Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Practicability and the 700

Here's the scenario...it's a cold and sunny winter morning here in So. California. It's a beautiful day for an extended ride on the 700. I'm loaded down with P&J sandwiches, fruit, cliff bars and whatever else may suit me on this fine day (at least 300 calories an hour). All the eats easily fit into the small Catrike side bags. But wait...it's cold and I'm layered up and soon those layers will be coming off and I'll need to stow them somewhere. I have a little room left in those nifty Catrike bags but I've learned the hard way it ain't enough. It's time to get practical and sacrifice a little bit of the dashing good looks of the 700 by adding a rack for extra storage. I had the rack all ready to go from earlier this year so installation was easy.

I moved some of the essentials like tubes into a semi-rigid bag thus freeing up some more room in the Catrike side bags. At the front of the rack is my new Braven bluetooth speaker. I also now have a place to easily mount my Spot Tracker


Inside the rack bag I keep a light weight Sea to Summit 4L dry bag for extra storage. 

Here sits the dry bag on top of it all.

Fully loaded rack. I prefer this method of storage on my 700 so I don't have to lug around a full size rack bag all the time. When I need the extra storage I have it, when I don't the bag is tucked neatly away and the 700 can retain a respectable low profile.

With the 700 it's not just about the great ride it's also about the looks!