What is in your bike's saddlebag?

 All seasoned cyclists have an equipment pouch with them when they ride. Most often it's hanging below the saddle (saddlebag), sometimes it's attached to the stem and the top tube (bento bag), or in a triangular pouch between the top tube and the down tube, or in the second water bottle (usually the one on the seat tube), or in the Camelbak backpack. However we are carrying the equipment/tools, we are carrying them. They are the safety net that allows us to ride far away from home knowing that we will probably be able to cope with any roadside mechanical and ride back home (or at least to the working bus stop or within Uber/Lyft/Taxi range). 

The most common mechanical problem you will get on the road/trail, of course, is the flat tire. Being able to change flats properly on your own is a necessary skills for any cyclist. Check with your local bike shops or cycling clubs to see if there is any flat clinic available (they are usually free). If not, there are several good 'how to' videos on Youtube. I recommend the Park Tool videos. They are really excellent and thorough. 

So, what is in the bag?

At the minimum, your saddlebag should contain:

A spare inner tube that fits your tires and wheels, a patch kit, CO2 nozzle and a couple of canisters unless you are carrying a frame pump, tire levers/irons, a multi-tool with a chain-tool and spoke key(s) that fits your spoke nipples. 

If you ride your bike enough, you WILL have a mechanical issue on the road sometimes. Even if you don't know how to repair whatever it is, it's best to have the tools with you. Chances are a good Samaritan will stop to check on you (cyclists are pretty good that way), but he/she won't be able to fix it for you if there is no tool available. 

My saddlebag's contents.

I ride solo in lonely places far away from help a lot, so my saddlebag isn't quite 'minimalistic'. There are:

• Powdered spare inner tube. My tubes come unpowdered in a paperbox. I take them out of the box, powder them, and wrap them each in a plastic bag with a 16 or 20 g canister of CO2, and write the tube's spec on the bag (since I switch between 28mm and 30mm tires quite a bit, depending on what sort of terrain I was heading into).
• CO2 nozzle and at least 2 CO2 canisters of 16 or 20g. I use the super easy to use basic green Genuine Innovations G20315 nozzle. They're very hardy and small. 
• Two tire levers (plus one more attached to the multi-tool). 
• A preglued patch kit (with 5 patches in it). 
• A Park Tool IB-3 multi-tool with chain tool, spoke keys, and the extra tire lever. It's a heavier multi-tool, but it is super sturdy and has nearly all the tools you'd need. 
• A missing link. Well, usually 2 of those, one standard one, and one Wipperman Connex. The Wipperman is missing in the photo, since I used it the day before to connect a riding buddy's broken chain on the road. Unlike the standard missing link, the Wipperman Connex link can be used multiple times, and does not require any tool to install or remove. It is quite a bit more expensive than the standard missing link, but it's worth every penny.
• A mini lube pouch.
• Alcohol pads (for cleaning disc brake rotors or the braking surface on wheel rim).
• A Schrader/Presta valve adapter, so I can make use of gas station air pump. Gas station air pumps generally max out at 80 psi, which is not ideal for many. But I'm light enough and running bigger tires, so 80 psi will easily enable me to ride home.
• A nitrile glove and wet wipe. I look scary enough on my own without the involuntary post-repair black face paint.
• A tablet of Diphenhydramine antihistamine (aka Benadryl)... you never know when you're gonna run into an angry bee or rattler. 
• A sock (you know how they get unpaired in the laudry and all of the sudden you have a closet full of unmatched socks?) and a spare rubber band. I also wrap a length of electrical tape around my handlebar stem, just in case. Just about everything but the tire levers go into the sock, and then into the saddlebag. It helps to not loose the little bitty stuff on the ground. Besides, it's a handy chain-wipe when needed. 
• An extra strap. Or a zip tie. 
• A piece of candy... Of course, I also carry gels and stuff in my jersey pocket. It's a just-in-case candy. Sometimes you get sort of frustrated wrestling with Murphy's Law's Revenge Days, and just need a pleasant sweet things to cheer you up a bit. I'm not called Smorg for nothing!

Which spare tubes to get for the road bike?

I've been riding with new riders a lot lately. It's a good thing in many ways, one of which is to remind me to not take certain things - like knowing how to choose the right spare inner tubes to take with me on a ride - for granted. There are lots of good 'how to change tube or repair flats' videos on Youtube, but apparently none of them tells people how to choose the tubes that fit their tires to begin with. So here goes...

There are 3 numbers you are concerned with when you look for a spare road bike tube, and they tend to come in this sort of combination: 700 x 23, 46 mm.

The first number, for a road bike, would tend to be 700 as in 700 mm (or 70 cm). This is the standard road bike wheel size. If you are less than 5'2" tall or so and riding a bike that fits you, though, you might be running a smaller set of wheels, probably a 650 mm, because your bike frame would be too small to run the standard 700 mm wheels without you ending up hitting the front one with your foot when turning the bike. Simply park your wheels next to a full size bike and you should be able to see if your wheels are the same size or smaller.

The second number is the tire width. For road bikes these days it's usually 23 mm, though 25 mm tires are becoming more popular now (this is the tires I'm using, btw). This number can vary a lot, the bigger the number, the bigger the tire, though the width of the tire on your bike is limited by how much clearing you have on your frame and brakes (I wish I can use 28 mm tires, but they are too big to clear my brakes, so I run a set of 25 mm).

Your tires' size is usually printed on the side of the tires... like in the photo above. On the inner tube boxes, this is usually given in a range instead of a single number. If your size is inside the range given (in the photos, the ranges are 20-28 for the Specialized, and 20-25 for the Giant), then you are good to go. If you are stuck in the middle of nowhere and only have a tube that is a bit smaller than the tire (like, a tube with range of 20-25 but your tire size is 28), you can get away with using the smaller tube. It'll just be stretched thinner than usual when inflated, though, and a bit more vulnerable to puncturing.

The third number is the length of the valve stem. As you can see, most road bikes come with the long and spindly Presta valve instead of the usual Schrader valve that is prevalent on car tires. My bike wheel in the photo has the standard size aluminum rim (about 25 mm). I need the valve to be at least 15 mm longer than the rim (or the pump or CO2 nozzle wouldn't fit over the cap when I reinflate), so I need 40 mm or longer stem.

If you use deep rimmed aero wheels like this guy does, you need tube with 60 mm  or longer valve stem.

Mind, I've been able to use tubes with 38 mm stem, but I have to use the stem nut to secure the tube, and it's always harder to keep the pump nozzle from slipping off when reinflating. It also takes longer to change flats since I always have to take out the nut, and is just an extra aggravation that I don't need. So, usually I go with the Giant tube in the 1st photo, with 48 mm stem. Some people use deeper (more aero) rim on their wheels, and they need tube with longer valve stem, like the Specialized tube with 60 mm one.


If you aren't so weight conscious and don't mind a few extra ounces on the bike, I'd recommend using the cheaper (thicker and heavier) inner tubes rather than the more expensive (thinner and lighter) ones simply because they are a bit more flat resistant. And, unless you are a super avid or pro cyclist you probably won't even notice any weight difference anyway.

So, you now know how to choose the right inner tubes for your bike... But do you know how to prep them before going out for a ride? It's pretty easy, and it could make flat-changing a lot more pleasant (if pleasant can be used to describe any such repair!).

Most tubes come unpowdered. Why do we powder our tubes? To make it less sticky, of course! Sticky tubes are uncooperative tubes and like to stick to things, and this can sometimes cause an extra flat when it pulls the rim tape, that rubberly tape that shields the tube from the spoke nipples, out of alignment and exposes the tube to the metal. You can buy pre-powdered tubes, of course, but they typically costs a couple of dollars more. It's way cheaper to prep your own!

Just take the fresh new tube out of the box. Take the valve stem nut out now, if you don't plan on using it. Then powder the whole thing. Re-fold it, with a CO2 cartridge if that's your method of re-inflation. Put the whole thing in a plastic bag and then wrap it up with a rubber band (usually comes with the new tube). Be sure to rubber band the plastic bag rather than the tube. Sometimes, if you rubber band the tube itself and then go a long time before using it, the rubber band works itself into the tube and can actually tear it.

My saddlebag contains: spare tube, 2 CO2 cartridge & nozzle, Swiss Army knife, patch kit, tire irons, multi-tool w chain-breaker, spoke wrench, $1 (for booting?), a dime (to toe-in brakes), valve adapter, extra wrench (in case I run into someone who doesn't use quick release). I also carry another spare tube & emergency kit in my backpack.

Always have at least a spare inner tube with you along with a way of inflating it (either a frame pump or a CO2 system), preferably, though, always have at least 2 spare tubes AND a patch kit... and a valve converter. The latter is a tiny little metal valve attachment that costs only about $2 and will enable you to use gas station air pump. The gas station pumps are made to inflate car tires, however, so you will only be able to put about 60 psi of air in, which is way more than you'll be able to blow in even if you're a huge-lunged opera singer, and should enable you to ride gingerly on until you can get to a bus stop or the nearest bike shop to use a floor pump to properly re-inflate the tire.