As good as you'll find... It holds a deceptively large amount of small items. I have a topeak alien II, a cell phone, car key, tube patch, and small pump in mine. It is not pretty on the bike, but functional and secure. The best feature though is it's water resistance. I dumped my bike in a stream (rider error) and there was several minutes during which it was fully submerged. All of my items remained perfectly dry. It was worth every penny and then some. Avenir Bigmouth Velcro Seat Bag (Large- 73/106 Cubic Inches)
Made primarily of Denier Cordura, a heavy duty nylon, the Avenir Bigmouth is a fairly well built underseat bag, with over 100 cubic inches of capacity. For protection and easy cleaning, the bottom and lower half of the sides of the bag, are coated with a layer of plastic sheeting, which repels water, and helps to keep the contents from getting wet. Applying a little silicone spray, helps to loosen up the zippers.
The bag has an adjustable strap that is used to secure it to the underside of the seat. The strap has lots of slack. The construction of bike seats varies, as some have springs below the seat, but there should be a way to make this system work. The rails and springs under the seat, will affect the angle that the bag hangs at, and this in turn affects how the bag is secured to the seat post.
From the product description and photo, at one time this bag utilized a nylon strap and Velcro to secure the bag to the seat post. This unfortunately is no longer the case. There is now a curved plastic fitting that is supposed to clamp around the post, a rubber strap is then supposed to wrap around the post, and hook back onto the fitting. This design is a freaking disaster! In order for this system to work, the fitting must have good solid contact with the seat post, and unfortunately, this can be achieved only at a limited range of angles. If you are out of this range, the rubber strap will be stretched beyond its limits and will be too short to reach. Pulling excessively on the rubber strap, can pull it out from the fitting. If you have problems with attaching using the rubber strap, try securing the fitting to the seat post using tie wraps. Even if the rubber strap does work, it is hard to imagine that this system would hold up well long term, with a fully loaded bag, and under heavy riding conditions.
Depending on the bike, finding space under the seat could be an issue, and the bag may obstruct your rear reflector. As the bag may need to be jockeyed around to fit, making the ridiculously designed seat post clip work, is even more problematic. If there was some kind of hinge, the fitting might be more usable, but as designed it lacks the flexibility to be reliably installed on every bicycle. There are no dividers inside the compartment, just a small netted pocket on the back side of the flip down back cover. The compartment of the Bigmouth is expands by unzipping the zipper running along the bottom edge of the bag.
This is well made bag, that is very reasonably priced compared to the competition, but it earns a one star deduct for the poorly designed seat post clip. Avenir is a very experienced company that should know better than to replace a proven design, with one that is an abject failure.
I'm so glad I took the time to read previous reviews about this bag. Unlike competitive bags that fall off due to ineffective velcro straps this bag is secure and well made. The straps go throught the seat rails and buckle underneath. It is the perfect size and seems extremely well made. A great value!
I love it! It looks great, well built, just the right size, easy installation.
I was thinking about getting the small one but this one is perfect, I would not recommend getting anything smaller than this.
Buy it!
We bought this for a trip where we'd be out riding around near a lake (away from the rest of our gear).
We needed a way to tote anything we could think of that we might need for our bikes, so a flat tire or something wouldn't put an end to our riding and put a start to our walking.
We considered a backpack, but that seemed too large and bulky for the amount of stuff we needed to take. Besides, I don't want to personally carry anything that I can mount to a vehicle.
We had looked at a few other bike specific bags, but chose this one because of its shape, quality of materials, and style of mounting
(we looked at them all in person).
It just straps around the under-seat bars and to the seatpost.
The rear strap is adjustable and can be tightened in order to compress the bag a little so your stuff won't rattle.
This bag is plenty large enough for all the things we needed, but it's not large enough to get in the way.
What we put in the bag:
A spare 26" mountain bike tube (still in the box), 5 full size allen wrenches, 3 tire spoons, a patch kit, a flat two-sided open-ended wrench, and an asthma inhaler.
We had some room to spare, and that's without the expansion opened up.
So far we've suffered no problems or failures with this bag.
It has been a very sound purchase, and we would recommend it to anyone that needs a bike bag.
I sm very pleased with my purchase of this bag. It is all I was looking for at an affordable price. Before ordering, I was torn between this size of the Avenir Bigmouth (Large) or the Medium. I was afraid this one would be too big. But, after seeing a customer submitted photo of the bag actually on a bicycle, it didn't appear to be as big as I feared. Turns out, I was right. It is just the size I wanted for my Trek 7300 hybrid - I did have to relocate a round reflector that was mounted on the seat post, as the bag covered it. I moved it farther down, on the vertical frame member itself that the seat post slides into, where it is just as visible as before.
This bag is very well made with high quality, durable materials. Some of the features it has that I really like include:
- The expandability of the bag. Normally, when riding, I leave it unexpanded & there is enough room for a spare inner tube, an air pressure gauge, a small vinyl zippered pouch with Allen wrenches & tire tools, cell phone & my car keys - even my wallet can be wedged in as well, but I usually just carry my ID in case of emergency. But, it is nice to know that if and when I need the extra space, I can expand the bag 45% with a quick zip. And, when unexpanded, there is not any bunched up material visible inside, getting in the way of putting in & removing items.
- Inside the bag are two handy features - a small clip on a strap for car keys, and a mesh pocket on the inside of the bag's "door" if you will. The latter is a great place for holding ID, emergency contact info, etc., as they are very visible when you open the bag. Also, when I am carrying my bike on my Jeep's bike rack, I remove my cycling computer from its handlebar mount & slip it in this pouch so I can rest assured it will not be lost.
- As mentioned before, the bag is very well made. And, it is attractive as well!
- The added support of the main strap that, after being routed through the underside of the saddle, it then surrounds the bag itself, clipping shut with sliding length adjustment. It serves to secure the bag better, helping eliminate swaying of the bag when riding.
Bottom line, this bag does all I want & need, is attractive while doing so, & I am unaware it is there while riding. At an affordable price, what more could one ask for? Highly recommended. - Bicycle Bag - Bicycle Accessories - Avenir - Seat Bag'
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