Its true that boredom can drive creativity. I was bored one day and desided to design a tool roll. Given my obsession with bikes and gear (buckyrides.com) it does make sense, and its not a bad place to start since I have access to the items to design around. This is a minimal tool roll that attaches to a bike.
1. I started planning this on paper riffing off my previous design, but this time I was going to wrap a band around the outside to attach to the bike. But the essence was similar, I wanted good access. I drew some basic shapes to scale with the proportions I needed. I folded bits of paper and studied material before moving onto a canvas prototype to dial in sizes and see if my edge new binding would work.
2. After creating the first canvas proto, I looked at some other designs on the web, many were waxed cotton and I decided I wanted more durability. I had set my mind on a heavy waterproof Cordura and this also allowed me to keep 1 layer, allowing for lighter weight. At some point (not sure when) I became inspired to make clear pockets so you could easily see the contents or lack of. In my prior design, I used a semi transparent sailcloth, but this time I was inspired to go full clear. I found some stretchy sewable PVC film and gave it a go. Onto proto v2:-
3. I made the bike attachment strap from a wider Military spec webbing so it can be cinched down hard without fear of breaking, this was important because I wanted it to snug on the bike really tight. Movement and flopping on the bike is not an acceptable option, so I had to mess around with the proportions of hook and loop on the strap. I made it size adjustable by having a double size patch of loop so that the hooks could stick in multi positions.
4. I had to modify the pockets to make them more durable / support for the topstich between the pockets. I used some trimmed grosgrain strips and bit of care in execution looked good too.
5. One of the tings I like about sewing is realizations made when sewing and testing. At one point I placed the roll on my bike and it lead to the idea to position a reflective hit for safety, so I positioned it in the best place and made it look like a cool tag, just popping off the side. Coincidentally this worked well with the grey and black scheme.
6. The design was pretty successful, it secured to the bike great, the functionality was spot on. Not stoked about the colors, but it’s material I had around and the transparent pockets seemed to work. This was lot more successful than most similar stage v2 prototypes. Since then I have since modified the design, mainly the shape of the flap to make folding and sewing easier.
Materials:
Cordura 1000D
Mil Spec 39mm Webbing
Plastic D Loop
Transparent Sewable PVC
Color Pop Pull Tab – nylon 1″ Webbing
Grosgrain Trim
Hook and Loop same width as strap
7. Field Testing , I’m a big beliver in making things better through itterative prototyping and real world use. I gave v2 to my friend Dustin to test and provide more feedback before I get into designing and prototyping v3.
8. The great thing about this design is that it’s easy to customize. Future color explorations are in the works, and can make it interesting. Fun and playful, subtle and serious or even matched to your bike. These should be up in v3. Im just in the process of working out the trim details.
9. At the moment I am set up to make small batches, so send me a message if you fancy one. I’m currently getting setup to make a small batch in different colors, not just the one shown above. There are technically still prototypes, but shoot me an e mail with your fav colors and we can see what we can do
