I almost died on the Loop today and may never again be able to have sex. I was coming down the first big hill off of one of the wooden "steps" and kaboom . . . come to a complete stop and smash the bits. The velcro on my Canondale seat bag decided to stop sticking and the wedge dropped in between the rear wheel and frame and pretty much acted as a "wedge." It scared the holy crap out of me. If only brakes worked that well. Plus, it was my first ride without the Camelbak and the Tangle bad instead, so I was scrambling for places to put the contents. I filled the Mountainfeed Bag to its limits. Anyhow, in need of new bag. Any suggestions?
you could always go with a gas tank along the seat tube/ post. i think revelate makes some that go there now and will work with the tangle bag (just looked it up, called the jerry can), i've used a carousel tank in front of the seat post on tour and i can put 2 29er tubes, some CO2, patch kit and small tool in there.. if you want a behind the saddle bag i've had a jandd for about ten years; but it only fits one 29er tube and nothing else. i just got a timbuktu saddle bag that seems pretty nice and can fit a little more.
I use Specialized, with two velcro straps. The only down side is that the bag flops around a bit, banging into the saddle over rough terrain. The clunking is distracting. A while back I became enamored with a Topeak model that was small, light, and had a plastic "snap on" attachment, involving no velcro. I thought it was really cool and bought two. After several rides, the first one opened up mid-ride, and I lost the contents. Soon thereafter I rode the other bike with the Topeak. On its first time out, the plastic attachment broke, dropping the whole bag. Luckily, it smashed into my frame like a giant rock, so I heard it and stopped to see what was going on.
I have the Lezyne Micro Caddy (Medium). It's great! It has velcro wraps that wrap around the seat rails only. I have a Gravity Dropper seatpost and it travels with the seat without interference. I had a Topeak saddle bag that would wrap around the seatpost before that. Whenever I'd drop the seat, the strap would get in the way and not allow the seatpost to lock in the down position. The Lezyne seat bag stays out of the way.
i run a backcountry research towhitch strap. it has a big cover to protect the tube, can stick a co2 trigger gun and co2 with 3 tire irons. never comes off. didnt drop a thing when i crashed on uhj at vq. only dislike it is a pain to put back on the bike if you do need to use it in a race situation... but its well worth the 13 dollars.
I've had to tie velcro seat bags to my top tube several times since the stitching from the straps failed. Then I bought a Topeak; not a problem since. It uses a "clip" system on the saddle rails.
All seat bags are doomed to fail if you are riding over and off stuff. The contents will eventually burst through oor the straps will break. Just hire a truck to follow you around and you should be fine.
