Lomo Bike Saddle Bag

Lomo's Bike Saddle Bag is a good, light and reasonably water-resistant place to keep the essentials – one tube, levers, puncture stuff and a multi-tool is pretty much it – and once fitted it's secure and easy to use. The price is reasonable, but the fiddly strap, rattling zip and uneven welded seams mean it ends up feeling a bit cheap.

• Pros: Actually useful inner pocket, good shape, secure straps
• Cons: Rattling zip which doesn't quite close, short strap end, untidy seams

The best thing about this bag is the shape, which broadens towards the opening and acts to funnel your supplies in – little packs with parallel walls can be difficult to load, especially with today's bigger/thicker tubes. This one's easy to fill but compact under your saddle.

The second best thing is the elasticated net pocket inside the flap. It's actually useful for stopping little bits like patches and spare chain links getting pulled out with your tube and disappearing into the verge... it's also much better than a pocket inside the main section, as they're usually impossible to get into unless you pull everything out anyway.

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

As if to prove it, the Lomo also includes a weird little mesh pouch that Velcros down to the floor, but it's not much use – you can cram a couple of CO2 cartridges in if you like, but I'm not sure why you would. Still, it's there if you want it, and removable if not.

The main strap cinches this 500ml pack down if it's not full, and is well-stitched with a strong plastic buckle. The buckle end is so short, though, that it can be fiddly pulling it over the saddle rail to feed the other end through.

The overall funnel shape at least means the pack is easily used with the strap loosened, so you can avoid undoing/refitting it unless you're swapping between bikes. (I find some packs so tight, with such recalcitrant zips, I have to take them off the bike just to get into them.)

The zip is only splashproof (the fabric is waterproof), but copes OK with spray so long as you snug it down tight to minimise the hole it leaves at the very end – a hole that's right in the line of spray. It got a little damp inside at times, but never properly wet.

The metal zip pull rattles constantly and is annoying, though it's easily damped with a strategically-wrapped zip tie. The strong tab for lights on the rear is welcome, as is its band of reflective material.

The £15 price seems reasonable, even allowing for the niggles, though the poorly cut side panels make the functionally-decent welded seams look cheap.

You can have fully waterproof for the same price, such as with the ludicrously-named pack I shall abbreviate as the BTR WUTBSWSBB, for instance, but while you could spend more – check out the £20 Blackburn Grid or the £22 Fabric Contain – you won't necessarily get perfection there either.

> Ride essentials: Saddlebag or jersey pockets?

The Lomo Bike Saddle Bag performs a useful if unspectacular service in a fittingly useful if unspectacular way, and Lomo hints as much with its useful if unspectacular approach to naming it. I, for the most part, recommend you fit it to your bike, silence the zip and almost instantly forget the whole thing is there.

Verdict

Useful and well-shaped bag for essentials, though not without niggles