76Projects On Bike Storage
I was quite excited when the newest products from our club sponsor, 76 Projects, dropped on my doorstep. I had looked at The Piggy before and thought it looked like a great solution for carrying your spares, so getting a chance to test it out was very welcome.
As well as The Piggy, the package also contained the latest addition to 76 Projects` on bike storage range, The Little Piggy. Both products are made from glass filled nylon and come with a high quality 50mm wide adjustable Velcro strap to secure your cargo. Also in the pack are all the extra bits you could need, a rubber band for organizing the spares prior to loading, bottle cage bolts, rubber spacers to protect the frame and The Little Piggy comes with an additional strap to allow mounting anywhere on the frame. There are also two bag options available to help keep your gear clean and dry; the piggy pouch, and the piggy dry bag.
Both products are available on 76projects.com at £25 each or £32.50 including a dry bag.
Fitting.
The Piggy
The original Piggy is designed to fit to bottle cage mounts on your frame. This would limit the range of frames that it would fit on, but the clever folks at 76Projects have designed the Piggy so that your bottle cage does not bolt through the Piggy, it bolts onto it. This means you can adjust the position of your cage in the frame to allow more room below it for the Piggy to fit, clever! This was especially handy on my Kinesis G2 frame where the bottle mounts are low and close together. Without this feature it just wouldn`t of fitted.
The Little Piggy
The Little Piggy is like a more versatile, fast fitting version of the Piggy. It has the ability to be fitted to a cage mount (but doesn’t allow the cage to be fitted at the same time) or, can be mounted using the included high quality strap to anywhere on the frame. So, as well as the multitude of fitting options you can also swap the Little Piggy easily from one bike to another.
On The Bike
Both products have the same carrying capacity and plenty of space for a large tube, multitool, tyre levers, CO2 cartridge and a very neat built in recess to store a quick link for your chain.
Once mounted up and strapped on, both piggy’s are very stable and keep your gear safe and sound. When using the strap to fit it, the Little Piggy is particularly impressive in terms of stability. Having ridden with it on some of the rougher local bridleways (MTB territory if I’m honest) I can testify to its stability, and this is its main advantage over a frame strap. I have found that a standard strap is fine but does move around when things get rough, they are not as good for carrying multiple items, and damage your frame paint at an alarming rate! No such worries with the piggy`s which has a neat silicon spacer to protect your frame and keep your pride and joy looking great for longer.
The other thing I like about these products are the ability to ditch the seat bag. Having used them for years on roads bikes, I just don’t like them on my gravel bike. I carry more spares on my gravel bike, and the tubes tend to be bigger, bulkier and heavier. All in, my “essentials” kit weighs 0.51kg! Having the ability to move all that weight away from the highest point on the bike to the lowest (if you mount under your down tube) is an easy win. Bikepackers will also like the ability to store these items and the associated weight out of their main bags, leaving more room for other essentials.
Verdict
The 76projects on bike storage makes a great alternative to the traditional saddle bag, and are far superior to a basic frame strap. The quality is high, and the design is faultless providing versatile storage with mounting options to suit many frame types and sizes.
The Piggy.
If you have the space on your frame and don’t need to transfer it from bike to bike then The Piggy is a great storage product. The quality of the product, in particular the strap, is very high and the little design features such as the quick link recess and bottle cage mounting directly to it make it a winner for me.
The Little Piggy
The versatile, mobile, frame friendly, little brother of The Piggy has the same killer features of the bigger pig. The frame mounting strap and silicon frame spacers make it a very stable carrying solution. Ideal for the gravel grinder or bike packer who wants to carry their essentials low on the frame. My favourite position for the Little Piggy was on the cage mounts underneath the down tube.
Storage and other products are available on 76projects.com
Special UKGBC Member Discount
As a special privilege, 76 projects has enabled a special discount for
UK Gravel Bike Members. In order to receive the coupon code you must sign up to the newsletter on our website
https://www.ukgravelbike.club
