Silca Seat Roll Premio

The Silca Seat Roll Premio is a pricey yet top quality, incredibly secure and some might say stylish way of carrying ride maintenance essentials under your saddle in a non rattly way.

Silca claims it's the first on-bike storage system to use a Boa dial closure system, and I'm inclined to believe it, as the turn-and-tighten wire system is pretty much the reserve of fancy cycling shoes. Like those posh shoes, the Premio is a high-end bit of kit. It's very well constructed out of a thick waxed canvas that's been prettily patterned with reflective stitching for a hint of visibility. That Boa dial gives it an air of refinement, and the fixings and rail guard are all incredibly solid and well made. It's a world away from your 'bits of flimsy nylon and a Velcro strap' seatpack, and that's reflected in the price.

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The Premio is a very on-trend tool-roll design, rather than the more common zipped pouch affair, and when it comes to storage it has three pockets to fill. There's enough room to get a tube, some tyre levers, a multi-tool and a few other bits in there – a CO2 canister or some patches and glue maybe, pretty much just your ride essentials really. If you feel the need for all that plus a couple of energy bars and some gels, arm warmers and a phone, a packet of Polos and a lucky gonk, then you'll need to look at other more capacious and bulbous saddlebags.

As the Premio is designed to wrap around itself to form the roll, a little bit of trial and error is required in positioning all your desired gubbins just so within those pockets, in order to get a tidy fold to the roll when it's all wrapped up.

Fitting it on a bike is a tiny bit more fiddly than a normal seatpack; it's not a 'wodge everything in, do up the zip, strap it to the bike' affair, but it's worth the effort. Fold the flap of the roll over the contents, tightly wrap it around itself and then hold it all together with the elasticated securing strap. This stops it all flopping open again, making it easier to secure to the saddle.

To do that, feed the Boa cords through the saddle rails, much as you would any other seatpack strappage, making sure the rail guard is centred to protect those rails, then popper the end of the strap to the Seat Roll, click the tab on the strap into its dock, then gleefully crank on that Boa dial until it's as tight as you like. The first time you do this it feels a little over-complicated, but it soon becomes quick and easy, like most saddlebags have a knack to get them sitting just so.

Taking the Premio off the bike is a lot quicker: flick the Boa dial open to release all the tension on the strap, un-pop the other end of the strap and yank it off. It can require a committed tug if you've ratcheted up that Boa dial to a crazy tension.

Once the Silca Seat Roll is on, it's on. It manages to be totally secure with just that single Boa strap; it doesn't need another strap on it or a loop around the seatpost to make sure it's secure or to stop it flapping about, and you don't need to add another strap of your own to stop it wobbling around a bit, or just for peace of mind in case the straps want to let go and it jettisons itself when you thump over that big bump.

And you won't have to stop a little way into the ride to tighten everything up once the contents have settled like you have to with some saddlebags.

Finally, and maybe most importantly... thanks to the snug wraparound nature of storage combined with that tight-as-you-dare ratchet system, the contents don't rattle. At all. This might please you but it will also please a lot of other people on the group ride. You know who you are.

If you're the sort of rider who needs to get a multi-tool out of their saddlebag each time you stop (you know who you are) or prefers to carry readily accessible stuff such as café money and keys and phone and whatever in their seat-pouch, then you'll find the whole unpacking, retrieving, strapping up process a little fiddly compared with a pack you can unzip and rummage around in while it's still attached to the bike. But if you're a rider who just packs their saddlebag with tool and tube maintenance emergencies that might not be needed on a ride but you wouldn't go for a ride without them, and you're happy for them to be there secure, quietly unnoticed and tidily out of the way, then you'll appreciate the Premio.

While the heavy cotton canvas of the Seat Roll Premio is waxed for waterproofing it's not a totally waterproof bag. The tuck and roll system of the bag means water can eventually get in labyrinthine fashion through the edges, but it takes a deluge to do that, and the roll will happily shrug off standard issue rain ingress and tyre splash.

> How to carry stuff on your bike

I've used a lot of seatpacks in the past and there's a cupboard full of their discarded husks. I'm on a constant search for the perfect one. What people want out of their seatpack and what they want to cram it with are wildly different. I don't feel the need to carry everything I own in my saddle-pouch and have it dangling off my saddle like a pussy, distended growth – I'm happy with just a tube, some tyre levers, a multi-tool, some instant puncture patches and proper ones with glue, oh, and a few spare chain links, just in case.

I can go for dozens of rides without ever having the need to touch the contents, but when I do I need it to be there and it not to have bounced off somewhere. This has happened. The rest of the time my seatpack needs to be tucked under the saddle, ignored, silent, unobtrusive and almost forgotten until it's absolutely needed. The Silca Seat Roll Premio does that very, very well.

Verdict

Incredibly secure and non-rattly stylish under-saddle storage for ride maintenance essentials. Beautifully made and correspondingly pricey