The perfect use scenario for this Ornot Handlebar Bag came into vision for me on a recent ride. It was one of those days where I told myself I’d go for a lunch ride, and then the time turned into 1:30p, and then 2, and finally 3–just enough time to get an hour and half in before the sun set at 4:30p.
The temperature was about 40° – 45° and a sunny day, and usually that is warm enough to ride, even with the wind factor taken into account. But the first half of my ride involved climbing, and on my way home, I’d descend. Also, by 3:45, when I was done with the first half of my loop, the sun had dropped behind the mountains. It was still bright out enough to ride, but it was hardly warm enough considering the summer shoes, socks, gloves, and head gear I’d packed.
All the way home, I descended, cursing myself as my fingers grew numb with little pin pricks of pain. For some reason, this happens ever year. I forget to pack the proper warming layers and arrive back at my driveway with immobile fingers and toes. But, what’s a better way to remember the proper gear this season than put those layers in a bag that stays on the bike?
About the Ornot Handlebar Bag
Ornot has been around since 2013. Lately, they have grown their marketing efforts and product line, and the brand sent us some gear to check out.
The handlebar bag is made from what Ornot calls water repellent recycled EcoPak, a sturdy material similar to Cordura.
There’s three exterior, elastic cargo pockets on the bag, a big main pouch, a phone holster on the right side with a security bungee, and some looped cargo straps with reflective material. On the inside of the bag is 3.1L of storage space. It comes in coyote brown, white, or black.
- Price: $86
- Buy from Ornot
On the trail
I don’t usually ride with bar bags. I have tried it on mountain and gravel bikes, but I find that many of them bounce around and are either noisy or distracting.
Fortunately, Ornot’s handlebar bag is one of the more secure versions I’ve seen in a while. It’s not an advanced system by any means. The bag uses two Voile straps to wrap snugly around the bars and then an elastic bungee to wrap around the stem and steerer tube. I’ve found the bag is stable enough with just the two Voile straps, so the bungee strap is staying in one of the cargo pockets for now.
I’d credit the placement of the strap attachments on the Ornot bag and having the Voile straps to get the bag really tight against the handlebars, resulting in a very quiet bag.
This is a larger size bar bag, and even Ornot has a smaller version without some of the same features, like external pockets. But, since the larger version is as quiet and as still as it is, having the extra space makes sense, at least for me.
The handlebar bag is very functional in nature. You’ve got the inside pockets for stuffing snacks or gloves into as well as the phone sleeve on the right. I’ve yet to use that, but it seems to be nice for changing a song or reading a text on the go.
The overall stiffness of the bag makes it easy to open and close the zipper without the material folding. That storage space is the real winner and there’s enough room for anything you might need. Well, almost anything. As I described early, it’s my cold finger insurance and an excuse-slayer for not forgetting my gloves and warming layers again, and there’s really room for a lot more too.
Bottom line
The Ornot Handlebar Bag is capable of carrying warming layers, snacks, a small camera or action cam on your bars. The bonus is that it does so without much movement or noise and looks good too.
