The Lightest Way To Pack Your Saddle Bag!

Inner tubes, multi-tools, tyre leavers… snacks! The list of must-have cycling accessories is endless. Worry not, Ollie is here to dispel all saddlebag myths and share some of his well-earned knowledge on how to pack the best Saddle bag.

00:00 Lets get going!
00:42 The Bag
01:46 Inner tubes
02:38 Tubeless plugs
03:36 Tyre leavers
04:02 Tyre boot
04:44 Multi tool
06:52 CO2 & pumps
09:14 Weight

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how to pack your saddle bag like a boss and save weight now longtime viewers of gcn will recall that we made a video about how to do this over eight years ago featuring a very youthful S Richardson in his pre Just For Men Days oh my God that was uncalled for since then a lot has changed the Bike Tech associated with saddle bags has got smaller and lighter and we’ve seen the adoption of new technologies such as disc brakes wirel group sets and tubless tires which has changed some of the things that you should now carry in your saddle bag hence why I wanted to redo it let’s get to it first thing you need to consider is the bag itself now in s first made the video about 8 years ago he used a bag very similar in size to this and the overall message Remains the Same with regards to your saddle bag you want to try and keep it as light and as minimal and as small as possible a bag this size is good you can fit a lot of stuff in there but now there are smaller bags still such as this which retains all of the functionality that you had with something of this size but now just in a much smaller package you can go for bigger saddle bags something such as this and in certain applications this can be useful because you can fit more stuff in it but for most of your everyday riding this is unnecessary in my opinion and you can go for something like this sort of size the good news is is you can now have all the functionality in something this size that you once had in something this size perhaps even more thanks to how technolog is improved I mean for example this saddle bag actually has a multi-tool built into it here which is pretty nifty first thing you’re going to want to put in your saddle bag is an inner tube but now for this well for less than the size and weight of one butti tube you can have two TPU tubes so you’re looking at around 100 G in some instances for a butle tube especially if it’s got a long valve on it and then TPU tubes you’re looking at around 30 Gams each and they go down super small they take up hardly any space this is a standard TPU tube but they also make wider ones for off-road and gravel use for bigger tires now these are great I I will typically carry two spare tubes with me on most of my rides although if I’m doing an event and I’m wanting to you know marginal gains save a bit of weight then I’ll drop down to just one tube especially if I’m running tubeless as well because running tubless means that you can have another line of defense which is carrying plugs now I’ve been trying out a bunch of different plugs this is my my saddle bag that I actually I’m using day in day out all the time um and the problem with a lot of standard plugs when you use them on road bike tires is because the pressures are higher on road compared to mountain bike the the plugs just often pop out and they don’t stay in place the ones that I have found myself using and now I I swear by them um are these which are dino plugs the joke being that they haven’t sponsored this video and therefore this isn’t actually a plug however if you do want to sponsor a dino plug I’m all for it now next thing Tire levers now I’ve got two in here at the moment and that’s because the tubless tires I’m running are quite stiff in in the old video we actually had just a single tire lever in size bag and and I would do the same I’d often just carry a single tire lever but you’re saving a load of weight with your TPU inner tubes potentially you know why not put a bit back on if you’ve got a stiff Tire bead um with some Tire leaves especially if you’re riding in Winter conditions where it’s cold and when your hands are cold getting those tubeless tires off if you do need to getting inner tube in there it can be difficult so that’s something to bear in mind the next thing which is a really important piece of bit character just saved my bacon on several occasions is a tire boot of some description you can buy dedicated Tire boots but I think this is totally unnecessary save your money and simply cut up an old piece of tire and what this enables you to do is if you get a really big uh slice in your tire usually on the side wall and the tubeless can’t seal it and an inner tube goes in but the hole is too big and so the in inner tube sort of hemorrhages through the Gap you need to use a boot on the inside of the tire to sort of cover that hole an old piece of tire is perfect for this so get one of your old tires that you’re no longer using get some scissors cut it up and then just take a couple of bits or just one bit in your in your pack with you so as mentioned this bag has a a multi-tool ratchet built into it which is super useful but most people are going to invest and carry a dedicated multi-tool um the more money you spend the lighter you get but the most important thing to have on it is just make sure it’s got all the attachments that you need and appropriate Allen heads um for your bike and also look for one with a chain breaker tool on it this is useful although I don’t tend to carry a chain breaker tool with me now and that’s because I would argue that I well I don’t find I need one because I don’t tend to break chains I’m going to break a chain now on the first ride to go out on having said that but if you’re regularly checking your chain waxing it on a regular basis looking after if you’re one of those conscientious cyclists who takes care of your stuff and is then you know being nerdy and using a Park Tool chain Checker at home to assess the wear you shouldn’t get to the point where your chain is g to is going to snap unless you’re a track Sprinter which I’m definitely not my Sprint is pathetic with regards to your multi-tool it is worth considering that if you were to design the perfect place to attract dirt and water and moisture off the road it would be the saddle bag because it just gets sprayed up um with anything that your bike rolls over and as as a result it can get quite sort of wet and damp and dirty meaning that I’ve seen so many people not have to open their saddle bag for months and when they do open it they find a heavily rusted and corroded multi-tool which isn’t much good to anyone I’m looking at you Alex pton um and so a good little hack that you can do to to stop that is to Simply put it either in a little plastic bag inside your saddle bag that actually stops any sharp edges of it as well from damaging um inner tubes because it is going to be pressed tightly against your inner tubes and another way you can do it is actually get a latex glove um now these then double up as being something that you can put on when you’re fixing your dirty bike on the roadside to keep your hands clean so just simply put your multitool inside a couple of latex gloves and you’re good to go you’re also going to need to take inflation devices now I always take CO2 with me just a single canister and a little inflation head because I mean this weighs nothing it’s great and I like to have a sleeve on it as well so that your hands don’t uh stick to it with frostbite when you when you put it on now I never just take CO2 I always take a mini pump in my pocket with me because well this can only be used once whereas this can be used indefinitely I find CO2 super useful though because it’s so quick so I save it for situations where speed is key uh whether that’s because it’s bad weather and I want to fix my puncture quickly or maybe I’m in a rush and I need to get home quickly or maybe if you’re in a race or something like that and you want to fix your puncture as quick as possible however for most of the time I I just used the save my CO2 cuz they cost money um and just use a good old pump a good thing though is that pumps have actually improved a hell of a lot in the last sort 10 years um they’ve got more compact even more Compact and in addition to that they’ve got lighter so if we you know look at these two for example this has got just as much power but look how much smaller and lighter it is compared to this it’s just the tolerances and the engineering and the Machining is has just been improved and something else I carry these days which was not included in size video because that was 8 years ago is little coin cell batteries so many things that we have on our bikes now use these if you’re using a wireless electronic group set the shifters have coin cells in like this and well if they go on you they last a very long time you’re going to want to be able to replace those during your ride so you still have gears uh so many other gadgets have them as well from heart rate monitors power meters just all sorts of stuff seems to use these batteries so having a spare is a really good idea I tend to buy them in bulk because that saves money and then I just get some scissors and cut out the excess packaging so that it’s like that it’s still encased in its little plastic capsule which helps um keep it sort of survive from the the water that gets in your saddle bag and then just pop it in doesn’t take up much space so there you have it they are the the key things that I keep in my saddle bag for day in day out use I’m going to actually though just show you a sort of unoptimized setup on the scales versus what I’ve used to show the weight difference because it’s an underrated area that you can save a significant amount of weight so here we’ve got multi-tool C2 canister little battery in there Diner plugs two Tire levers two TPU tubes um a little tire boot that’s everything I need let’s just close that up pop that on the scale oh and lightweight pump let’s add that on as well 425 G this one in which I’ll put in just one butti tube 604 G so you know sort of 200 g saved really and that was only one in a tube in that one if I put another butti tube on that’s another you know 110 G that I would be adding there um onto that even more so that would be 300 G save and if you think about that in terms of the amount of money that you would spend on a bike frame you know from a top tier frame set down to you know a less tier frame set saving 200 300 G you’re talking thousands so there you go hope you found this useful and you’ve got some good tips if you have please give this video a thumbs up and share it with your friends if you’ve got any and and I’ll see you in the next one love you bye oh one more thing I just forgot about um I wrap a bit of uh tape around my my pump as well so I’ve got some tape tape’s always useful love a bit of tape