Nordic Cycle Trip - Post #4

The Ortlieb Ultimate Compact handlebar bag arrived yesterday, props to the Pasco postal service turning it around Saturday morning. The compact is, obviously, smaller than the medium. It's less obtrusive but holds less stuff. Here are a few pictures of them mounted on the yellow bike.

So which one should i take? I don't really know. The whole point of the handlebar bag is to hold the large battery so i can power the Go Pro for more than an hour at a time. I can fit this much stuff in the Compact bag:

That's the battery, a 50mm rubik's cube, an external hard drive, passport, wallet, sunglasses case (spare SD cards, batteries, lighter, knife, string, corkscrew), and the Go Pro (for when i'm not using it). If i use the larger bag i'll have additional room for some snacks and some extra things i might want to have more accessible. I want to say it's not worth the hassle of carrying the larger bag, but how much worse would it really be? Yesterday i was planning on returning the medium bag to REI today. Now i'm unsure.

A brief review of the bags... If you know anything about panniers and bicycle bags you know that Ortlieb makes great stuff. Super durable, well made, well thought out. All of that is true so i'm not just going to put out my criticisms. I wish the shoulder strap was longer on both of the bags. fully extended it's barely long enough to get the bag to my waist. if i wanted to put it on the other shoulder and cross my body the bag is under my armpit. The only other thing is the funny looking wings on the closure of the Compact bag. I'm pretty sure they're there to make sure it stays as waterproof as possible, but they look silly and make it about 3 inches wider looking. I've tried folding them towards the inside and it sort of works. if i decide to keep it i may try cutting out the plastic bits inside to make it work even better.