It all started out innocently enough…I thought that I’d shoot off some bottle rockets one day out on the bike, somewhere safe…out in the middle of nowhere. The launch was a success but the powder from the rockets melted a nice hole in my Revelate Designs Mountain Feedbag. In retrospect, I guess that I should’ve brought along a bottle. That powder burn caused me to start a search for a new feedbag. I’ve ridden with a variety of different maker’s versions of this style bag. I’ve gotten used to having quick easy access to food and water that these feedbag-style cockpit bags can provide.
A short, incomplete History of (bicycle) Feedbags
I remember the first time that I saw a feedbag (on a bike). Colin Ford and I went out to Iowa City to visit Adam Blake. When we got to IC we parked the truck and the three of us rode everywhere. We managed to hit quite a number of drinking establishments. It was sometime during that series of adventures that Adam said that he always kept a feedbag full of gummy worms on his bike. It was the original Epic Designs Feedbag that he’d won at Dirty Kansa. It must have made a lasting impression on me.
Maybe that’s because it was such a phantasmagoric weekend! We slurped world-famous Colonial Lanes jello shots with crazy names for their thirty-one flavors, like Purple Elastic Thunder Fuck. Somewhere during Saturday night’s festivities, Adam’s bike got stolen but the story has a happy ending. We found it the next morning down the street from the Bluebird Diner. (If you ever find yourself in Iowa City, go to the Bluebird. They have super delicious vittles)
Soon after that trip, I tried a Bike Bage Dude Chaff Bag. (I think that I shot bottle rockets out of that bag as well). Over the next few years, my hydration migrated from a Camelback back to waterbottles. I started out by carrying my bottles inside of a frame bag. Back in those days, I carried my puffy Jacket and extra hats, mittens, etc in a lightweight backpack. Once I tried a pair of feedbags, my water bottles moved from the frame bag up to the feedbags. That made room for the Puffy Jacket (and friends) to move into the frame bag with my pump/tube/tools and the backpack went away. That was probably three or four years ago. I currently run this sort of bag on both of my fat bikes (Otis & Ten Beers).
Enter the Spacelink
The Spacelink replaces a 1 1/8″ headset spacer above or below the stem. It has a slot that allows two feedbags and one top tube bag to securely attach to the steer tube with no additional straps. It’s a pretty slick setup! The initial trial marriage with my existing feedbags worked, however, the webbing on the existing bags was sewn in the verticle axis, and the Spacelink’s slot lives on the horizontal plane. It worked fine, but it required the webbing to be twisted on the two feedbags. The Top Tube Bag’s webbing is horizontal, so it worked better. That sent me to the Rockgeist website to make sure that I had set things up correctly.
When I first saw a photo of the Spacelink, I thought that it looked like an adapter used on 45 records way back when pressed vinyl was the only game in town. I’d strapped enough bags on and off of my bikes to theorize that the Spacelink might be a ‘better mousetrap’. So I ordered one right away with the thought of using it with my current (slightly singed) feedbags.
The Spacelink was what led me to check out the Rockgeist Honeypot. I noticed that the Honeypots could be ordered with webbing made to work with a Spacelink! The chain of events that started with a few bottle rockets led me to order the Spacelink and that led me to try a pair of Honeypots. Next thing that you know, I’m ordering some new bike bags from a bagmaker that I’d never tried before. I contacted the folks at Rockgeist to learn more about their company.
Who is Rockgeist?
Rockgeist specializes in custom and small-batch gear. Their bags are made in Asheville, North Carolina. They’re a cottage gear company; meaning all their gear is built in small production runs. The company is steeped in bikepacking culture and remains dedicated to understanding the needs of its customers that span the many facets or styles of bikepacking. They live the bike life and that’s something of a core value that I can really support. Innovations like the Spacelink are usually born out of time well spent turning pedals and in this case, turning pedals with bags strapped to the bike.
Get to the Point Gomez
The Honeypot Feedbag can be ordered for use with a Spacelink or set up to use standard straps. I ordered a pair in black to run with the Spacelink. The Honeypots are sewn to order so you can choose from a variety of colors. The turnaround time was about three weeks. When the bags arrived, they looked great and I wasted no time getting them on my murdered out Corvus (Ten Beers). The Honeypots are a little bit larger than the feedbags that I had been running. They can accommodate a Nalgene bottle so there’s no problem fitting insulated bottles. I found myself sliding extra things in with a regular-sized water bottle (like more space for bottle rockets).
The Honeypots have a mesh outer pocket that’s perfect for Bars, Gels, or their wrappers. There’s a grommeted drain hole at the bottom of each bag so they won’t flood and to relieve any excess backpressure during rocket testing. I like the larger capacity and love the direct mount to the Spacelink. The strap that attaches the bottom of the Honeypot to the fork crown utilizes a simple double-back buckle. I’m still toying around with how to run the straps. They’re currently in a figure-eight cross your heart bra configuration. The bottom straps come with nice velcro strap-minders that help keep the ends of the strap from rubbing the front tire.
The Honeypots feature a one-handed open/close for access while riding. The draw-cord opening on the Honeypots doesn’t work quite as smoothly as the one-handed draw-cord on the Revelate Designs Feedbags. And neither of those draw-cord bags are as easy as the flip-top feature on the Cedaero Devil’s Kettle. The larger carrying capacity of the Honeypots will come in very handy on bikepacking trips and for me, that’s more important than having instantaneous access.
In the end, I’m happy with the chain of events that led me to discover Rockgeist’s Honeypot Feedbags with the Spacelink mount. I know that there’s somebody out there right now that’s probably asking themselves if the Spacelink is lighter than the velcro straps that it replaces. (Spoiler Alert) It’s probably not. However, it does provide a more secure connection between the three cockpit bags that I commonly run. That secure connection also allows the bags to interact with the bar/stem that is less restrictive when the bar/stem is rotated. The Spacelink allows the bag’s webbing to move within the secured slot. It should reduce the amount of rubbing and abrasion that’s common with normal straps. I like this setup very much. As we get into the warmer weather, It’ll be nice to be able to carry larger volume water bottles in my Honeypots. I’ll be putting this setup through its paces over the next year and report back with a long-term review at that point. Till then, Happy Gnomes Amigos!
For more information about Rockgeist visit – https://rockgeist.com/
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