Topeak

This is an amazing product, at a great price. The packaging is clear, and has easy mounting instructions on the package itself. It looks great. Here is information providing first impressions, my own version of the instructions, function, and summary. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: The packaging was easy to take apart, and the instructions were clear and concise. The thing that really struck my eye were the function of the tail light clip, and the durability of the saddle bag, especially. It fit all my stuff easily. INSTRUCTIONS: To install, loosen the hex nut in the mounting piece of the plastic with an allen wrench. Slide it in between the rails of your saddle, making sure the clip part is angled up towards the saddle. Tighten it as much as reasonably possible. Then, slide the saddle onto the clip, and place the strap around your seatpost. I have noticed that the mounting is very durable. In 3 months it hasn't moved around or slid at all, despite being washed and around water. FUNCTION: First off, I would like to say that this size is perfect for a road bike. Any larger would look awkward on a road bike. A medium could be doable on a mountain bike though. This has more than enough space for everything I need. It also has 2 pockets, and a large open space. In the inner side pocket, I have bandaids and first aid supplies. On the inner flap pocket, I have a spoke wrench, a few allen keys, a presta adapter, and a napkin. In the open pocket I have my phone and energy bars. I especially like how the saddle bag opens so that the first pocket faces you at a downward angle,. This makes it easy to access everything without fumbling around like other saddle bags. This also looks nice compared to other saddlebags that (hug the saddle.). In addition, this is a waterproof case. It has been through rain and washings, and now water has leaked within. SUMMARY: All in all, you are getting an amazing saddlebag for this price. It looks nice, perfect size for a road bike, and has multiple pockets and a huge amount of space. In addition, it is waterproof. At this price, this cannot be beat.

This is by far the best saddle bag out there. i initially bought the medium and loved it. if you like going fast, buy the small pack. the medium and large just encourage you to pack more stuff than you actually need. i am able to fit the following in this small pack. spare tube pair of tire levers multi tool (recomend you find the lightest, strongest multitool, just hex wrenches you only really need 3 mm, 4 mm, and 5 mm but it will likely have 6 wrenches) and you can get a little 8 mm adapter as well which fits over the 6 mm or 7 mm hex. it is useful to have an 8 mm for some very rare bike repairs like removal of a pedal or tightening of a pedal. topeak chain tool+spare pin for chain repair (i seriously recomend the new 11 speed topeak chain tool) x2 C02 cartridges x1 C02 cartridge screw on tire refiller thingy patches+sandpaper+rubber cement in case i get a double/triple flat x1 tire boot to fix a slashed tire. $21 cash ($1 dollar as an extra tire boot) spoke tool+kevlar replacement spoke small "see me" front and back lights with elastic bands that fit on handlebar and seat stays for when you get a little too far away from home in the evening. small first aid kit containing only: alcohol wipe, x2 band aid, 3"x3" gauze, antibiotic ointment. i find this to be very important for treating road rash at road side. if you treat your road rash immediately, you will save yourself a week of recovery time and a significant amount of scarring. in a amateur road race i recommend only taking the first aid kit, money, and tube/tire repair tools. the multi-tool, chain tool, spoke tool/spoke, and lights are just extra weight which will slow you down. everything counts in a race including: weight, shaved legs, aero light road helmets, race cut jersey and bib, numbers well adhered to jersey (nothing flapping in the wind). if you can fit the first aid kit, money, tube/tire repair tools in your jersey pocket, do that as well and don't even bring the wedge pack. surprisingly, win tunnel did similar tests to see if shaved face/arms makes any difference but they don't make a difference, only shaved legs makes a difference. presumably because your legs are constantly spinning while your arms and face don't move so much. DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF TO MAKE YOURSELF FASTER IN A RACE! BUT LISTEN TO THE SCIENCE! shaved legs will save 70 seconds over 27 miles which is a massive amount of savings (my source is wintunnel youtube channel by specialized) Every ounce you can save will reduce your chances of being dropped from the pack when you climb a hill, (maybe not a huge change in chances but if you race you really should care about finishing with the pack otherwise really all it is is just another training session.) why spend money to enter a road race if your just going to end up riding alone for most of it? You should be entering road races to test how strong you are and strength/endurance/ride skill do matter more than everything else combined but you should still not handicap yourself. if you want to become competitive but can't handle the nerves and risks associated with a road race then you should switch to triathlons. they are more fun and i'm going to do just that. (you can go many years of road racing without any crashes and no broken bones but the odds are not in your favor and if you want to road race for life you will eventually deal with at least some road rash, and likely a broken bone (usually collar bone), and/or a concussion. I will say that you really should not worry about the chances of dying as those are very long odds indeed. people do die riding on roads with cars and it happens more often than people dying while jogging (i think) but still the odds are slim/none. triathletes die too from cars. i can't really find any good sources that say what the risk levels are but just be more careful than the average person on a bike and you will beat the odds CONSIDERABLY

This wedge pack seemed nice enough, however it ended up not being compatible with my seat and light bracket combination, which was a specialized seat with the SWAT accessory mounting system, and a custom 3D printed bracket to allow attachment of a Bontrager (Trek) light. I had to return this as a result.

I have several bikes and don't want to buy the same accessories for each of them so I am partial to the ones that can be quickly moved between bikes. This bag comes with a quick release mount and additional mounts are cheap so it's pretty great for my purposes. The bag itself is well made, does not rattle and have enough room for tools and supplies to fix your bike on the go.

Since switching to tubeless tires, my old Topeka bag was a bit too big. Then I got a second bike with tubeless tires and found that having almost duplicate bags and tool sets on each bike was a pain. The almost part was too much a gotcha. Six months in, my Topeka bag wore out and I found that I could buy a smaller replacement that would fit the now very old mount on my old bag. Here’s my initial thoughts on that new bag. The first picture shows the tools I feel I need with my tubeless setup. A couple C02 cartridges and tire filler, a tubeless repair kit, a valve tool and a Park multipurpose tool. The second shows this plus a mini wallet, my keys and my garage door opener fitting nicely in the bag. No rattles. No squeezing things in. The third shows how the bag fits on my BMC AC01 using the old mounting kit. The fourth the bag on my road bike using the new mounting kit. It takes under 30 seconds to move the bag from one bike to the other. Fantastic. One issue. The old mounting kit was designed to hook to the rails up near where they bend outward toward your saddle. The new mount is designed to hook on the rails where they run parallel. The seat on my BMC sits forward all the way and there’s no room for the new mount but plenty room for the old mount. Conversely, both mounting styles work fine on my road bike seat. If your seat is setup like my BMC, find the other style mounting kit for this bag.

I originally bought the medium size Aero Wedge but it was huge. I decided to buy the small pack for comparison and I much prefer it for training rides. It has enough room for 2 tubes, a patch kit, a small multitool and tirelevers. I was even able to stuff in my speedplay cleat covers and a spoke wrench! I especially like the quick release feature on this bag. It makes it very easy to switch the bag between bikes if you have more than one (assuming you get a second mount). That way you always have your kit handy without having to shuttle stuff back and forth between bags or buy extra sets of everything. The tail light clip is also a nice touch, although my tail light ends up pointing down slightly because the back of the bag isn't vertical. No biggie. If you just want a small bag for a couple tubes and tools this is a great bag.

I own the mini and medium . Forget the small. The medium is expandable but when it is collapsed it’s roughly the size of the small but gives you the ability to expand it for longer rides when you need extra tools. One caution is the height. The medium mounts lower on the dropper post so if you plan to go deep into your dropper you will run the rear tire more easily.

The quick release is a nice idea. Basically, a couple of plastic bars sandwich the rear support strays under the saddle via one bolt. This positions a quick release (slider)bracket below the saddle. The bag has the corresponding slider on the top. In principle, you depress a tab, and slide the bag back, and off. The trouble is, with my saddle (which is a very standard saddle) the slider is no accessible. Even if I could force the bag to mate with the bracket, I could never get a finger in there to release it. I generally like Topeak products, but this one is going back.