Saddle bag contents

Flickr says my most “interesting” photo is this picture of my bicycle saddlebag contents from 2007.


My saddle bag

The contents are pretty much the same today as it was then. (pproximately) left to right:

  • CO2 cartridges (16 gram threaded)

  • Inflator (for use with threaded CO2 cartridges)
  • Glueless patches.
  • Adjustable wrench / spanner for wheel removal
  • Tube
  • Tire levers x 2
  • Chainring wrench
  • Topeak Alien multitool

Part of the chainbreaker on the Alien has disappeared, and I carry a 15mm Park Tools cone wrench in place of the adjustable wrench these days when riding a nutted axle. I no longer carry the chainring wrench. I’ve also given up on glueless patches — I carry a traditional path kit with a tiny tube of glue.

For the winter I keep this little tool bag inside of my backpack — rain + enclosed vinyl bag = slow death for metal parts.

What’s in your bag?

11 Comments

  1. CO2 inflater, 3 CO2 carts, spare tube, Park Tool Glueless Patches, pair of tire levers, Park Tool MTB3 (small box-end wrenches, allens, pedal wrench, chainbreaker and bottle opener), a couple of zip ties (you never know…) and two really small emergency lights: One red, one white. I also forgot: A couple of $1 coins for emergency bus fare. They pack small 😀

  2. My standard kit: Mini-tool, 1 tire lever, tube, Rema “tip-top” patch kit, a piece of old sew-up tire casing for use as a boot, crank bros. mini-pump.

    Add 15mm wrench/bottle-opener if riding fixed-gear.

    If commuting, add: zip-ties, front & rear spare lights.

    Add CO2 if riding with a group.

    Add shock/fork pump, med. kit, small roll duct tape, space blanket if MTB.

    Add assorted bigger tools and small parts if touring.

  3. what isn’t in my bag 🙂 3 or 4 flashlights including 1 headlight…
    bandaids nuun and lots more… panniers make carrying too much crap too easy…
    i even carry my laptop when i’m oncall and to and from work

  4. I was running Bontrager Select tires (OEM) and got sick of flatting. I had two Park Glueless patches on the front inner tube when I switched to Hard-Case tires. That front tube and both patches lasted 8,500 more miles over the course of a year and a half, the entire life of that tire, never needing to be replaced. I finally bought new tubes when that tire failed.

    They don’t work too well on tubes that stretch a lot upon inflation (like 700 x 23-25 in a 25mm tire) especially if you let the tires get squishy before inflating them again. All that stretching and shrinking is hard on things. I prefer to avoid flats in the first place, so I do things like buy expensive tires and run one-size-larger tubes (28-32 tubes in 25mm tires – just be extra careful not to pinch it in the tire bead) so I rarely have to patch anything on my own. Most of my fix-a-flat kit gets used helping other commuters or group riders these days.

    Given how rare my flats are and how reliable they’ve proven to be (to me), I’ll take the roadside convenience of good glueless patches over being uncertain if the tube of glue is still any good and sitting there for 10 minutes with my thumb and forefinger pinching the patch until it dries.

    And now I’m going to have to be extra careful. You know what they say, mentioning flat tires. Grumble.

  5. Missing (compared to mine): tiny golf pencil & scrap of paper (mine is CVC photo reduced), hair tie for female commute pals, coffee money, small zip ties for misc repairs

  6. What’s in my toolkit? I hate hate hate getting stuck, so I carry this stack in my saddle pouch.

    chain press
    quick link x2
    allen wrenches: 3mm 4mm 5mm 6mm 8mm
    flat and #1 phillips drivers
    spoke wrench
    dollar bill / rectangle of tyvek (for tire boot)
    5 dollar bill, 10 dollar bill
    lubeylube
    small rag (wrap around noisy bits)
    tire levers x2
    tube x2
    patch kit
    releasable zip tie x2 (strapped on bike)
    pump (strapped on bike)

    At the moment, most of that is in the form of the Park MTB-3, a nice little-ish-ish (1lb) tool.
    Works for me!

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