Just reading another thread on “cycling wallets” for tools etc, and I started to consider the safety aspect of carrying stuff in your jersey pockets vs in saddle or tube bags.

Apart from the comfort issue, I’m concerned whether a hard object might cause additional injury if you fall on your back. It’s also feel that my cell-phone isn’t very secure in a jersey pocket, and that it would be easily broken in a fall - which is precisely when you probably need your phone!

Becuase of these concerns, I’ve been using a saddle bag for tools & tube and a top-tube bag (Topeak) for my phone, keys & other small but hard items (e.g. small cable lock). There’s also room for some gels or snacks.

Am I worrying unnecessarily?

Has anyone here suffered an injury from stuff in your pockets or busted your cell-phone after a fall?

Probably. There are some pretty good hard cases for phones that are minimal bulk. Even if you break the screen most of the internals will still work. So if you get one of those apps (RoadID) that gives you a time period to cancel the emergency message, you’d have a significantly higher probabilty of getting a message out even if the phone took part of the impact. You could also wear something like an Apple Watch that has cellular capability. That way if your phone got whacked, you’d still be able to call out on your watch (essentially a phone backup).

My kids skied with their phones as alpine ski racers for years which meant a lot of hard falls and hard knocks. They also whacked them pretty hard on gates at speed too. We wound up replacing a few displays but the phones were never nonfunctional. Based on that, I’m pretty confident it would work. That said, nothing is foolproof - your bag can get knocked off the bike and run over by a car too.

Of course there’s extra injury risk. There’s also risk to the components that you’re carrying (ie greater chance a phone breaks in your pocket opposed to in the bag).

There’s also a chance that having your phone there could prevent you from getting stabbed by a sharp metal object you could fall on.

At at the end of the day, do what makes sense for you.

I keep my phone and pepper spray in my jersey. Everything else in my bag.

Wow. I can’t imagine a more spectacular crash with a eyeglass mirror. Hope your wife is still riding after that. Even sans mirror. I’m more like @canklecat in that I have mostly crashed on my sides. Got a baseball sized road tattoo for each side in the last few years cycle commuting. Those cases I had a backpack. The rare times I ride from home, I’ll carry mini pump, tube and tire levers in a bundle in one jersey pocket. Then cell, wallet and house key in the other two pockets. I’ve never fallen on them but anything is possible...