Topeak Sidekick Wedge Pack

If you use a saddlepack to carry tools and spares on a ride, I suggest you buy the Topeak Sidekick Wedge Pack. It uses a clever clip mechanism to fix quickly to your bike, offers decent weatherproofing, and will last you for years. The smaller size is a bit quicker to fit and remove, though, and that’s what I’d buy (again).

Anyone who’s been cycling for years, and I am solidly in that camp, will have probably been through a whole range of solutions for Carrying Stuff with them on a ride. I’m not talking about bikepacking bags, but rather how you can best carry the tools, tube and inflation that you need to get you out of 90 per cent of the scrapes you’re likely to encounter on a ride.

I was a mountain biker before I was a roadie, and my recollection from when I started riding further afield is that we used waistpacks for this job. Like I said, I’m old.

We then moved on to saddle packs, and over the decades that followed I have bought more of these than I can count for use on and off road. Almost without exception, they’ve all had the sort of built-in obsolescence that finance departments love, such that two or three years down the road, I ended up buying another one.

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And almost invariably, the point of failure was the Velcro straps that secured the pack to the saddle rails. The Velcro would end up fuzzy and stop sticking, or the point where the straps were stitched to the bag would fail, but not before the Velcro hooks had also had a proper go at your bib shorts fabric. Also, I can’t say whether this is just me, but I always found them a faff to attach to a bike, like I needed three hands to do it. I absolutely bloody hate Velcro saddle packs.

So here we have the Topeak Sidekick Wedge Pack, a saddle pack which – in this size at least – uses (ahem) Velcro to secure itself to the seatpost. And – if a saddle pack is your preferred vehicle for tools and tubes – I am here to tell you that this is nevertheless an excellent saddle pack, and you should buy one.

Latterly, of course, other tool-stash options have arrived, notably the tool keg (which fits in a bottle cage) and more recently in-frame storage. I’ve never favoured tool kegs as I often want to use both my bottle cages for holding hydration. In-frame storage is a great solution, but also the only one needing you to buy yourself a new bike to get it.

Topeak makes quite a range of saddle packs, and this is not a new model. In fact, I bought the smaller version of this very pack back in 2018 and it’s been with me on many hundreds of rides until it finally gave up the ghost last year. Whereupon I immediately bought exactly the same thing to replace it. Yep, that’s a big endorsement.

Quick clicking

The Sidekick Wedge is available in a medium (0.75 litres) or a small (0.5 litres). It uses Topeak’s QuickClick system to attach to the saddle rails. Confusingly, Topeak uses the QuickClick name for a rather wide range of (not at all inter-compatible) fixing systems to attach anything from smartphones to mudguards to panniers to your bike.

In this instance, QuickClick is a plastic bracket which clamps to the saddle rails behind the seatpost.

The pack can be very quickly clipped and unclipped from this, one-handed, by pushing down a flexible tongue and pulling it backwards.

On the smaller pack, that’s all there is to it and hence it is truly a Velcro-free saddle pack. Removing and refitting it takes literally one second, and as someone regularly transferring it from one bike to another, this is a highly desirable attribute.

As you can see in the pics here, on this larger medium pack there is also a Velcro strap which goes around the seatpost, to better hold it in place. That strap adds a few more seconds, but once you’ve got the clip fixed to the saddle rails, fitting and removing the pack is still faster than most others I’ve used.

The Sidekick is structured a bit differently to most saddle packs – the sides are made of semi-rigid moulded EVA foam. The top is made from a Cordura-type of fabric, and the underside has a plasticised coating – this bit gets by far the most spray if you’re not using mudguards, so this material is designed to keep that spray outside.

The zipped opening allows the whole of one side to open, giving great access to the contents. Or allowing half of them to land in a puddle until you’ve got the hang of how to open it to avoid this. It’s not that difficult, honestly, and I much prefer it to the narrow opening of most roll-top packs out there.

As you can see above, the inside is lined with bright yellow fabric – great for finding that little widget tucked at the back when you need it in the drizzly dusk. There is a mesh pocket on the inside of the zipped side panel, and a loop of elastic to hold a CO2 canister. It’s a good, usable space. In the small size pack, I can get two CO2 canisters and a valve, a spare tube, a multi-tool, tyre levers and an assortment of smaller bits and bobs with a bit of careful packing. This medium-sized pack swallows a couple of tubes and all the other stuff with room to spare. It’s probably bigger than I really need, to be honest.

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You could just about get one of the smallest mini pumps in the medium size – a maximum length of 15cm, I reckon. So something like the Lezyne Pocket Drive would fit, and it’ll easily accommodate a compact battery-powered pump.

Mounts & more

If you have a couple of bikes, you’ll want to get a second F25 bracket (RRP £7.99) so you can leave one bracket on each bike. Alternatively, the Sidekick is also compatible with Prologo’s U-Clip mounting system, a neat little bracket for most (but not all) Prologo saddles to mount bags or lights to the rear of the saddle. I used the U-Clip on one of my bikes to hold the Sidekick and it worked flawlessly for years.

Topeak also offers a bracket called the Duo Fixer which allows you to mount a saddle pack such as this together with a second accessory such as a tail light or a mudguard. I’ve not tried this, and was unaware of it until I was researching for this review, but Ed tried out a light that came with one in 2023, and it seems quite a neat design.

If you have your saddle all the way forward, it is possible that there wouldn’t be enough rail left behind the seatpost to attach the QuickClick bracket. Likewise, those odd saddles with a single central rail probably wouldn’t be compatible, but for most people fitting it should be straightforward – the clamp is held on with a single screw.

In his recent review of a (more expensive) competitor product from Apidura, Steve reminded me of another way in which seatpacks can fail: when the hard pointy bits at the top of the seatpost wear holes through the fabric of the bag. That’s simply not an issue here – the QuickClick arrangement means the bag itself isn’t in contact at all with the those bits.

Weatherproofing & durability

Topeak describes the Sidekick as weather resistant, which is fair. It’s not fully waterproof like the Apidura above or the Ortlieb roll-top saddle packs, but the plasticised fabric on the bottom and the fact that the zip is off to the side mean that water doesn’t really get in. After a really wet ride, I’d normally take a look inside and leave it open in the garage if it was a bit damp, but generally it would be basically dry inside. Which is to say: my tools and whatnot have survived seven years of using the smaller size.

I mentioned that my small Sidekick pack had failed last year, so what happened? The plastic part on the bag which attaches to the seat bracket is held to the bag itself with four substantial rivets. The failure occurred when two of these rivet heads pulled through the material of the bag. You might reasonably say that six years is still not enough of a lifespan and that a Carradice would never give up so soon. And I’m sure that’s probably true – there are longer-lasting saddle bags, but they’ll have a weight and and a cost penalty to factor in.

Value

At £34.99, the Topeak is at a similar price point to other packs I’ve had that didn’t do the job nearly as well, and quite a bit cheaper than others.

I’ve mentioned a couple of competitors from Apidura and Ortlieb. Steve thought the Apidura was excellent, but it’s also £53. We’ve not tested it, but the Ortlieb is probably the closest competitor, as it has a clip system which looks functionally similar to the Topeak, is available in two similar sizes, and is a similar price (£32.50 and £36.50). Ortlieb bags are always impressively waterproof, so I’d expect it to be a strong performer in that respect, although I think the Topeak outshines it in terms of easy access to (and visibility of) the contents.

There’s also the rather spendy (£50) Silca Mattone, which also eschews Velcro, using a Boa to attach to the seat rails. Neil said this was the best attachment system he’d come across in a saddle pack, but I can’t believe it’s as quick to fit and remove (one-handed) as this Topeak is, and it sounds best suited to use on dry rides. George was a bit more enamoured of the Mattone Grande, but the extra capacity costs another fiver. 

More recently, Becky was impressed with the Fidlock Pinclip Saddle Bag, particularly the fixing system and waterproofing, but again it’s a lot pricier at £59.99. 

Conclusion

In summary then, the Topeak Sidekick is a well-made saddle pack with better than average weather resistance. The smaller size has no Velcro at all, and can be removed and fitted in one second. For my money, it’s the best option, as the 0.75 litres offered by this medium size is more than I really need. Don’t buy another saddle pack with straps – buy one like this, it’s simply a better solution.

Verdict

Need a pack to carry tools and spares? Buy (the smaller version of) this one – it’s great!

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