Topeak Elementa Gearbag

The Topeak Elementa GearBag attaches to your saddle with a unique strap system that makes opening and closing dead easy and faff-free, and the included ratchet set will sort most road or trailside fettling woes. With its small capacity it's definitely one for minimalists, though.

The age-old conundrum of how much to carry on your bike, in what and where will never be solved, because there are as many combinations of things needing carriage, things to put them in and places to put them on your bike as there are stars in the sky. Well, stars visible on your average British evening, anyway. So let's get 'right' or 'wrong' out of the way first – there is only 'what's right for you, today, on this particular ride on this particular bike'.

> 15 easy ways to carry stuff on your bike

If we zoom in on small saddle bags – that is, ones that fix under your saddle – that really narrows it down to about a thousand wee bags ranging from a few quid to over £60 for ones featuring BOA-strap fixing.

The first aspect to note of the Elementa GearBag is its size: it's small. Like, 0.3-litres-capacity small. Or about half a pint. Not much stuff is going in there.

You won't get even the most compact pump in there, but handily, if you use CO2 canisters there are two elastic straps for them on the outside. The elastic is lined with silicone on the inside, to firmly retain those canisters over the roughest trails. I opted to use the second loop for the excellent Dynaplug tubeless repair tool, and the straps will retain anything roughly CO2 canister shaped, like the other Dynaplug options. I guess that could also mean slotting in a micro pump if you really needed to carry one, but even the smallest will protrude a bit.

Inside, there's just enough space for a butyl 700C x 50mm tube which should suit all but the largest-shod of gravel bikes, and a couple of short (about 12cm) tyre levers. If you opt for a compact TPU tube like a Tubolito you'll get more space to play with. With care it is just possible to fit the excellent 13cm-long Topeak Power Lever Pro in alongside a TPU tube, meaning you then have a chain tool and master link pliers along as well as two levers.

Rail Wing fixing

The second and unique-to-Topeak feature is its patented 'Rail Wing' fixing system, and for me this is the standout reason to consider the Elementa. For decades saddle bags have mostly been held in place with a Velcro strap passing through the saddle, over the seat rails and around the bag – which means when you loosen it to get access to the bag it flops around and possibly comes off entirely, as with any BOA-secured bags and rolls. This means that every time you need something, you have to find a place to put the bag down without losing anything, and have to refit it once done. Not much fun in the rain and cold, wearing gloves.

Topeak's Rail Wing system uses two smaller Velcro straps to secure the main strap to the rails, meaning the bag stays firmly in place once the main strap is loosened. The first few fittings are a bit of a lesson in Reading The Flipping Manual, but you quickly get the hang of it, making swaps between bikes relatively painless.

One small irritation is that if you want to secure the two zip pulls under the Velcro to stop the metal rattling, you need to partly unzip the lower compartment so the pull can go under the strap. There's no chance of anything falling out, but when you're spending this much, even minor design faults shouldn't exist.

Ratchet set

The final and again – as best I can tell – unique aspect of the Elementa GearBag is the built-in ratchet set, complete with its own elasticated storage tray. This tray fixes using Velcro inside the bottom lid of a second zippered compartment below the main one that your tube and levers live in.

The ratchet itself clicks nicely into a plastic clip and has a reversible ratcheting head with knurled thumbwheel for quickly snugging up fittings. The ratchet feels identical to that used in Prestaratchet, Feedback Sports and other quality ratcheting tools.

At the handle end there's a magnetised hole to insert bits for use in 'screwdriver' mode for fast spinning or for use in areas where the right-angle ratcheting head is possibly obstructed. The ratcheting head is rated to 30Nm, which is a wildy excessive spec for a tool this small, but it's comforting to know if you really needed to welly down on a pedal or crank in the middle of nowhere you could – just remember to bring the right bit.

You get 10 bits ranging from a Shimano mech-friendly 2mm hex, through 2.5-6mm hexes, then Torx 10, 15 and 25, plus a Phillips 2. Each bit has a raised, knurled section to afford grip when removing the bits from their elasticated, numbered sleeves, and when removing from the ratchet head or magnetised handle. I cannot overstate how good it is to see a tool company actually think about the challenges faced by people with gloved, cold, wet hands wrangling tiny, slippery metal bits in and out of tools with strong bit-retaining springs or magnets.

> Emergency essentials: 10 things to take with you on every ride

I had reason to use the ratchet and bits in anger on a number of occasions, and each time the fact the bag stayed firmly fixed to the saddle while I removed and replaced bits with double-layer gloved fingers was much appreciated. The alternative would have been needing to lie the bike down in order to wrangle a removed bag and tools.

Value

By itself the ratchet and bits would easily be worth £20 – making the overall £47 price of the bag much easier to justify.

Stu rather liked the less-featured version of the Elementa GearBag, the £20 Elementa Seatbag M – no toolset, but more (0.5L) space for stuff, and sharing the Rail Wing fixing system.

My go-to under-saddle storage for the last six years has been the Silca Seat Roll Grande Americano, though having to constantly re-thread the strap over saddle rails is a faff I could do without. Silca has updated its BOA-closure bags, and its Mattone Seat Pack carries everything inside as opposed to slotting in the CO2s externally; it's £60.

Conclusion

I like the Topeak Elementa GearBag. It's very well made, very well thought out and does exactly what it sets out to do: carry tube, levers, CO2, and give you a great ratchet-bitset for fettling. And when you're faffing by the side of the trail or road in the cold or wet, the fact that it stays firmly fixed to your bike will be much appreciated.

Verdict

Cracking saddle bag that stays fixed to your saddle rails when opened, with an excellent ratchet bitset included