South City Stitchworks Love Handles Review: Chef’s Kiss

The hallmark of good design is a sense that it’s obvious. Without explanation or guides, I believe the best products are self-explanatory. That’s exactly how I felt when I saw the South City Stitchworks Love Handles. With the seeds planted from Andrew Onermaa’s Tour Divide-winning single-speed run, as well as Alex Kowalski’s ventures across the country last year, the production announcement of this rack-oriented harness was an “a-ha” moment for a lot of us. Having now used the Love Handles on four bikes over six months, in this review, I’ll explore whether the apparent brilliance of the design holds up in real-world testing.

South City Stitchworks

Zach Smith started South City Stitchworks around 2023, and it gets its name from its home city of St. Louis, Missouri. In 2022, Zach worked 60+ hour weeks as a teacher, but after a difficult personal loss, he decided it no longer made sense to keep working full-time and ultimately chose to spend more time with his firstborn. With some sewing experience from a class he took with John Campbell of Alpine Luddites a few years earlier, he took to making small bags in his free time.

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According to Zach, the St. Louis bike community showed up in a huge way, and it wasn’t long until he was making bags around the clock. Though this is the first South City Stitchworks product we’ve reviewed, many readers are probably more than familiar with the brand thanks to some excellent product placement on some of the fastest and most accomplished bikepacking racers on the planet. From local heroes like Oklahoma-based Dave Easley to record-setters and race winners like Hannah Simon and Andrew Onermaa, SCSW has risen to prominence through great products and friends in the right places.

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Wanting to get in on the action myself, I took the bait and asked Zach to make a custom top-tube bag for my beloved Ritchey P-29er last year. Though a custom product doesn’t necessarily warrant a review, Zach’s precision, attention to detail, craftsmanship, and ability to create custom solutions are evident in even the smallest of his bags.

More than a good name

With a tongue-in-cheek naming convention, the Love Handles are what they sound like. Like the excess tissue that accumulates around our midsections in the off-season, the Love Handles are a rack-oriented harness system that wraps around a dry bag, securing it to the rack while adding extra cargo capacity via zippered pockets. The original idea was brought to Zach by Alex Kowalski, who needed a custom, lightweight option for his adventures. Zach iterated upon the design and ended up with what you see here. The Love Handles are built with Ecopak EPX200 and Ultra-Stretch fabrics, YKK molded-tooth zippers, and Voile straps. They also have two attachment points and a bungee-cord-actuated lace system that keeps everything set and secure.

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While you can use the Love Handles any way that works, they’re intended for rack systems like the Mica Rat Tail or any model with an oblong top section. Ideal for platforms with at least two areas for the straps to wrap around, the harness cinches around the outside of a dry bag with two Voile straps. I typically pass mine underneath the rails of whatever rack I’m using and cinch it down with the sufficiently thick, lengthy Voile straps that come with the system. The harness also uses a laced bungee cord system on top of the pack to secure itself and take the shape of whatever bag you’re using. In my experience, using it with the stuff sack one of my bivys came with, as well as a small 9L drybag, it works quite well. However, it might not be as good of a fit for those using much larger dry sacks that sit above the 12L mark.

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As Zach states in the product description, “The Love Handles add two zippered 0.8L stretchable mesh pockets that can expand beyond their rated capacity when needed, and include shock cord lashing up top for stashing a layer.” Typically, I’ll use the non-drive-side storage for all the small trash that accumulates on a bikepacking trip, and the drive-side pocket easily fits an iPhone, battery bank, extra tube, and multi-tool. They stretch well, protect against the elements, and sit in convenient spots. If I’m nitpicking, I’d like to see a bigger version or one with much larger pockets, but that’s a minor complaint. Although the pockets are the only official place to store extra gear, I’ve also used the bungee cord area to place things like a 1L water bladder underneath, cinching the system down over both the dry bag and the extra piece of kit.

The Love Handles in Use

If you caught my last few bike reviews, you might have spotted the Love Handles. It just makes sense as a topper for almost any rack, as you don’t need a specific kind of bag—just one that fits. The Love Handles serve as both a space for small gear and as the attachment system.

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Though my time with this harness system included the Tailfin Journey, Velo Orange There and Back, and Mica racks, Miles also used it on a front rack in a more horizontal orientation. With more than a few trips with his set of Love Handles, he had some feedback about the harness.

Miles’s Love Handles Review

The South City Stitchworks Love Handles rack harness’s greatest strength is its simplicity. Compared to other complete systems I’ve used, including the Ride Forward Designs lineup, the OMM Atlas Pack, and the new Revelate Burrote, the Love Handles harness takes a different approach by letting you use the dry bags you already own. I tested the Rockgeist Armadillo Dry Bag Protector when it was released in 2020, an even more minimalist harness system, and I remember thinking it was a fresh approach, but I knew someone would eventually take it a step further. SCSW did exactly that with the Love Handles.

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I’ve been using two sizes of Love Handles: both the standard stock size and a custom wide version for racks with larger platforms. With a properly fitting dry bag packed tightly and the Voile straps cranked down, there is virtually no movement. Running the Voile straps behind the exterior stretch pockets is a clever touch that lets the pockets function normally, no matter what’s happening behind them. The bungee lace-up on top is a great place to stash an extra layer, but it also holds the dry bag in place when unpacking or packing up at camp. The only downside of a harness system like the Love Handles is that there’s a minimum size dry bag that fits, and if, for some reason, its contents shrink, you might run out of room to cinch the harness around the bag. South City Stitchworks recommends a 7″ (18cm) minimum diameter dry bag with the stock 25” Voile straps, and larger bags aren’t a problem with longer straps.

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For most of my testing, I’ve used the Love Handles in a slightly unusual orientation: mounted sideways on a prototype front rack from Mica Cycles. I found this setup particularly useful, as the rider-facing exterior pocket provided an easy-to-reach spot for snacks or garbage, and the front-facing pocket became a good spot to store a multi-tool, sunscreen, or other useful items I sometimes want close by. Emily tried running a tapered dry bag from an old Porcelain Rocket Mr. Fusion in the Love Handles mounted to a Mica Rat Tail during a group trip on the Lower Sunshine Coast Bikepacking Route this summer, and she found that the tapered profile wasn’t conducive to the harness, and it kept working its way loose. With a cylindrical or non-tapered bag, we never had any issues with it moving. If there’s any way to improve the design, some additional grip inside the harness would likely help hold the dry bag in place, but that’s only an issue with tapered or loosely packed dry bags.

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In terms of value, the Love Handles are pricey. At $175 for the standard version, which doesn’t include the dry bag itself, you could purchase the new Revelate Designs Burrote plus straps, the OMM Atlas Pack, or the Rogue Panda Designs Elden or Picketpost, and still have cash left in your pocket. None of these options are harnesses, so you’re limited by the system’s capacity, whereas the Love Handles can accommodate a range of dry bags and straps for different trips. Or, if the side pockets aren’t a must-have, the Rockgeist Armadillo with two Voile straps is just $43. I really enjoy using the harness system, rather than an all-in-one rack-top bag, and the zippered UltraStretch pockets are probably the best exterior pockets I’ve used.

• Model Tested: Love Handles Rack Harness
• Actual Weight: 240 grams (8.4 oz)
• Place of Manufacture: St. Louis, MO
• Price: $175
• Manufacturer’s Details: South City Stitchworks

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