Versys Tail bag

I want a bag for the Versys. It doesn't have to be complicated or large, just a bag that I can put a bottle of water in and rainwear.  It is for small things.  Given that I am fairly decent at sewing, I figured I would make it myself, but the cost of the materials would be more than the bag is worth, so I decided to modify a cheap bag from Amazon.

The bag I got was this one as it seemed about the right size: 

G4Free Tactical Sling Bag Backpack Military Rover Shoulder Sling Pack Molle EDC Small Crossbody Chest Pack

The Rack

Looking at the bag and the rack, I figured that the bag would be a pretty good fit to the rack, and I could use the tie downs on the side of the rack to hold the bag in place.  

Looks about right

So how do we move forward with this to make it fit.

Most of the strap just in lips but there is one part where it is part of the bag.  That we will need to cut, so:

Cut Here

Now get your mum's sewing machine and run some grossgrain ribbon over the cut area like so (see below)

Get your mum to help

The ribbon finishes the edge and will stop it from fraying.  It's a bit rough as I have not done this for a while. So now that we have the bag without its strap, we need to figure out some way to fix it to the rack.  It needs to stay in position firmly and there are a number of ways we can do this.

I am not interested in being able to remove the bag quickly so rather than use hook and loop (Velcro) I will use tri-glides.  These can be obtained from local craft shops or of course from Amazon and other online retailers. I am also going to use some 1" webbing for this next part, and this can also be obtained from almost anywhere.  

The bag came with MOLLE webbing on the side (unlikely to ever be used) and the D rings for connecting the strap, so I decided to repurpose those:

Webbing and the D Ring

By carefully cutting the stitching on the webbing I can create a short length of webbing that will hold a tri-glide instead of a D ring. This will allow me to secure my attachment straps at one end of the bag.  The other side has a strip of webbing bar tacked onto the bag, that passes through the rack loops and under the rack.  This can then be tightened with the tri-glides and the bag is secure.

The 1" webbing and tri-glide.

To prevent the back from sliding around too much, I made a belt that can be used to cinch it down tight to the rack.. The smaller straps will stop it from moving too much but it still lifts at speed and just feels a little unsteady.  The belt will hold it tight to the rack.

1.5" webbing with a 1.5" buckle

Wrapping the belt around the bag and tightening it down provides very solid contact to the rack.  I might play around with a few other ideas but for now this will work.

And here it is in all its glory

The bag is the right size for the rack and usually carries my rain jacket, and a bottle of water.  The belt that I made also cinches down the bag to the rack, with the two smaller straps going through the rack loops stopping the bag from moving around.  I have had this up to ~75mph and it seems to be very solid.