Specialized/Fjällräven Top Tube Bag

The Specialized/Fjällräven Top Tube Bag is a high-quality and attractive 0.8L capacity design that offers convenient access to snacks, keys or your phone on the move. It can be attached to a frame via straps or screws, although ours had a tendency to move left or right when attached with straps, and the two-way zip on ours was a little stiff in operation. It's also rather expensive.

For options beyond top tube bags – frame bags, seatpacks and more – check out our guide to the best bikepacking bags.

Measuring 26cm long, 10cm high and 6cm wide, it's a relatively long, low and narrow thing. Its 0.8L capacity is good enough for a bag of sweets, keys, a wallet and a phone (my iPhone 14 Pro fitted nicely), and I even managed to squeeze in an inner tube.

Two elasticated mesh pockets allow you to keep items tucked out of the way, but when not in use they don't take up any interior space, so you can simply chuck all your stuff into the main compartment.

The bag is made out of Vinylon F material, which is soft but durable and 'a long-time Fjällräven favourite'. It's a really good material that's surprisingly weather resistant, even after longer bouts of rain, but sustained heavy rain will eventually find its way through.

The lining is recycled polyamide 210D and waterproof, but the seams aren't taped, and the zip isn't waterproof, either, so a Ziplok bag might be wise if you want to protect things from moisture.

The sides are foam padded for a bit of protection, and the base of the bag has a plastic stabiliser to help it keep its shape.

There's also a 'weather-resistant' port that runs through where the top strap mount is located at the front of the bag, allowing you to run a cable through to charge your phone, GPS or light as you ride.

I'm not a huge fan of the two-way zip – I prefer to keep things simple – but it does mean you can keep the bag partially open at either end, to access different things while on the move.

I found the zip on ours a little on the stiff side, and since the zip pull cord isn't particularly big, it's not the easiest to operate on the move. There's a garage to keep the upper zip in place.

To keep the bag in place, there are two straps to attach it to your top tube, and one to wrap around the headset spacers (or seat tube, if you prefer to have it positioned there). The latter is thin enough to accommodate various stack heights, and you can mount the strap in a low and high position. A foam spacer is included should you need it. All the straps are the simple hook and loop (Velcro) variety.

During testing I found that the bag had a tendency to drop slightly left or right, which meant my knees would inevitably start rubbing against it a little. This happened no matter how tight I fastened the straps, though part of me can't help wondering if the combination of a titanium frame with a slippery wax coating on top was contributing to this.

If you have the option, the bag comes with two holes on the base to enable you to bolt it to your frame. I tried this on my Bombtrack Beyond+ and it was rock solid, even without using the headset strap.

It comes in four colours: Ochre, Ox Red and black, as well as the green on test, so you can keep all your S/F bags matchy matchy. The trademark S/F logo is attached to either side of the bag, and the reflectivity gives you a little bit of extra pop at night.

Value and conclusion

Oddly, the bag retails at £55 on the Fjällräven site, but £50 on Specialized's. Either way, it's still a pretty pricey top tube bag, up against some stiff competition.

Restrap's 0.8L Top Tube Bag is a bit of a benchmark product as far as top tube bags go. Mike rated the bag's design, choice of materials, waterproofing and the fact it's made in the UK. (S/F's stuff is made in Asia.) It's also £15 less, so a bit of a bargain by comparison.

The S/F bag is slightly cheaper than the 76 Projects Ass Top Tube Bag, at £59.50, which can only be mounted with bolts – but off.road.cc reviewed it and thought it was excellent.

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Overall, the S/F is a decent option if you want a bag that will stand out from the crowd, and there are some nice features included. Its slight instability is a bit annoying, but if you have top tube mounts then you're good to go.

There's no getting away from the price, though, so unless you already have some pieces from the S/F collection, you might want to look at the cheaper and better options available.

Verdict

There's lots to like about this top tube bag, but there are better, cheaper options out there