There are so many different options out there…
What is everyone rolling with? My old Bontrager’s straps are wearing out. Doesnt need to hold much (co2, tube, tire lever).
This is for my road bike.
Thanks in advance
I put everything in my jersey pockets.
I have an Arundel Pico on one bike and Silca Matone on the other. Both are fairly compact but have enough room for the essentials.
The Silca does a better job with organization. It opens like a book and has a divider inside with a pocket to store cash, patches, a credit card, or any other small item (i keep $5, a valve core tool, and a spare valve extension in mine). Theh divider allows you to keep the tube on one side and multi tool, co2, or whatever else on the other side. I guess this probably prevents a sharp object from rubbing against the tool. To me, the downside of the Matone is the boa that attaches it to the saddle. It looks clean, but a boa seems like a slightly more complicated system than what is necessary…and i prefer the style of boa that you can turn one way to tighten and the other way to loosen vs the style where you need to pull out to release. I had some zipper issues on my Matone, but rubbing the inside of the zipper with wax seemed to fit that.
The Pico is slightly smaller and doesn’t open as wide, which makes it a little more difficult to access your stuff inside. However, I like the simplicity of the velcro strap on this compared to the boa on the Silca. It’s also slightly smaller and in my opinion better looking than the silca. The zipper has been really nice and easy to use, and it has some reflective bits on it which i like. It’s also cheaper than the Silca. The build quality seems very very high for the price.
Both of these are an upgrade over the bontrager i had (my straps wore out too). They look better, function just as good, and i think will last much longer than the bontrager. They both strap tightly to the seat post rails and don’t bounce around.
I also have an Outvi Possum tool roll. This is great for fitting LOTS of stuff in an organized manor, but my tools got rusty from being exposed to the elements and I also lost a spare etap battery that seemed like it was strapped in tight enough, but obviously wasn’t. I love the concept of this product, but it’s not a good solution for all-weather riding.
I have the (precursor to the?) Silca seat roll ( https://silca.cc/collections/bags/products/seat-roll-asymmetrico ) that I picked up after the Cookie Fondo on sale. Not great for quick access, but keeps things nice and secure (and protected from one another). Mine looks more like the ones in the customer photos at the bottom than the ones at the top, but the non-visual design seems similar.
I used to be a pockets guy, but got a Silca Matone this year and it is the cat’s ass.
I hated my old saddle bag, with the velcro around the seat post, since my thighs would rub on it, and it would wear out the inner thighs on all of my shorts, so I stopped using it and would throw stuff in a jersey pocket. For races I would either risk and go without, or electrical tape a tube, levers and a handpump to my set rails. I did just order a Lezyne tool roll to attach to the rails of the saddle so that I can throw a tube, levers, pump and multi-tool there, and free up space in my jersey pockets for more snacks…
There’s a multitude of ways to store the handful of small items needed for repairs etc on a bike without resorting to pockets. If you’re riding a bike anywhere but a trainer or a velodrome, surely you should always have puncture repair equipment with you. I pretty much treat such essential kit as part of the bike. Relying on putting it in your pocket every time you head out is just a bad idea. Why give yourself something to remember every time you head out when you can design that requirement out of the equation? More importantly - who wants unnecessary stuff in their pockets being uncomfortable, taking up useful real estate, and potentially being less aerodynamic.
I put everything in my jersey pockets.
You should really do something about that. Are you trying to imitate a pro minus the support car? Are you trying to minimise unsprung (kinda) weight on the frame? … I was going to include list but I’m running out of ideas already. Why use pockets when plenty relatively inexpensive, more convenient and more reliable solutions exist?
https://speedsleev.com/products/speedsleev-ranger
Have 2 of these in different sizes and will never use anything else
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Because 99% of saddle bags look terrible and rattle, the silca matone is nice because the boa closure really pulls it up tight.
Tool bottle here, and put it in a frame or BTS cage. For decades , I just used an old water bottle. Now I have a dedicated XLab tool bottle. It’s too easy to just grab it and throw it on whichever bike I head out on.
Because 99% of saddle bags look terrible and rattle, the silca matone is nice because the boa closure really pulls it up tight.
Appearances are purely subjective, but there’s plenty small, tidy saddlebags that are pretty unobtrusive, but regardless, appearance is a terrible reason to stick tools and spares in your pocket every ride.
If you think 99% of saddle bags rattle you’re just attaching and/or packing your saddle bag wrong. If it’s attached securely it won’t rattle empty. If it’s not left half full it won’t rattle when packed. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever had a saddle bag rattle (it would drive me mad if it did) and have used them for for many tens of thousands of kilometers. If you buy a suitably sized bag, you’re unlikely to have any difficulty, but it’s hardly difficult to figure out it’s possible to simply fill empty space with negligible mass using a cloth, a sponge, some bubble wrap, whatever…and no rattle. A boa to cinch it up is utterly unnecessary over-design for most applications - seriously we’re talking about a small bag containing, what? 200-250g of stuff?
seat post bolt wore a hole in my previous bag, looked around and like many others I concluded the Silca Mattone is the smallest thing that could possibly work…
Inside the design matches well to what I need. Not a big fan of the BOA closure, have to find the manual every time to figure out how to loosen it - pull ? push ? slide ? twitch ? but don’t need to do that very often so it’s OK. It’s still infinitely better than velcro, which will catch on clothes and other things, and fail unexpectedly.
on the race bike I have a small mesh bag, lashed to the seat using an old toe strap. This is the lightest possible thing, but I’m going to upgrade to a Silca here too.
I hated my old saddle bag, with the velcro around the seat post, since my thighs would rub on it, and it would wear out the inner thighs on all of my shorts
ha. My bag did that, rode with it for a decade or so until I finally got to doing something about it 
We can’t claim to be 100% objective, but we make a few good top tube storage solutions, if you’re not a fan of saddle bags. And we make our packs ourselves, in the usa.
https://darkspeedworks.com/products.htm
I use a strap like one of these: https://www.worldwidecyclery.com/collections/tool-wrap
I use one on my MTB and it holds quite a bit. Tube, tire lever, C02 + nozzle, tire plug kit, spare hanger. Doesn’t rattle since you can pull it really snug. I’ll never go back to a saddle bag.
I use a couple different options on my TT bike as am out for longer rides than on my road bike: Dark Speed Works SpeedPack 915, and just got a Xlab Mezzo bag to hang under my Wing attached to the seat. I stuff a folded spare tire down inside the wing and all the rest of the stuff (levers, tube, CO2, etc) goes in the Mezzo underneath. On my road bike right now I only have a DSW SpeedPack 915 and that’s been enough. I used to keep everything except a spare tire inside a water bottle but for 4-5hour rides that doesn’t let me carry enough water (so moved toward using the Mezzo now, which helped me recover the tools-bottle space).
Travis
I’ve been using a Dib Bottle this year and really like it. On my TT bike, it is my BTA bottle. On my road bike, I’ll take it alone if it is a shorter ride or as a second bottle on a longer ride. I should probably just buy the larger top (16.2oz vs 10.8oz) so I have all the options. It definitely isn’t large for tool storage, but I have no problems fitting a multi-tool, CO2+inflator, tire lever, long valve (80mm) tube, and even a stubby track nut box wrench (for my fixed gear TT bike). I wrap the tools in a piece of fabric and that prevents rattling. If I left out the box wrench, I could fit a second CO2.
For the road bike I have a Lyzene Road Caddie. Its small. It is narrower than and barely extends past the rear of my saddle. It has just the one velcro strap that goes around the bag and saddle rails. No seat post strap and no inner thigh rubbing which was also an issue of mine. It is very secure and does not move around at all. I keep a CO2 and injector, road tube, tire lever, a couple patches and boots, a valve tool, and extender. It is zipper closure so no worry of losing anything while on the road. I usually keep my pump on my frame and my bike wallet in my zippered jersey pocket. The only upgrade that I wish it had would be a boa closure over the velcro strap. But that is getting my cake and eating it too since the strap does the job just fine and a rarely have to deal with it.