Originally Posted by chephy

Bag: I am surprised it's an issue at all. Surely even car drivers carry a bag sometimes, no? And in some places carrying bags, particularly messenger bags (!) is downright fashionable (but I guess we're not talking about a place like that). You can try to make your bag smaller and more "cool" looking, whatever is considered cool by the particular crowd you're trying to impress. A lot of the time you can probably make do without a bag: many lights fit in a pocket, lock can be bungie-corded to a rack. There is raingear that folds very small. If theft is not a big problem in your community, you can probably leave lots of stuff on your bike - like a frame pump and panniers.