Swim Bike Run Live

Pro Tip: Swim Cap Saddle Bag

Friday, April 13th, 2012

I’m hesitant to proactively dole out triathlon advice because

1) So much of triathlon is uniquely personal and what works for me won’t work for a lot of people

2) I worry that I’ll come across as pretentious somewhere along the way. Triathlon is an insanely complex sport and I am constantly made aware of how much i still have to learn.

Despite that, I do have a few favorite racing and training tips that I’ve picked up over the years that I’ve decided are worth sharing. Here is the first – the swim cap saddle bag.

A lot of tri bikes are set up with behind-the-saddle bottle cages simply because it is a great way to add on two extra bottles and allow you to go a lot longer without having to top off. That also means that you’ve probably had to work out some weird saddle bag situation to fit around your bottles or you stuff your extra tube/pump/CO2/levers in your bento box. A lot of behind-the-saddle bottle cage setups have extra straps to hold extra goodies, but no  real “bag” to speak of. It forces you to somehow wrap up all of your goodies in one neat package using only two Velcro straps and hope that nothing falls out and leaves you stranded.

I’ve tried to use my extra tube to tie a knot around my CO2/lever/multitool, but that inevitably just falls apart.

I’ve tried taping it all together into one neat package, but that gets sticky and messy.

I’ve tried rubber bands, but they quickly break down and fall apart because of all the sun and sweat.

Then I started using leftover swim caps from old races. I’d shove all my extra gear into the cap, wrap it up tight, and BOOM. I’m good to go. Everything is neatly held in place. It even keeps everything tight enough so there isn’t any annoying jingling noise coming from behind me when I’m on rough roads. And the best part? It is free! And if it breaks, I’ve just got to do another race and I’ll have another cap to bundle up my ghetto saddle bag.

Note: I’m not sure if I came up with this myself, or leeched the idea off of some older/wiser/more attractive triathlete and don’t remember. If you’ve been doing this longer than I have, kudos to you.

Category : Triathlon

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