Years of refinement have gone into this seat bag to meet our standards for weight, stability on singletrack, and ease of use. We designed this bag to cinch up tight to the saddle with just one strap, an easy adjustment to ensure a stable bag after each quick layer change. When we’re rushed during a race or just fatigued, it’s easy to get sloppy and neglect to adjust multiple buckles to get a bag secured properly. That’s why we limited ourselves to one strap to adjust the whole bag.
The bag uses an all-metal Austere buckle that can handle serious tugging. I was skeptical about these high dollar buckles at first, but after testing several other buckles on prototype seat bags, nothing else comes close. They’re easy to tighten, easy to release, and they don’t slip. As a bonus, they’re made in the USA and they look sweet. Two carbon tubes make up the rest of the attachment hardware. One tube goes over the saddle rails to provide a pivot point for the bag to rest on. The paracord on each side of the bag goes over a saddle rail and then loops around the second carbon tube which is connected to the Austere buckle.
A substantial aluminum stiffener ensures the single buckle tightens the entire bag evenly so the bag is stable on rough terrain and doesn’t get lumpy when partially packed. Did I mention the stiffener doubles as a trowel? That’s right. Don’t leave home without it! With rounded top edges and room for both hands, we think this trowel is more user-friendly than any other ultralight trowel we’ve tried. It’s laser cut and bent in the USA. It’s a few grams heavier than other ultralight trowel options and I tried chasing the weight of those at first, but our initial batch of prototypes promptly bent in half in rocky soil. The larger size works well in the bag and we think it digs better too.
Similar to our handlebar and rack rolls, this bag features a waterproof inner dry bag that slides out of the water-resistant outer bag easily. This way, you can take the contents to your shelter while the outer bag stays installed on your bike. This means that bag install happens only once, and that the inner drybag gets extra protection. The inner bag can also be better compressed when packed off the bike. The materials on the outer bag can be customized to whatever colors you want in Ecopak, or Ultra if you want to save some grams. Regardless of your material selection, a super tough Ultra 800 bottom panel guards against accidental tire rub.
These are hand made to order and like many of the other bags we make, we designed this bag for us. We’ve been using variations of this bag since 2019, but didn’t have something we were satisfied with until last year. Then we asked several friends to ride with the bag and provide feedback. (Thanks Johnny for putting it through the paces on the Triple Crown!) We adjusted a few things based on that feedback, but the overall concept was a hit. This is a dropper-compatible seat bag designed for singletrack bikepacking, it’s not the biggest, not the smallest, and we think it’s just right.
An optional nano Voile strap is included to secure the nose of the bag to the dropper if you’re using a Valais or something else to protect your stanchion. This extra strap can help with stability when loading/unloading the outer bag without the dry bag. Just note that the contents may get wet!
Specs:
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- Weight:
- Ultra: 9oz (255g) total (top, sides, bottom panels all ultra)
- 6oz (170g) outer bag
- 1.5oz (43g) dry bag
- 1.5oz (43g) trowel
- Ecopak: 10oz (285g) total (top, sides, bottom panels all Ecopak)
- 7oz (200g) outer bag
- 1.5oz (43g) dry bag
- 1.5oz (43g) trowel
- Ultra: 9oz (255g) total (top, sides, bottom panels all ultra)
- Weight:
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- Volume: 5L
- Clearance: the bag is 5″ tall when fully packed, requiring at least 6″ of clearance to your tire with the dropper down (and suspension bottomed out)
The optional Wolftooth Valais limits dropper travel. The clamp itself will reduce travel by ~35mm, and can be positioned lower to further reduce travel. In the event of a dropper failure, it also functions as a clamp to make your dropper rigid. There are two Valais sizes available: 25mm diameter stanchions and one for the 26mm stanchions. Measure your upper seatpost stanchion diameter to determine the correct size to use.
- Valais 25mm accommodates posts with 24.75-25.25mm stanchion diameter. Some known posts of this size include:
- Easton Haven
- Giant Contact (internal routing)
- RaceFace Turbine
- RockShox Reverb Stealth
- Specialized Command Post
- 9Point8 Fall Line
- Bikeyoke Revive
- Valais 26mm accommodates posts with 26-26.5mm stanchion diameter. Some known posts of this size include:
- Wolf Tooth Resolve*
- Thomson Covert
- Fox Transfer
- KS eTen
- One-Up
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