Saddle Bag Alternatives
 

Hi all,

I am a relative newbie to the Southern California riding scene (moved from much cooler, wetter Germany)! I've always hated saddle bags as I think they have no place on a proper road bike. In Germany I used to carry my spare tube and tools in a tool keg, but I find myself running short on water here in the California sunshine with just one bottle (or in this case in NY for a few weeks on temp assignment - it's humid here!). So I'm looking for alternatives to the saddle bag and tool keg. I found the products listed below. Does anyone have any experience with them?

SmrT Hydration Cargo
SmrtHydration
The above seems like a good solution, but I don't think it's available yet.

Piggy Storage
https://www.76projects.com/shop/thepiggy
This gets the job done, but a little unsightly (one of my chief qualms with the saddle bag).

I don't get your problem with saddle bags. When I'm on the bike, I can't even see it.😉

I have 3 bags from these guys. They have several shapes, sizes and can be mounted in various locations. Check out the "Sale items".

https://www.jandd.com/bikes.asp

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0fbdb73dbc.jpg
This is their medium size bag. Maybe a small would have been enough.

Uber?

Right now in SOCAL the trend is seat roll saddlebags such as the Silca Premio

You could just change your mind, decide not to hate them.


-Tim-

Lezyne Road Caddy under-seat bag. It's barely noticeable. No wobble or waggle. But it's very minimal. I can't squeeze in a CO2 cartridge and Planet Bike Red Zeppelin inflator, alongside a Conti race light tube, tire lever, flat multitool and Lezyne's flat self-sticking patch kit in an envelope pouch. So I still carry a mini-pump and/or CO2 inflator in my jersey pocket.

Arundel bags are similar and a little larger, enough to hold CO2 kits. I haven't used one but a friend has one and it doesn't appear to wobble around. I know he didn't like the Serfas Speed Bag, which I use on two bikes. The Arundel Dual and Tubi bags are intended to mount sideways so they're more visible than the minimalist Lezyne Road Caddy.

There's also the Lezyne Flow Storage Cage, a water bottle cage with a small hidden compartment and straps to hold a couple of CO2 cartridges, exposed and visible. It's listed at $60 retail on Lezyne's site, but available for $20 from Amazon. Probably won't suit some minimalists who don't want visible doodads. But possibly handy for those of us who don't have support vehicles accompanying us on rides.

I tried the Silca Premio, but it was highly problematic. The Boa would hold tight, but the roll would flip backwards around the boa and in some cases the contents would start dropped out. I also had a Lezyne once that ruined a pair of bib shorts. Best saddle bag I had was an Ortlieb, and it looks fine on my commuter, but has no place on my optimized road bike.

Not sure how optimized your road bike actually is if you can’t figure out how to carry more than one bottle of water :innocent:

Exactly. This gets right to the heart of the issue, which is the OP's irrational insistence that saddle bags have no place on a "proper" road bike (which presents another question: Whether or not any of us are riding on "improper" road bikes !! :eek:)
A saddlebag is simply a tool, brought to us by the proverbial Mother Of Invention (necessity), and is no more out of place on a bike, than pockets are out of place on blue jeans, or a glove box is out of place in an automobile, or an overhead bin is out of place on an airliner, or drawers,closets,attics and basements are out of place in our homes, etc.etc and so on, and so on.
Anyway, the OP could try one of those triangle-shaped frame bags. I have one on my mtn bike, and really like it. Not sure if the OP finds these an abomination,too, but they hold a lot of stuff, securely, and closer to the center of gravity.
Something like these.....
(I may pull the trigger on this one, myself !)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K8QKMHP/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07K8QKMHP&pd_rd_w=s9k0u&pf_rd_p=8a8f3917-7900-4ce8-ad90-adf0d53c0985&pd_rd_wg=QLL82&pf_rd_r=EY5Q39HRW637ASHZSM50&pd_rd_r=b890db91-a7ae-11e9-bd3f-4b85b1506dc1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0725RVWPQ/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0725RVWPQ&pd_rd_w=cidGa&pf_rd_p=8a8f3917-7900-4ce8-ad90-adf0d53c0985&pd_rd_wg=v14NU&pf_rd_r=DFMT202DVDEGKCSF01Z8&pd_rd_r=a6114ade-a7ae-11e9-8424-2dbce0cc0929

Would a hydration backpack work? They are making fairly minimalist models these days.

Wolftooth B-RAD + your bag of choice.

https://i.imgur.com/FR91bOG.jpg?1

...unless you're on a tiny frame. Can't help you there.

If a wedge bag has no place on a proper road bike, then a tool keg definitely has no place on a proper road bike.
Either way- if you dont want to have a convenient place to carry stuff while also carrying enough water to stay hydrated, then just carry the tube and multi-tool in your jersey pocket. Thats what 'real' roadies do anyways, so drop the janky tool keg and be real!


...or just buy a wedge bag and dont look at it while riding.

Wow, some of you are a cranky bunch. I explained I've had some bad experiences with saddle bags, and I was looking for alternatives (thank you for those who suggested such). I also saddle bags look ugly - I work hard to build my bikes exactly the way I want them with premium components. I think a velcroed satchel hanging off the back doesn't fit the aesthetic. So what? So you guys criticize me for my opinion? It seems unnecessary. You could just ignore the post.

There is nothing wrong with a bit of criticism. Everything is not Unicorns and rainbows.
FYI, satchels/bags have been hanging off the back of road bikes for a hundred years so not sure how you can say it does not fit the aesthetic. You could have ofc said it does not fit your personal tastes but you didn’t.
You actually stated you think ‘they have no place on a proper road bike’
That is silly and a bit contentious.
Hence the discussion :thumb:

I did not mean to be contentious. Perhaps my language was off, for which I apologize. I did not mean to offend. I was hoping for more of a discussion about saddle bag alternatives than the validity of saddle bags.

Fair enough, the tone of my response was probably unnecessarily prickly as well. No worries, we're cool. :thumb:

All good :thumb:

There could be a saddle bag designed to look like a folded tubular tire- that would look proper...

I don't like the look of a tool keg & especially a lump of stuff below the water bottle.

Water bottle cages are for water bottles.

For a clean aesthetic there should not be something that draws a double-take e.g. Is that a water bottle or something else?

All the cool kids in Socal just put their CO2 & credit card in their jersey pocket, don't they?

+1 for the B-RAD setup from Wolftooth, works great. (altho, the bag is now back under the saddle, as much as I don't like it there, because I've been doing TTs with this bike and it's too much trouble removing the whole setup, so I leave it on the saddle and then I only have to take the cage off).

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2441a6af2f.jpg


My gravel bike has a mount under the downtube, perfect for a canister, wish every bike had that.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7ba7add6b0.jpg

I use the cheapest 10 liter Amazon backpack with the straps superglued with gorilla tape , I use Iceland lava water bottles I can fit 3 or 4 in back they stack perfect and I run one water bottle , I also have a flat kit and tube elasticed together phone and money in the front zip pocket and food bars on top , it's bulky with 4 liters of water but it gets lighter as the ride goes on some times I have to stop and refill on the 90 degree days

Of the two products you posted in your question, I'd pick the SmrT Hydration Cargo. Given the temps in S.Cal. you might add a second water rack for a full size water bottle. We did that in Europe - one for wine and the second for water - and it didn't interfere with the ride at all, aside from the fact we dehydrated on wine as much as we hydrated with the water! I think the piggy looks less secure. Good riding!

You could also have one water rack strictly for gear and a second for water bottle. The gear container would just need to be some streamlined container of the right circumference. Just a thought.

Why so harsh?
 

This reply seems a bit harsh to a civil question.

How about a frame bag?