Tuesday, June 28, 2011

I Need To Tell You Something

I bought a Sackville/Rivendell bag for my front rack a coupla weeks ago. The rack's been lacking a proper bag ever since it got built and I hope this fits that bill, but that's not what I really wanted to tell you.


It's working out pretty good so far, except that the rear loop of the rack sort of interferes with the zipper path - some dumbass built the loop just a tad tall. But that's not what I really wanted to tell you.


The bag comes with D-rings for shock cord (aka bungee cord material) on top, but without the actual cord - you hafta supply that yourself. My go-to place for bulk 1/8" shock cord is REI, but when I went there, they were out of stock. I don't really have a backup source. Shit. Life can be a bitch sometimes. But you already know that, and it's not really what I wanted to tell you.

I coulda looked around and found it somewhere else pretty easily, but that woulda taken some time and that's what I have least of, so I headed straight to Lowe's and bought a 15" x 18" cargo net, which I presumed (read gambled) was made up of one continuous piece of shock cord for $10 in round numbers. This is the starting point of what I wanna tell you.


I un-knotted the net and ended up with one continuous piece of 1/8" shock cord and a buncha leftover hooks, so it's do-able. So that's the first thing I wanted you to know.


I ended up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 27' of cord. Which would have cost me $6.75 at REI. Versus $10 for the net. Not to mention saving a half hour of my life. Point being that, if you're ever faced with the same decision of whether to buy bulk or dismantle a net, go bulk (assuming money is all you care about).

And that's pretty much what I needed to tell you.

4 comments:

Jonathan Eberly said...

Hmm. I liked the surprise ending. The whole time I was thinking that the net would have more cord at a cheaper price. Too bad about the lost half hour, but at least you "netted" some hooks.

You should write a detailed review about that bag someday in the future. I have often came very close to purchasing that bag.

Mike S said...

Yet again you've done some solid, amazing field work.

Anonymous said...

I'm proud that Americans can finally compete with the reverse engineering exploits of China.

There's nothing stopping us now!

Traditional Bike Club Curmudgeon said...

Frustrated at REI.

Get to Lowes and shop there.

Get back home from Lowes.

Unknot the net.

That's gott'a take longer than "...a half hour of my life".