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About the workshop

Hi! I’m Jean Michel, (former) smith/welder/designer/musician/drumbuilder.

I have a small workshop at home where I create bags and racks that ship all over the world, that’s so nice to do! getting better at it everyday, allways busy designing, sewing, tube shaping etc.

The bags have default dimensions, but very often people ask for custom bags and I’ve become really good at that, takes me less than half an hour to design and make new templates.          To be honest, my brains are kind of addicted to the adrenaline involved..) so yeah,.. come with ideas, requests!

Working at first with waxed canvas, great stuff: rainproof and tough, the seams swell when it get’s wet. use it mostly now for the traditional porteurbags, the first model randonneurbag, the traditional panniers, the expedition panniers and occasinally the handlebarbag, feedbag, just where it’s fitting.

For the bikepacking bags I use cordura, x-pac, nylon or polyester, all waterproof fabrics, where I apply seam sealer where possible, getting it pretty waterproof usually.

I can mix colours, for the edges it’s usually black, but it can also be beige, grey or orange.

On most bags you get to choose for pockets, mesh, elastic cord, mapsheet, webbing.  and for closing pockets I prefer velcro now, it’s really fast one hand usage compared to snapbuckles and you have quite some play how low or high you put it. but if it’s at a place where you don’t need to be fast, buckles are secure ( but adjusting the lenght of the webbing is not really easy, I prefer to stich it at a set length)   the fidlock magnetic closure can be awkward to use, snapping when you don’t want to and searching for it to snap sometimes.

I use atilon foam as stiffener to keep the bags from sagging and especially use it for the semi roltop porteurbag, wich slides on the rear upstanding part of the rack and next pulls bungeecord under the corners. a system I developed overtime. same as I use for the decaleurless randobags. I even made some 50grams superlight alu randorack that work with that system.

Where needed I can make sleeves for alu tubes, at points where the rack is just too small and for example for panniers, to keep them light, no need to use a heavy hard shell on the wheelside, when you got the fork as backbone.  just cross the alu tube and use lightweight channel plate.

That brings me to my beloved U loop bags with the superlight bikepacking rack/bag system I developed for LaFraisecyles, they where part of winning ‘concours de machines’ 2018, the famous framebuilding contest in France. the small U’s are ultralight and the bags slide on and fasten with one velcro strap. will be working on a ‘cuben fibre’ edition soon.

Other renowned item is the bikepacking steerer rack, sold as a roadbike front rack, to bikepackers in need of a solution for their sagging bags hitting the tyres and cables, or wobbling around too much. I recommend the 10mm for ofroad and the 8 for road use. for some applications I’ll have a extra support tigged to it wich increases the rigidity.

People know me for making bicycle racks completely bolt on and riveted, it takes more thinking to get the construction right, but I’m surprised how much you can do this way. specially like to press the small U’s at the end of the cross tubes..    sometimes a construction is better with a weld at some point, wich a friended company will tig for me. made lot of custom porteur racks and like doing 10mm tube sturdy cargobike racks.

The pics on my website don’t allways represent the final product, as it developes continuously, don’t hesitate to email to clearify things.

 

6 comments

  1. Neil Walton says:

    Hi Jean Michel,
    I received my bags and racks today. I thought they were going to be good. I didn’t expect them to be this good !!!
    You are a f*****g genius!!
    The racks fit perfectly , how did you do that from the couple of measurements I sent you????
    The quality of the bags are fantastic. I will be ordering from you again at the end of the month… ABSOLUTELY.

  2. Google says this support was made by Park Tools. All I know is that I purchased one 50 years ago and I’ve spent most of the last decade looking for another. Can you help? And yes, I can send pictures and measurements of my old one.

  3. Roger says:

    Hello, I have a camper on my truck with similar triangular openings as a bike. What dimensions do you need to create a custom bag? If you write back, I can send pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like. By the way…I was born/live in California but I can speak Dutch!
    Thank you!

  4. Cornu Andre says:

    Bonjour,
    Je suis à la recherche d un porte sacoche avant. Je pratique la randonnée route et gravel. Ma sacoches est une Apidura et un mini Bivy de 600g. Le support doit pouvoir supporter les deux. Un support de 10 mm où 8 mm serait suffisent ? Il y a du stock ? J habite en Suisse ? Possible de l avoir de suite ?
    Merci d’avance pour votre réponse

  5. James Love says:

    query – ahead steerer front rack

    Hello I am interested in a ahead steerer front rack for bikepacking use to support a dry bag/saddlebag that contains my sleep stuff (light)

    I think that I will be able to use the road spec rack with 8mm dia. tubing

    Are these in stock and can they be shipped to the UK?

    Thank you for your help!

    All the best

    James

  6. Volodymyr Davidenko says:

    I want an extremely lightweight and minimalistic front rack. It needs to be able to carry a 20 inch pizza. So I would assume around L 15″x W 10″. Under 1LBS total weight would be awesome.

    It should be a single metal square with one line through the middle. It should have 1″ x 0.5″ loops located 2 inches from each four corners for using straps.

    I would like it to be mounted only to the headtube using two loops.

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