Bike packing bags are sexy in the gravel bike world, there aren’t many adverts for a new gravel bike without at least one picture of some intrepid soul out in the wilderness with a bike dripping with frame bags, bar bags and various harnesses. Fair enough, the image sells the idea of the lifestyle and is probably helping to save an ailing bike industry just at the moment.
What’s overlooked these days is the essential carry that every rider, especially those away from “civilisation” need. Namely something to fix a flat tyre, tubeless repair, maybe a multi-tool and an inner tube. Now thankfully, especially in these days of tubeless tyres you don’t need these items very often (fingers crossed) but when you do you don’t want to have to empty all your worldly goods from your other bags to dig out a tubeless anchovy or spare tube. So, maybe consider something that has been a staple of a cyclist’s kit since the first pneumatic tyre, namely a saddle bag.
Saddle bags are not sexy, in fact I’d go as far as saying they are pretty boring, something to ignore right up until the moment you are stuck on a distant hilltop, in the rain, at midnight with a flat tyre/mechanical and you need to know where your stuff is straight away and that it will work when you need it.
Cheltenham based Broilbags know this and produce and old fashioned saddle bag made with modern materials avaliable from their website broilbag.com off the peg or via a custom order.
Made of cordura nylon with a weather resistant zip the bag secures to your saddle rails with a big velcro strap. Once this is tightened down the saddle bag is going nowhere! Theres no wag and whatever terrain you choose to ride over the bag and its contents will still be there when you need it.
I’ve put a tube, a tubeless repair kit and a box of rubber anchovies in this one, that lot all fits well. There is an internal flat pocket too. I couldn’t fit a mutlitool in too, if I wanted to do that I’d go for a slightly bigger size but this is really up to the buyer as you can chat to Broilbags and get something perfectly suited to your needs. I can almost read the coments as I right this, those riders saying that all these items are exactly what jersey pockets were designed for, I disagree, I personally hate anything weighing down my jersey and would much rather have them attached to the bike. The fact that when I got home from a ride and emptied my pockets I’d instantly lose whatever was in there before the next ride has a lot to do with it too!
Overall, the London Broilbag saddle bag is a well made, well designed example of a simple design. Sometimes things don’t need to be complicated, they just need to work, the fact that this could sit under your saddle forgotten for years on end and still work to dispense the essentials right at the time you need them is testiment to the skill of Ian, the maker and shows the fact that they are a rider too and know whats needed.
Definately consider the saddle bag, don’t dismiss it as an old fashioned idea. There’s a reason they’ve been around for years and that’s because they just work. The London Broil bag version of the ubiquitous saddle bag could be the epitome of the design, plus it’s made by genuine rider rather than a faceless corporation.
Take a look at London broils website here and checkout the interview i did, way back when ukgravelco.com started here which includes the origin of the unusual company name
UK GRAVEL COLLECTIVE 