# Handlebar bag and cables - how you arrange that mess?



## rekrutacja (Jan 16, 2011)

I just got new handlebar roll and i have problem attaching it due to cables cluttering my handlebar. How you route the cables? Around the bag? Squeezed between the bag frame head and the bag? Please let me know what you do, preferably with pics


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## jan_nikolajsen (Oct 28, 2011)

Good question. Getting the handlebar roll and feed bags right is by far the trickiest part of rigging for a tour.

I often have a packraft, paddle and other things up there all held by a Revelate Harness.

The only workable routing for my specific bike and bar combo is to wrap the cables around the outside of the load. On my latest drivetrain/mechanical disc brake overhaul I made the housings as long as I could, only limited by cable length. I even found a brand of slightly longer brake cables to get it right. In extreme cases cut down tandem specific hardware will wrap really big luggage.

Once done packing, swing the bars and look for chafe spots and over tensioned housing which might lead to brake rub or unintentional shifts.

Untitled by jan nikolajsen, on Flickr


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## Welnic (Feb 6, 2013)

Of the three bikes that I strap a handlebar bag onto, one of them has cables that gracefully go out and around the handlebar bag. On the other two they are cruelly crushed between the bag and the handlebar. But there isn't a highly kinked bend right where the cable leaves the control, so it seems to work okay. But on one of those I just put Jones loop bars on and had to redo the cables anyway, so I think on that one they are now long enough to go around the bag also.

Here is a random picture of my antique bike set up for bikepacking. You can see the that rear derailer cable runs underneath the bag. It has thumb shifters which make it easier since they come out well above the bag instead right into it. You can also barely see that the left brake also sits above the bag and the cable has a clean exit. This bike has the Jones loop bars on it now.


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## Matterhorn (Feb 15, 2015)

Running Jones Loop H-bar with thumb shifters and my cables get smashed against the head tube. Not much to photograph. 

You could always run a single speed hub with a coaster brake and avoid the whole issue. Might cause some other more serious problems though.


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## vikb (Sep 7, 2008)

rekrutacja said:


> I just got new handlebar roll and i have problem attaching it due to cables cluttering my handlebar. How you route the cables? Around the bag? Squeezed between the bag frame head and the bag? Please let me know what you do, preferably with pics












Leave the cables a bit long and the crush them up against the bars/headtube with the handle bar bag. I've done this for years and not had any shifting or braking issues.


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## Central Scrutinizer (Aug 30, 2005)

I made a "bumper" that keeps my bar bag away from the head tube. Aluminum bar stock, with a hole cut out of it so that it slips over the steerer tube like a shim, then a piece of angle aluminum. The bar bag is pulled against it & the cables run freely between the back of the bag & the head tube.


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