Originally Posted by
canalligators
The B72 was a four wire saddle with little pigtails in the four wires. It gave the saddle a little springing action, but not much. These were factory installed in Sports up to around 1970, and on Superbes a little longer than that. At some point Raleigh fitted full spring B66 or B66S on Superbes. The B72 is my personal favorite. Photo below. It was discontinued sometime after 2000.
I like that stem idea to keep the saddle bag away from the legs. It never bothered me, I guess my saddle bags only touched a little. But it could be used to mount accessories on a seatpost, maybe a handlebar bag? I'll keep it in mind.
I used a Topeak handlebar bag on a major tour last year. The plastic reinforcing failed early into the trip, the bag took to sagging badly, and it was on a recumbent so the bag drooped onto my legs. I went to a hardware store and found a couple of mending plates to create reinforcing bars. Other than the droop, I really liked the bag, so after I got home, I ordered some 6061 plate and made an aluminum clone of the plastic reinforecement.
...
Carradice also makes some saddle bag supports, but I have not tried any of them. They do not look robust enough to me.
Someone on the touring forum has used a stem and a short piece of handlebar stub to mount a handlebar bag on a seatpost, so it is not a new invention.
My road bike has a Brooks Pro, and I previously mentioned I did not like the little loops that can be added to a saddle. So, I got creative, photo below. The aluminum rod is 5/16 inch diameter, that is strong enough for the light weight in a Pendle bag, but would not be strong enough for the larger bags if you had them full for a credit card tour. In this case I used a 17 degree stem so the stem is horizontal.
I have several Louis Garneau handlebar bags that I bought years ago, the plastic in them to give them shape is very flexable. Initially I tried using 1/8 X 3/4 inch Aluminum bar as a reinforcing, but that was not strong enough, it would bend and eventually crack. Later found that 1.5 inch wide and 1/8 inch thick bar was adequate for my handlebar bags for reinforcing but it took a few years to get that figured out. I put a bit of inner tube rubber over the aluminum in the front where the bag sits on it to reduce chaffing.
Those sheet steel book ends that you can buy to keep your books upright on a shelf, I have seen photos of people using those to support a handlebar bag too.