lead to premature failure of the saddle rails.

[ANTONISH]

My bagman fell apart after little use. It relies on the grip of two screws onto a hard unrecessed metal. To get it to hold together I had to drill recesses myself- not easy given the type of material. If you are intent on using one make sure you've thoroughly tested it first.I'm totally unimpressed and it hardly weighs less than a lightweight carrier.
As for the saddle rails the leverage exerted must be quite high and the stress over rough ground must be considerable

[bigjim]

Just stick a rack on it using P clips. Then you have a choice of panniers, saddlebag, rack bag, stuffsack etc. A much more useful, possibly lighter and flexible system than being confined to a saddlebag.

[brumster]

My bagman fell apart after little use. It relies on the grip of two screws onto a hard unrecessed metal. To get it to hold together I had to drill recesses myself- not easy given the type of material. If you are intent on using one make sure you've thoroughly tested it first.I'm totally unimpressed and it hardly weighs less than a lightweight carrier.
As for the saddle rails the leverage exerted must be quite high and the stress over rough ground must be considerable

I had a similar problem ( probably due to riding a bit of "rough-stuff") - I replaced the tiny two headless M5 screws with standard M5x16mm which have 4mm allen heads - tightened up good & proper now & not had any problems.

My Brooks saddles are showing no adverse effects to the Bagman fitted either.

[andrew_s]

My bagman fell apart after little use. It relies on the grip of two screws onto a hard unrecessed metal. To get it to hold together I had to drill recesses myself- not easy given the type of material.

As for the saddle rails the leverage exerted must be quite high and the stress over rough ground must be considerable

I had the same problem with my first Bagman, and solved the problem the same way, using a dremel to make the recesses. Later versions have had this problem addressed - my 2nd hasn't given any problems. I've not taken it apart to see if it's just a case of pre-added recesses, but I suspect so.

On rough ground there is a lot of suspension effect from the Bagman support rods flexing.
The end of the support will move a good 3 or 4 inches - I had to add a rubber bumper to stop it denting the mudguard. Those following seem to find the bouncing saddlebag alarming, but you don't really notice it when riding,
I used one with a Camper Longflap full of camping gear over the Alladale to Altguish track (Gleann Mor/Strath Vaich), along with several other similar tracks, and nothing broke.

[yostumpy]

I had one for a long time, with a brooks Pro. but then one day the bike was propped up against a wall, , but the wind blew it over. the bike obviously landed on its side but most of the force was taken by the saddlebag, unfortunately the twisting action snapped a saddle rail!

[jockywilson]

A word of warning.....

Have previously used a carradice barley and bagman support with a Brooks B17 for commuting on a fixed gear bike.

However the seatpost/saddle bolt sheared in two when cycling along in November last year. Hit the deck and a ended up with a few stitches in the elbow.

In 20 years of cycling have never had a saddle bolt shear clean in two and suspect that the combination of daily cycling along potholed roads with a full saddlebag (along with the stress from the flex in the bagman support) caused the problem.