Specialized/Fjällräven Snack Bag

The Specialized/Fjallraven Snack Bag is a stem-mounted holder that's ideal for keeping a water bottle or snacks within easy reach. The closure is very easy to use one-handed while you ride, and rapid snack access can only be a good thing. It's not the lightest, and it's one of the pricier options out there, but it's built to last, has good weatherproofing and looks great.

Many brands that make bikepacking bags, such as Restrap, Birzman, Apidura and Brooks, have a stem bag in their range. Despite that, we've only ever reviewed one before on road.cc: AlpKit's Stem Cell.

So, while the Specialized/Fjallraven Snack Bag may not have much company around these parts, there's plenty of competition bidding for your cash online. So let's have a closer look.

S/F's offering is constructed from the same material as the rest of its bikepacking range: that is, Vinylon F: 100% vinylal, with a 100% polyamide 210D lining. And if that means anything to you, hello professor! Could you explain to... oh, he's gone.

Basically, and as I've found with all S/F bags, the material has surprisingly good weather resistance most of the time, but ultimately it's not fully waterproof.

It comes in the full spectrum of S/F colours, including Ochre, Ox Red, Black and Green, so you can match the Stem Bag to your other S/F cockpit bags. A reflective logo is located on the side facing you.

It's a semi-soft design, with thin foam padding all the way around and under the base to create a flexible structure. It'll happily support a full water bottle without feeling flimsy. At the bottom is an eyelet which acts as a drain hole, so your snacks won't drown should water find its way in.

Inside there's plenty of space for whatever you wish to stow, so long as there's not more than 0.8L of it, and a 500ml water bottle fits perfectly. The elasticated mesh pocket round the front can fit several snack bars (or discarded wrappers). I was also able to fit my XL mitts without issue – the bag measures 15x10x10cm.

S/F says it weighs just 95g, though it came in at a slightly heavier 102g on our scales and it's certainly not competitive in its class. The 0.8L Apidura Backcountry Food Pouch, by comparison, weighs just 55g.

An elasticated nylon closure with a drawstring style cinch lock allows for one-handed opening and closing on the move. It's very neat, and certainly a cut above the more rudimentary drawstring closures found on many other stem bags; the Restrap Stem Bag, for example, can't easily be operated while riding.

The S/F Stem Bag comes with three simple Velcro straps – one for the handlebars, one for the stem, and one to (optionally) attach to your head tube. There are four attachment loops along the top of the bag, and two sets of four around the perimeter, giving you a decent amount of options for mounting.

With all three straps attached I found it very secure whilst riding on gravel, even with a full bottle of water inside – helped no doubt by the head tube strap, which stops the bottom of the bag moving.

Value

The £40 price tag is quite high, but the S/F Snack Bag goes some way to justifying the price by having a really good closure system that outperforms competitors. That said, if you're not too bothered about this, there are cheaper alternatives, such as the Restrap Stem Bag at £34.99.

The AlpKit Deluge Stem Pack is slightly more capacious at 1.4L and only costs £24.99 and, for a real bargain, there's always Birzman's Packman Travel Bottle Pack at £19.99 – half the price of this.

Overall

It's not cheap, but the S/F Snack Bag is really well made, works really well and has a really good closure system.

Verdict

Super-easy snack or drink access – this is a high quality stem bag