I’ve got one of those Ortlieb mini-messenger bags which I bought a couple of years ago and I love it.
But they have a major design flaw- the stiff plastic insert that gives the bag shape, slowly but surely wears through the outer fabric as shown in this pic:
So my question is can you repair this sort of hole that’s formed at the corner? Is it something I should leave for the experts, or maybe there is a solution I can do myself?
Any ideas would be great, Cheers Horatio
Take it to Remote in Lt Bourke St.
Oh and don’t buy Ortleibs cause you can’t fix them and they wear out 
You should ask me before you buy anything 
Okay that’s like 10 metres from my work. It’s really a matter of how much they’re going to want to charge me though.
Are you serious about the ‘not able to fix them thing’?
Please spud, be my personal fixed gear specific shopping consultant! :lol:
Duct Tape. There is nothing it cant fix.
Check out the return policy as well, one of the messengers I used to work with would take his back to where he bought it every couple of years and they would replace it with a new one. He bragged that he hadn’t bought a new one for like 10 years.
He was THE most full of shit courier on the planet so take it with a huge container of salt, but could be worth a shot.
I got some upgrades and fixes made to my reload midpack before xmas. small repairs were very reasonable (<$15).
they are really nice as well…
haha yes I actually went down this path with the distributor, and they were pretty good about it. They offered me half-price on a new bag (the larger one) which I use now. Not a bad deal considering it was about 1 1/2 years old.
Having said that, the flaw in the bottom of the bag is annoying because the rest of the bag is virtually unworn, while there is a big gaping hole in the bottom. You would expect better from ze Germans. 
I’ll check out the Lt Bourke St place. Support some locals eh?
I was under the impression that Ortlieb had a worldwide 5 year warranty:
Is this just for Germany?
Interesting, however when I took my bag into the LBS I bought it, the Ortlieb Rep refused to replace it as it was ‘heavily used’. They did however offer a new bag for half price, or would pay for the repair.
I took the half price new bag option, which is why I’m left with this damaged old bag.
Overall I think they handled it pretty well.
So did he say this warranty doesn’t apply in oz or that heavily used bags dont fall under the warranty?
Thread dig, I bounced a pannier off at ~50kph.
It looks like Remote has moved to Hoppers Crossing. Anyone have any recommendations for repairers closer to Melb.
On a related note, I can now highly recommend i-Blasson MacBook Armorbox Cases
Can’t help with a local repairer. I think Bogong still send stuff back and forth to Remote since they moved out, but my knowledge is still years out of date.
Nevertheless, for self repair of welded waterproof gear like Ortlieb I recommend sewing with nylon thread and a thick needle (and thimble) followed by a good coating of seam grip. It looks a bit ugly but works. I did it on my Chrome welded backpack when the seams started to go. Works on tent flys, waterproof jackets - I always carry seam grip and needle and thread in my repair kit.