Design your own bag for Brompton/Flamingo/MIT!
Imagine your are sitting in a committee to redesign the bags currently on offer from original and independent vendors. Your input will be used to create new and improved (or perhaps just substantially cheaper) alternatives. A luggage designer hobbyist with years of experience creating custom (for his personal use only) travel bags has access to very skilled and detail-oriented craftsmen as well as factory workers.
In addition to answers to the questions below, anything you would like to add?
- Could Brompton bags, and those of its clones, be improved?
- If so, how?
- What bag(s) for your folding bike do you own currently?
- Why did you choose it/them (more or less did the job at a fair price, your partner pressured you into it, it was the only thing available, you got fed up after doing 12 hours of research online so you just wanted to buy *something*, you fell in love with it)
- What personal system do you use now that no manufacturer, in your opinion, could improve upon? What is unique or supremely functional about it?
- What bag not of your own design do you use now?
- What 3 features do you like best/least about it?
- Prioritize (1= most important) the following and delete factors irrelevant when deciding what bag to buy...
Price, durability, colour, space taken, lightweight, strength, bulk, volume available, versatility, non-proprietary (universal use), customer service (pre or post?), user reviews, payment options (credit card, bitcoin, gold, barter etc), 'cool factor', fair trade/union labour, ability to customize, impulse buying availability (shops carry it), can buy online, can repair by myself, etc
- What factor(s) not mentioned above is important?
- Did your opinion change after buying a folding bike bag, e.g. you *thought* factor X was important but after using it you realized factor Y was.
- Where do you place yoursrlf as a buyer: 'I expect the very best materials, design and construction and am willing to pay premium price', 'I get the cheapest I can find', 'I look for value'?
- Do you invite/encourage patent infringement or are opposed to it, or you do not recommend but in reality you actually do it (e.g. download unlicenced software, movies etc)?
As you can see I am more of an artist than a businessman, as the results of this survey will be public knowledge. Yesterday shopping in Malaysia I noticed the fold-up plasticized boxes with lids that could fold up into a small packsack that sell for USD4, might be servicable in a pinch with a bungee cord. Likewise the see-through (or not) plastic storage bins. The prices for bags made by Topeak (Taiwan) and Especially rompton (UK) seem astronomical to me. One Thai manufacturer has come out with a padded case, but I don't know how good they are. Also (please add your opinion to survey above regarding next point) I don't like bags with neutotically-designed many little pockets/sections. I design my own neurotic pockets that can fit into a potato sack if I wanted. Just give me a water-resistent, lasts ten years, is so ugly no one will want to steal it, lockable, can use on any bike, practical bag for under $75.
Last edited by Hermespan; 05-12-14 at 12:22 AM.