Race day bags are fast becoming a bit of a thing, with Scicon offering a minimal model, along with Castelli, Bontrager and others offering larger models that’ll take your kit, shoes, and helmet. BLS (Black Line Sprinting) offers this rather neat half-way house between full-on luggage and race day bag.
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I’ve used this bag on short foreign ride trips (along with a small carry-on bag) and you can certainly pack plenty into its 46cm x 35cm x 35cm size, and with a 56-litre capacity the interior space is cleverly designed with a stiff structure externally and internally.
The bag is separated by two twin zipped openings and an inner structure separates the cavernous Velo racing bag into handy compartments.
With a slot for shoes, a tray for your Lycra, a space for accessories and warmers on top, and a huge space for your helmet below that’s big enough to take a time trial lid, the BLS does seem to have everything covered.
The helmet compartment also features a removable zipped box that’ll take spares, tools, food and a GPS easily. BLS also includes two drawstring bags for dirty kit post ride, and cleverly the bag can be folded completely flat when not in use.
I’ve certainly got plenty of use out of the BLS Velo bag and it is very well thought out, and for that I’d certainly recommend it. The downside however is the price.
At 143.29/$185, it's more than twice the price of Bontrager’s similar Trek Segafredo rain bag, and Castelli’s rain bag, even Rapha’s fancy premium ‘weekend bag’ is only £30 more.