A saddle bag is an essential for many cyclists. Tucked under your seat, these small bags can hold all the essentials you need for repairs, including an inner tube, tyre levers and a multi-tool.
You can store essential belongings on your bike in different types of bags, including frame bags, handlebar bags or larger seat packs for bikepacking. But we reckon a saddle bag is the best choice for most cyclists.
The best bike saddle bags will keep your belongings securely on your bike with clasps or strong Velcro straps, freeing up space in your jersey pockets. Many also feature waterproof fabric and zips to keep your possessions dry. The other great thing about saddlebags is you can leave them on your bike, so you can be sure you’re carrying exactly what you need to fix a mechanical.
We recently tested six bike saddle bags and concluded that the Brooks Scape Saddle Bag was the best overall. It’s 100 per cent waterproof and can fit in everything you need, including a bike pump.
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Best saddle bags
Best on test: Brooks Scape Saddle Bag
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- £45 as tested
- Sizes: 700ml
- Colours: Black; mud green
This saddlebag is part of Brooks’ bikepacking collection and, with 700ml of single-compartment space, it’s suitably voluminous for bigger trips.
It’s 100 per cent waterproof, with padding on the top and bottom to protect your belongings. It’s a bit of a Tardis, being able to fit (smaller) phones and pumps, food, inner tubes, keys and more all at once, but remember to pack it snugly to stop bits rattling around.
Its zip runs more than halfway around the bag, meaning you can pull out deepest-packed items. Velcro is used to attach it to your bike, which it does tightly and there’s no movement while riding.
The modular design means it can be attached to other bags in Brooks’ Scape range for added storage on bigger rides.
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Best value: Topeak Elementa Seatbag
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- £19.99 as tested
- Sizes: 200; 300; 500ml (tested)
- Colours: Black; green
With its minimalist yet well-thought-out, single-pocket design, the lightweight and sleek Elementa fits the usual ride essentials (inner tube, tyre levers, multi-tool and patch kit), plus there are a couple of loops on the bottom for tyre levers or CO2 canisters.
It mounts to saddle rails with a fastening strap that wraps around the bag, keeping it nicely secure.
Made from 1000D polyester water-resistant, anti-slip fabric, it has a water-resistant zip, and the yellow liner helps you find what you need inside.
It’s fiddlier than some to initially attach to your bike due to secondary straps that keep it in place when opening it, and there’s no light loop but, once set up, the simple Elementa does its job unobtrusively.
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Pro Performance
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- £19.99 as tested
- Sizes: 400 (tested); 600; 1,000; 2,000ml
- Colours: Black
The Pro Performance bag comes in four sizes, ranging from 400 up to a mighty 2,000ml. The 400ml on test here is compact and easy to remove from the saddle, and the simple yet secure Velcro straps ensure we’ve not yet found an incompatible saddle.
The straps neatly cover any exposed Velcro, making it easier to clean.
The 400ml can just about hold a spare tube and tyre levers, with an inner mesh pocket for a stubby multi-tool, but we’d prefer the 600ml size for longer excursions.
We can vouch for the waterproofing and durability of the nylon build (my previous 600ml version lasted years before the outer of the straps disintegrated), while it’s easy to access and your items don’t fall out when opened. Just go up at least a size.
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The competition
Birzman Feexroll
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- £22.99 as tested
- Sizes: 400ml
- Colours: Black
The waterproof Feexroll can be used either as a saddle bag or as convenient storage in either a jersey pocket or, on bigger adventures, within frame bags.
On the saddle rail, it’s attached with a Velcro strap and metal button, and this stays on the rail when you need to access the pack. Inside, there are two larger compartments for various tools and food (but not most modern phones) and a smaller pocket with an elasticated strap to store an inner tube.
The Feexroll has less storage and is less accessible than the other bags here – it’s more like a wallet than a bag. On the plus side, its compartments allow easy access once the bag is opened, rather than the bulging jumble of a larger, single-compartment bag.
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Lezyne Ex-Caddy
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- £26 as tested
- Sizes: 600; 800 (tested); 1,300ml
- Colours: Black
This triangular nylon saddle bag attaches easily to your saddle rails and seatpost using a strap with buckle.
It has internal pockets labelled for tyre levers and other small items to help keep you organised, but the tyre lever pouch was too small for our tester's levers, and the internal pockets are a little fiddly to use when the bag’s on the bike.
There’s room for all the essentials: an inner tube, tyre levers, a multi-tool and a patch kit, though, and should you need to squeeze extra kit in, you can undo a zip to give you more volume.
Reflective touches, including a tail-light loop, boost visibility. The water-resistant zips (with zip pulls big enough to use with gloves on) help to keep the elements at bay.
This one may be better suited to mini adventures than speedy riding.
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Zefal Iron Pack 2 DS
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- £23.99 as tested
- Sizes: 600; 1,000ml (tested)
- Colours: Black
The Iron Pack 2 DS Medium comes in a 600ml version and the vast 1,000ml size here, which starts to take it into seatpack territory.
Two tubes, a puncture repair kit, levers and a couple of spare energy bars can fit inside, but the downwards opening at the rear means items can fall out of both the main compartment and mesh pocket when you open it.
That wide opening is easy to access nonetheless, while the Velcro straps were compatible with the numerous saddles we tried the Iron Pack on. There’s some exposed Velcro when it’s attached to the saddle, which makes cleaning the Iron Pack 2 tricky. We’ve had no issues with water ingress or any swaying, while the sturdy material is durable.
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Buyer’s guide to saddle bags
How do I choose a saddle bag?
Unless you've got a support crew or team car following behind, the longer the ride the more stuff you need to carry.
For example, on a weeknight club run, you won’t need loads of spares and tools, and you could go without a saddle bag.
But venture further on Sunday, solo or in a group, and a saddle bag becomes nearly essential unless you want to ram your pockets.
It’s best to save these for nutrition and spare layers.
Gravel riding requires more kit than road outings, and the same goes for long day trips on any surface.
Here, larger saddle bags and seat packs come into their own because having the right tool to fix a mechanical or extra layer for a change of weather take precedence over bulk and aerodynamics.
What do I put in a saddle bag?
Saddle bags come in handy on longer rides in particular and are ideal for storing essentials such as spare tubes, CO2 cylinders, multi-tools and tyre levers.
Running tubeless tyres may cut out the need for inner tubes but, in order to repair a tubeless puncture, you'll still need tyre levers, tubeless repair plugs and tubeless sealant. All this paraphernalia will easily fit in a medium-sized saddle bag.
A pump is also essential to fix a punctured clincher or tubeless tyre. Although the best mini pumps are small, they're too big for most saddle bags. Stowing smaller items in a saddle bag saves room to carry a pump in your pocket.
Even on shorter spins, a saddle bag declutters the pockets of your best cycling jersey. On long rides, a saddle bag frees up space for things you'll reach for often, such as energy gels or energy bars.
Are saddle bags secure?
Yes, they are. The best saddle bags have sturdy straps to attach to your bike and reliable zips to hold their contents.
That makes them much more secure than the alternative. By no means do all jerseys have a zipped pocket, and many riders reserve this for valuables, such as a mobile phone.
More ways to carry your kit and equipment
If you don’t think a saddlebag is right for you, there are several other ways to carry your possessions while cycling, beyond stuffing them in a jersey pocket.
The best bikepacking saddlebags are essentially larger versions of the saddlebags we’ve included in this list. They provide enough carrying space for multi-day cycling trips, especially when used in tandem with other bikepacking bags.
Frame bags and handlebar bags provide easy access and are popular with cyclists undertaking long-distance bike rides. They are often large enough to fit the best cycling gilets and best waterproof jackets for cycling.
