Originally Posted by
ryth
How is getting in to this bag while riding? I've seen them around and they look nice.
As many people have noted, the Ortlieb medium and large handlebar bags have a very tight fit between the cover and the bag. This is good for waterproofing, but it tends to make the lid catch and be a bit cumbersome to open and close. You get used to it and learn how to mitigate, but the problem never goes away entirely. I can open the bag and get stuff out while riding without much problem, but it's a bit trickier to fully close it (although you don't have to fully close it if it's not raining).
One nice thing is that it opens forward (maybe they all do), meaning the lid isn't in your way when searching through the bag. Also, because the lid is stiff, it forms a nice "bucket" for you to temporarily move stuff to that's on top of whatever it is you're trying to get to. I use this a lot.