New *April 1* Dill Pickle Large Saddlebag, Weight Weenie Pro Edition!

Just for April 1! 😉

Forget shaving grams; this amazing new design can lighten your bike by UP TO TWENTY FIVE POUNDS*, OR MORE!†

Let’s face it, randonneuring gear is heavy. All those fenders, steel frames, plastic bags to keep brevet cards dry, cuesheets, it all adds up to precious grams that just slow you down. Not to mention all the other useless crap randonneurs carry around, just because you have to in order to look like a real randonneur. Jackets, spare tubes, pumps, tire levers, allen wrenches, clean socks, spare batteries, reflective gear. And it seems like the bigger your bag, the more stuff you find to put in it! Wouldn’t it be great if all that weight just disappeared?

Well, now it can! The brand new Weight Weenie Pro Edition of the Dill Pickle Large Saddlebag. It has the same great features as the standard Large Saddlebag, and weighs even less! But the real benefit of this new innovative design is in how it cleverly reduces the weight of all that other useless baggage.

• The bottom of the bag is open, so that anything you are tempted to carry around will fall right through.

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• The exterior pockets are mounted upside down so that any heavy objects you place in them will be INStANtdiscardEd™®©¥

• For the deluxe model, interior mesh pockets are open at the bottom to help keep the stuff you won’t be carrying anymore better organized

• The brevet card pocket zipper has no slider, which saves an entire gram all by itself, in addition to the onerous weight of that pesky brevet card!

• The female half of the buckles are also omitted, because you wouldn’t want a girly bag. (Alternatively, if you hate men and think boys have cooties, you may request that the male half be omitted instead). And if the buckles are impossible to buckle, you will not be tempted to try and strap in and carry cinder blocks or lead weights.

April-1-13

 

Of course, everyone knows that when bike stuff gets lighter it gets more expensive. The pros spend hundreds of dollars to shave off an ounce here and there. That makes the Dill Pickle Weight Weenie Edition a fantastic bargain, because at only $9,999 (not including optional extras) it costs less than $25 for every ounce saved!††

 

BUT WAIT! There’s MORE! If you order TODAY, you can also pre-order the up-coming UltraSecure Classic Vintage Steel Rando Bag™®©. You’ll never lose your stuff again, plus it is made of 100% vintage steel, so of course you have to have it for randonneuring. All you do is send me the stuff you want to carry, and you will receive your new UltraSecure Vintage Steel Rando Bag ™®© with all of your stuff already welded securely inside so that you will never lose it ever again!

ORDER YOURS NOW!

* When compared with a saddlebag containing twenty five pounds of bricks
† No, the phrase “up to twenty five pounds or more” is not especially precise
†† It saves twenty five pounds, see above.
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A couple of boxy rando front bags

These were two different custom orders. The backs are angled to match the angle of Nitto front racks, so that the tongue of the rack can help support the bag without the need for an additional decaleur. The blue one was enormous! The green one is celery and navy, and you can see it on its matching Rivendell here.

They both have cuesheet windows on the top; for reference, the viewable area is about the same between the two of them, believe it or not.

 

Large_Custom_Rando_Bag_BackLarge_Custom_Rando_BagCustom_Rando_bag_CeleryCustom_Rando_Bag_Celery2

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Expandable backpacks

Jake was looking at a backpack kinda like this in EMS, so I made him one for his birthday. I borrowed it at one point and decided I liked it, so I made me one too. They are expandable via side zippers, plus two different compression straps on each side. also have laptop slots against the back accessible by a zipper on the side that doesn’t really show in the photos. I’ve found mine to be very comfortable to carry, even with a large load.

both_backpacks-sm both_backpacks_expanded-sm both_backpacks_open both_backpacks_back-sm

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New jackets

This gallery contains 3 photos.

About eleven years ago, I made myself an Ultrex winter jacket with a Cordura yoke and 2″-wide strips of reflective tape. After wearing it every day all winter for eleven years, I decided it was time for a new one. So I made us matching jackets, from the same pattern as before. Here you can […]

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Custom rack trunk bag

This one was from awhile ago. It has a sleeve for the “tongue” on the end of the rack, angled to match, with additional lash points on the lid and a strap to go around the saddle rails in case additional stability is required when it’s full. I particularly like the black and tan together.

custom_trunk_bag_black_tan-sm custom_rack_trunk_black_and_tan_3_sm custom_rack_trunk_black_and_tan_2-sm

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Results are in!

Howdy Picklers,

Thanks to everyone who filled out the survey! As always, your comments and feedback are immensely helpful and appreciated.

So in case you were wondering how you fit in with the rest of the survey respondents, here are a few stats:

• Over half of the respondents were men between 40 and 60. No one listed their age as “Wouldn’t you like to know!” which guess means you don’t mind telling me.

• 5% of you appear to have been misdirected, as you were actually looking for cucumbers in brine.

• Your two most common cycling activities were recreational group riding. Four people claimed to be one-person unicycling polka bands, and I sincerely hope that the four of you will get together and make a quartet album accompanied by viral video.

• You enjoy (or presumably enjoy) rides of all different lengths, and the vast majority of you (86.5%) seem to be just fine with mixing miles and kilometers.

There’s some new stuff in the pipeline as I have a chance to get to it, and I’ll keep you posted.

You can still take the survey if you feel underrepresented, and of course I always welcome any comments, feedback, and photos.

Keep the rubber side down!

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Please take the Customer Feedback Survey

Please take a moment to complete this customer feedback survey. You can still take it even if you’ve never bought, tried, or even seen a Dill Pickle item. Your feedback is invaluable in helping me make improvements to existing products and design new ones.

Also, I’d love to create a gallery on this site of customer photos with their Dill Pickle Gear stuff in action. If you have a photo you’d like to be included, please send it to store *at* dillpicklegear *dot* com.

Thanks very much in advance!

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Pickle Project: Cycling Cap sewing pattern

*** This pattern is now also available as a kit! The kit includes everything you need to make any of the options for pockets in the pattern, and an assortment of fabrics and colors. Check them out on the “Accessories” page!***

Edited: Now, with photos!
The first batch are courtesy of Lovely Bicycle!‘s photostream:

Emily's Hats

Emily's Hats

Size Small, large brim, with earflaps, wool coating.

Emily's Hats

Emily's Hats

Size medium, summer weight, no earflaps, quilting cotton.

Emily's Hats

Size large, earflaps, small brim, polar fleece and nylon ripstop.

Emily's Hats
Size large, earflaps, large brim with plastic stiffener, fleece.

And a few more, including a little of the process:

Winter and summer, both with the large brim option.

Winter and summer, both with the large brim option..

 

 

 

Binder clips are a handy alternative to pins that don't distort the fabric as much and work much better with thick materials.

Binder clips are a handy alternative to pins that don’t distort the fabric as much and work much better with thick materials.

 

Earflap piece, turned and topstitched.

Earflap piece, turned and topstitched.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finishing the inside seam allowance by trimming and zig-zagging.

Finishing the inside seam allowance by trimming and zig-zagging.

 

Finishing the inside seam allowance by topstitching each side flat.

Finishing the inside seam allowance by topstitching each side flat.

 

There's an x-wing on my hat!

There’s an x-wing on my hat!.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small brim option.

Small brim option.

 

I saw this material at the store and had to buy it.

I saw this material at the store and had to buy it.

 

A childhood obsession.

A childhood obsession.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we get into the holiday shopping spree season, I thought it would be nice to offer a sewing pattern for a great gift you can make yourself. This cycling cap pattern offers four sizes, two different brim choices, and optional ear flaps, and works great in all different materials from light, summery cotton to warm wool and fleece. It’s quick and simple, and the end result is something any cyclist can use more of!

You can also try making it out of old or discarded cycling jerseys or jackets, sheets, shirts, t-shirts, pants, shrunken lightweight sweaters, etc. No stampeding into the mall, since you might not even need to buy anything to make it!
The hat is designed to lie flat with minimal bulk under a helmet, with optional wrap-around ear flaps that are thicker and warmer.

The pattern has two brim options: the larger one is closer in size and shape to that of a baseball cap, the smaller one is more like a typical cycling cap’s brim.

This pattern is available here for free for your own personal use, but if you like it, please consider making a donation to the League of American Bicyclists.

If you have questions, put them in the comments to this post so that other people can see them too. Happy sewing!

Pattern files and instructions, in PDF:

Dill_Pickle_Cycling_Cap – instructions

Ear Flaps

Large Brim

Side Panel

Small Brim

Top Panel and Hat Band

 

Pattern pieces in JPEG format, in case the PDFs don’t work for you for some reason:

Ear Flaps

Large Brim

Side Panel

Small Brim

Top Panel and Hat Band

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Random Cycling Limericks

The site has a new silly feature, random cycling limericks at the bottom of the home page. Click refresh to get another one. If you are expecting a refined and tasteful wit, you will be disappointed, but if you would like to contribute to the list, please do send ’em on over. I reserve the right to edit for content, clarity, meter, or any other whim. 🙂

A Random Limerick: (If you don’t like it, click “refresh” for another one)

On brevets one may come to a junction
Marked by moderate mental malfunction
But instead of a break
We keep ourselves awake
With poetry about bodily function.
-E. OB

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New: Camera Insert, Reflective Mudflaps

I’ve finally gotten around to posting photos of the reflective mudflaps, plus a couple of mudflaps actually in use.

There’s also a new padded camera insert available for the small saddlebag. It’s available on the Small Saddlebag page, as well as under “Now In Stock”. For more details and photos of it in use, check out this recent post on Lovely Bicycle!

Small Saddlebag with Camera Insert, courtesy of Lovely Bicycle!

Image from Lovely Bicycle!

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