gauvins

There are more and more multi-tools / flat repair kits that are stored inside the bike (handlebars, steerer, hub, etc.).

I am storing wrench + bits in my handlebars and flat kit inside the pump. I've seen suggestions wrt $20 bills, air tags or zip-ties; mountain bikers routinely (?) tape spare tubes to their frame, others carry spokes in the seat tube, etc.

What else? Useful or fad? Negatives?

Tourist in MSN

I am probably the one that you heard about carrying spare spokes in a seatpost. That is the only thing that I carry inside the bike.

Tubes, I put those in a zip lock before putting them wherever they are going to go, you do not want a bit of sand in between your tire and tube so you should make sure that your tubes stay clean. I also put a bit of tyvek in that baggie from a post office envelope in case a tire boot is needed.

When on a tour, two spare tubes go in a small external pack on the bike along with a patch kit, tire lever(s) and a 5mm allen wrench. The 5mm wrench is because when touring I use bolt on skewers, as I usually do not lock both wheels to the frame when locking the bike, thus need that wrench if I need to replace a tube. Usually (if not too concerned about theft) the pump is stored on the frame too. Everything else in a pannier.

When I am not touring, spare tube, tire lever(s), saddle cover, small multitool and maybe a few patches goes into a container in the water bottle cage under the downtube. And a pump on the outside of the frame. For the container in the bottle cage, I either use a dedicated container that was sold for that purpose, or a re-purposed peanut butter jar that I sprayed black. Everything else goes in a handlebar bag. But when touring, that cage is used for water bottle, not a container full of spares.

str

I carry all my money in the seat tube.

denis_987

What do you do if the money get stuck at the bottom of the tube (apart from crying) ?

gauvins

Use storage capsules, perhaps like this

denis_987

Nice! Didn't know that a thing like that existed

Darth Lefty 

I've even seen a multi tool that goes in the hollow crank spindle

I do not understand the strapped-on tube thing at all. How is it not ruined when you go to use it?

Steve B.

Not getting the point of hiding stuff in the frame, as well I don't see the point of having built in storage compartments on a bike. I carry 2 tubes, 3-4 co2, an Alien tool, boots in a seat bag and a mini pump mounted on a bottle cage. I do not require anything other then flat fixing tools, the Alien tool lets me fix a chain as well as gives assorted Allen keys, and in 30 years of cycling thats all I've ever needed to fix. I can see a spare rear spoke or two on my tourer, but then you need a way to get the cassette off to install a spoke. Maybe on a cross country tour I'd carry those.

indyfabz

Different strokes for different folks.

gauvins

From what I understand, it started with mountain bikers needing tools and spares but wanting to avoid carrying a fanny pack, or some kind of saddle bag. A few innovative outfits (OneUp components; Granite design etc.) came up with clever solutions, which have caught on. For commuters the benefit is that tools and essential spares are always with the bike (I quite frequently go for short bike trips -- office/store -- w/o the handlebar bag where I usually carry wrench and bits). On tour, less obvious benefit, but stashing small parts in the bike instead of in the handlebar bag frees space for other things.

Steve B.

Only place I would distribute repair stuff is on a bike carrying a large bikepacking type seat bag. Then no place for a small seat bag. I tend to carry my mt. bike kit in a CamelBack, because I have the same kit for 2 bikes and do not want to buy 2 complete repair kits and I always use a CamelBack when mt, biking.

veganbikes

Then you wouldn't want to be me...LOL. I have 4-5 kits for different bikes. Most of them are pretty basic and not ridiculously expensive (usually based with a Crank Bros M10 and some form of Topeak bag) but my recent one for my main commuter and the kit I use at work frequently when selling or quick repairs was ridiculous. 12 PB Swiss (two are Wera) Bits in a 3d printed magnetic holder with a short Snap On 1/4 Bit Ratchet. Then for tires I have a Crank Bros Speedier Lever and a Wolf Tooth x Magura 8 bit lever which I really only got for the Magura part but the lever is light enough I just keep it for back up and CO2 and inflator that I had lying about with a patch kit with glued patches and glueless. However I carry around a Topeak Morph pump for longer trips and a little Race Rocket for normal commuting so the CO2 is redundant. It all sits fairly nicely in a Muc-Off Rainproof Essentials case but the Crank Bros lever does bulk it up a bit but I love the lever so not gonna change that. Luckily though this is my most used tool kit and frequently find myself using it more than some of my hex wrenches in the tool box now.

I suspect though with a little work I could move the ratchet and tools to a handle bar end plug type thing or a steerer tube mount but would need a smaller headed ratchet. The Snap-On is too big for most handle bars.

I just hate moving bags around for different bikes due to different tube sizes. My Langster and Chilkoot share a bag because they are both 700x28 so I don't mind swapping a bag the quick fix mounts and I guess my Co-Motion, Privateer and Single Speed/Fixed Gear RandoCross FunTime Machine also use the same tube sizes but my touring kit is a big bag with all sorts of extra junk in case I need it for emergencies but the SS/FG RC FTM has a frame bag and the Privateer has a Moloko bag so I just keep some extra in there and my vintage Phil Wood Apple bike has some older tools I don't use that often and really didn't want the quick fix mount. The mountain bike is a frame bag and a ratchet from Feedback I think that was on clearance somewhere but that set up has yet to get refined and had plans for more internal storage as the thread title suggests.

I guess I like tools a lot and like to be ready just in case. I also have too many bikes and not enough bikes I wish I could somehow store a bike in stasis where nothing would change on it and it would take up almost no space and ride it whenever I wanted that would solve a lot of too many bikes for me and with the ones I don't ride maybe they could be visible in full 360˚ HD imaging so I could stare at it from any device and not have it taking up space.

Tourist in MSN

You have clearly thought this out.

Tourist in MSN

I mentioned above that I carry spare spokes inside the seat post, and that is all that goes inside the bike. It makes sense to me since the odds are that I will never need a spare spoke, thus unlikely to ever need to go through the hassle of removing seatpost to get to them. And the spoke sizes are different for every one of my bikes so this way the spare spokes are always with the correct bike.

If you can easily access something inside a handlebar, I can see that as a storage place, but several of my bikes have bar end shifters, the drop bar bikes that do not use bar end shifters usually have the handlebar tape folded over the end of the bar and shoved inside the bar end. Thus, that would not work on my bikes.

Not touring, I like putting it on the bike but out of the way, yet easily accessible like the downtube bottle cage that I added to my rando bike in the photo below. That is a nice little case with a zipper opening, but if forecast is for heavy rain I put the container in a plastic bag due to the lack of waterproofing.




Or the Zefal container on my light touring bike, below. The top of the tool container unscrews, so it is much more waterproof than the above one.




My road bike, I use a peanut butter jar, sprayed black for that stuff. I forgot the brand of peanut butter, the newer shrinkflatted Skippy jars do not fit but ones several years ago worked great.




But if I am touring, there usually is a water bottle in that cage instead. Thus, it makes the most sense to put this stuff in a pannier.

tcs

My Alex Moulton had a pump inside the seatpost. With my wife's Dahon, the seatpost is the pump.



A few carbon fiber framed bikes have internal storage compartments that will fit a small tool roll. Trek Domane:



A quarter century ago I wrote a short vignette about transportation of stuff inside a bike frame:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/shaddox.html#cocaine

Tourist in MSN

Cute.

I have wondered after I handed my bike over to TSA at the airport if the cork I have shoved into my seatspost would be removed when I got it back. I use a wine cork to hold my spare spokes in the seatpost. (The cork shrunk over time, I wrapped some inner tube rubber over the cork to make it stay where I put it. If you try this, expect shrinkage.)



But so far, TSA left the cork in the end of the seatpost every time.

veganbikes

Yeah just a tad.

Pratt

On a tour, my load is about 30llb. so the weight saving of tools in the tubes is negligible. In fact, my touring repair kit, including chain lube, wouldn't fit in the frame tubes.

djb

While the concept is certainly a sound one, especially with a minimalist setup. I just prefer to keep things simple and keep my repair kit anyways in the same plastic bag that I can easily keep track of from one bike to another.
This way I don't ever find myself missing something if a situation arises.
On really long trips I have a zippered pouch that I put my stuff in, it holds more and has 1 main inner section and 2 other smaller outer ones on each side, which makes things less of a jumble and stays in that shape. Plus I'll bring more things, brake pads, small set of pliers to help removing pads, so having more space is handy and I like having one contained object that I put in the bottom of a pannier.

I guess part of my attitude is also not wanting to spend more money on new tools that fit inside places, when I have perfectly good working things already.

Tourist in MSN

Fully agree. I have two tool bags for touring, one for my Rohloff and S&S bike, the other for my derailleur bikes. And some tools that always go on a tour so those tools move from one bag to the other. And with cable spares, brake spares, etc., there is enough weight that I want the tool bag in the bottom of a pannier. Both tool bags are fabric zippered bags.

Only once have I had to empty out all my stuff from a pannier to get out my tools on a tour, needed my cassette lock ring tool. And that tool would not fit inside the hollow space in a handlebar or seat tube. And that was on one of my shortest tours, short enough you are tempted to not bring the contingencies along. So I was fortunate that I did.

Yan 

I carry spokes inside the seat post because they tend to get bent up in the pannier. Everything else, no.

gauvins

1. Yes... I'd be surprised if there were weight savings. Total tool volume is almost certainly less that 1L (1 pint) so it is very unlikely that you'll be able to travel with smaller bags.

2. Most tools should fit, if they are designed for that purpose. Kits typically come with standard Hex/Torx/Philips bits and wrench. Some include a chain breaker, space for a CO2 cartridge, tire levers, space for a master chain link, bacon and needle to repair tubeless tires, tool and spare core Presta... quite impressive. (small oil bottle could very probably be stashed in the seatpost -- this past summer oil has leaked inside my panniers. Just a few drops, and inside a nearly spill-proof pouch, but enough to create a mini mess (spoiled DCF tape, oily brake pads, etc.)

3. One benefit (my reason to look seriously into this, actually) is to reduce clutter in handlebars bag/panniers and, because I have only one bike used for commuting/errands/touring, to make sure that essential tools are always with me.

Tourist in MSN I'll try to figure out a way to stash a cassette removal tool Perhaps not *inside* the bike, but tied to the frame or something. The point being that it would be there, panniers or no panniers

Tourist in MSN

For my past few tours I had my chain lube in my handlebar bag. Previous to that there were too many times when I planned to lube my chain in the campsite, but forgot and the lube being in a pannier would be inconvenient to get during the riding part of the day. Thus, it now is always in the handlebar bag where I can get it out in seconds if I decide my drive train is getting noisy. It is always in an upright position, my handlebar bag is that crowded that it can't fall over to lie on the side.

***

The Unior one is really tiny.
https://uniorusa.com/products/pocket...34378801315884

But if you use that you should make sure that your cassette lock ring is not torqued down REALLY tight while still at home where you have the heavy duty tools for that.

gauvins

I'll probably carry a standard cassette tool driven with a Wera mini zyklop. The Wera ratchet is tiny, yet rated at 60NM (vs 40 for cassettes). Would be fun if the cassette adapter could fit somewhere. Doubtful but I'll try (on previous trips I carried Wolftooth component wrench + adapter. Might still be the best option.)

Tourist in MSN

Speaking of tiny tools like ratchets, this one has a tire lever handle, but I was lucky to buy mine a few months ago when that packet with bits was half the price.
https://www.prestacycle.com/product/...-lever-handle/

I am not sure but I suspect that the version two is on clearance sale since they have a newer version three.
https://www.prestacycle.com/product/...alever-handle/

Version three:
https://www.prestacycle.com/product/...ii-multi-tool/