Tested: 5 Ways to Hold a Tube on Your Frame
Black electrical tape, wrapped tightly around frame tubes to stow a spare inner-tube, a couple of tire levers, and maybe a CO2 and a plug kit, became the hallmark of a committed enduro racer as the EWS came of age. Like all things cycling, it wouldn't be long before our product-hungry accessory industry would follow up on the trend with better (and pricier) alternatives. We gathered up five of them for this review - some as simple as an elastic band with a buckle on one end, and a few up-scale options with pockets and fancy colorways. If you don't see anything that catches your fancy, or their asking prices are a bit rich for you, don't stress. A three-dollar roll of tape is still a viable option.
The Stash Wrap's elastic band is long enough to secure a lot more than a spare tube to your frame.
Race Face Stash Tool Wrap
Race Face's Stash Tool Wrap is a more intelligent way to lash tools, a CO2 kit or a spare tube to your frame than embalming them with tape. Its wide, elastic band is about a foot long (300mm), so it can handily secure a full-size inner tube to any frame member or under the saddle. The strap is liberally covered with hook-and-loop and the inside is banded with thick silicone rubber strips that grip the frame like frightened baby monkeys. Central to the Race Face design is its folding pouch. It has two pockets on one side and a single pocket on the other. There are no zippers or flaps. Tools and spares are secured in the pockets simply by folding the pouch in half. Stash Tool Wraps only come in black and cost around $20 USD. Race Face
Three pockets, sized for well-prepared minimalists.
Wide elastic band, lined with gripper strips.
Features & Performance
Two features define this handy product: The Stash's folding pocket and the band's silicone gripper strips. Tacky gripper strips allow the Race Face Wrap to remain securely in place almost anywhere on the frame without stretching the elastic band much. It should last a long time. The hook-and-loop band ensures the wrap can be removed or replaced in seconds. The double pockets fit tire-plug tools and CO2 cartridges perfectly and they are at the ready the moment the wrap is in hand. If you switch bikes often, the Stash Wrap will make it simple to transfer your essentials from one to another.
Pinkbike's Take:
 | I'll concede that you can buy a lot of Gorilla tape for twenty bucks, but you're also going to waste a lot of it if you regularly access your tools and spares. Race Face nailed this one. It's simple, effective, and it turned out to be far more convenient than I had anticipated. |
OneUp EDC Gear Straps
OneUp's EDC gear Straps (you get a pair for $15 USD) are simple belts made from stretchy polyurethane. As advertised, they don't absorb water or mud and should not scratch your paint, as long as you don't wrap them around crusty frame tubes. The buckle locks into perforations on the belt and a handy loop keeps the loose end tucked neatly. Colors are grey and black. OneUp Components
Not innovative, but EDC Gear Straps cinch tight and are made from tough polyurethane.
Features & Performance
A big step above a toe strap and far more versatile than tape, OneUp's stretchy belts do limit the kind of gear you can strap onto your bike to things that won't gouge your frame. That said, they are pro quality and there's plenty of length to fix items bulkier than an inner tube to any frame member short of an e-bike's down tube.
Pinkbike's Take:
| EDC Gear Straps are a clean-looking alternative to secure your essentials on the bike. The polyurethane material is super tough and grippy, but you'll need to wrap things like metal tools and CO2 devices to prevent scratching. |
Dakine Hot Laps Gripper
Fancy and versatile, Dakine's Hot Laps Gripper is a webbing strap that is secured by hook-and-loop and incorporates a tube-sized pouch sewn from ballistic nylon. The pouch is flanked by a pair of open-ended side pockets to secure tools, and it is topped with elastic loops designed for CO2 cartridges. Cargo stashed in the elastic loops is further secured by the pouch's fold-over top flap. MSRP is $22 USD in blue with green accents. Dakine
Dakine's fold-over flap conceals the tube and secures two CO2 cartridges.
Tubular side pockets can stash longer items, but are best suited for tire levers.
Features & Performance
Dakine's cargo strap system is more like an under-saddle pouch that can also be fixed to frame tubes. The pouch is roomier than it looks, so it will fit heavy duty inner-tubes. Vanity, perhaps, but concealing the inner-tube sharpens up the bike's profile, while ensuring that it is protected from UV radiation and crash damage. Less useful than they appear to be, the Hot Laps' side-pockets are open ended, so it's not a stretch to assume you could lose an expensive multi-tool either en-route, or during a hurried trailside repair. As long as you pack carefully, Dakine's variety of pockets and stretchy loops makes this one of the more versatile and attractive options.
Pinkbike's Take:
| Good looking and expandable, the Hot Laps Gripper allows you to transfer a number of spares and essentials from bike to bike in one convenient package. |
Backcountry Research Mutherload Strap
If color choice and simplicity motivate your purchases, Backcountry Research offers its Mutherload strap in 50 colorways. Primarily intended to stash an inner-tube onto your frame, this simple length of one-inch webbing loops through a nylon D-ring, which doubles its tension, and is fixed with hook-and-loop. An elastic shock cord bundles the tube (and any tools that you may have tucked in between) to the strap, so everything stays in one place while you fix or remove your Mutherload from the bike. Choose your colorway (you may have to wait a week for crazy colors), pony up $21 USD and Backcountry Research will send you one.
Elastic shock-cord loops are sewn into the webbing.
Bundling your tube and tools reduces the fumble factor.
Features & Performance
"Minimalist" is the keyword here. Test riders who liked the Mutherload most preferred to carry as little as possible. There is more to this little gizmo than meets the eye. First of all, once you tuck a tube into the shock-cord loops, you can add a couple of tire tools to the bundle by slipping them between the tube and strap. Rubber tubing on the elastic shock cords grips the frame to secure your spares, and the strap tension is exceptional. Without pockets, Mutherload is best limited to items, long and slender enough to be secured by a single strap - like a pair of tire levers, or a single item like a multi tool, a plug kit, or a CO2 and filler snugly screwed together.
Pinkbike's Take:
| There is a Mutherload made to match or complement any color scheme, which adds value to this simple and effective cargo strap. Not as versatile as the pouch type straps, but perfect for the rider who keeps a tube and tire tools on board just for insurance. |
All Mountain Style OS Strap
Okay, what sets the OS Strap apart from the crowd is that it is made in the EU from molded thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), and it comes in a number of attractive colors. For around $21 USD, you can own one of these stretchy belts, and use it to strap an inner-tube and a couple of essentials to your bike. It's a step up from Gorilla tape, and it's re-usable. Did I mention it comes in a number of colors? All Mountain Style
Cinch down the OS Strap and it locks into a tab on the buckle.
Features & Performance
Hard to glorify a 21-dollar, 13.5-inch stretchy belt, but it gets the job done and the latching buckle design makes it handy to use. Unlike webbing and especially hook-and-loop retention systems, the TPE plastic belt won't trap moisture, dirt, or grit, so your spare tube and tire levers will always be smartly displayed on your frame.
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Pinkbike's Take
| This is a good quality elastic belt. That said, unless you must have a colored gear-strap, you can get two OneUp EDC straps for the price of a single All Mountain Style OS. Your call. |
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241 Comments
And hopefully nothing in the pack/strap/frame/trail rubbed or gouged a tiny tear in it...or the valve stem.
Tool, band-aids.zip ties, flat hunk of duct tape, mini-pump, tool & levers & a safely tucked away "not leaking" tube stay in my Camelbak. I go out the door and worst case I forget water.
Every ride I come home and they're right where they were...undamaged, together...clean...dry...waiting for that big stupid fail I always have.
Unless you're talking about @yoannbarelli ...he just straps everything to his naked waist.
Not sure I believe it even holds a tube now...just saying.
www.decathlon.com/products/300-bike-saddle-bag?adept-product=300-bike-saddle-bag&adept_product_id=300-bike-saddle-bag&source=search
And Its Free did I say Free.
Might say Fischer, Elan, K2, Volkl or if you are really lucky HEAD the best skis. :-}
The Dakine one is at least different so that's cool I guess
Although I've been riding tubeless for five years with only one flat, I prefer to have a spare tube with me "just in case" rather than having to walk however far back to the parking lot or lift (in a bike park).....
Now I always have spare tube, levers, tubeless plugs, multi-tool, quick link, spare tubeless valve & valve core removal tool on my bike - which have often helped my "who needs all that shit" mates
The only thing I must admit is, because my Gripper is mounted near the head tube, I use another (long) velcro strap AROUND the head tube to stop the bag sliding down the down tube :/
And before any mentions the "obvious mistake", I always carry a mini-pump attached to the bottle cage - old school..!
And some bikes can even carry two bottles so you wouldn't need the backpack
It comes in a small and a medium size. I have the small and i can just barely squeeze in a 27.5 tube, co2 and infiltrator head, tire lever. there is a small separate pouch on the bottom side for a multi tool.
www.lezyne.com/product-orgnzrs-caddys-mcrocaddysm.php
I fit a tube, co2, levers, microtool, patch kit (for really shitty puncture days), chain link and a couple of snacks in my seat bag...seems like a smarter solution than strapping stuff to a frame.
Why not first wrap it in some pack or smal bag?..
ep1.pinkbike.org/p6pb16027297/p6pb16027297.jpg
it's like all those Harley dudes in winter with hoodies, scarves, backlava's, facemasks over headbands and their jacket collars pulled up with their off hand trying to keep warm when they could just grab their helmet? BUT then they wouldn't look like cool Harley dudes...
In some pretty tough mountain biking it's always stayed put and I have absolutely no complaints. My only wish with these systems is that there was some sort of ultralight waterproof bag or at least ripstop nylon to keep mud from getting into your tube on rainy days.
The EDC straps are simply shorter versions of the common silicone straps you can get to hold your cross country and/or downhill skis together and are available in many lengths at 300 times the cost to produce them at your local ski shop.
On my commuter I have a tube folded, one zip tie to keep it folded (through the middle and one side), then two to step it yourself the saddle rails.
"Dakine Hot Laps Slipper." Backcountry research FTW...
call me when they are at least $50 snowboard style cushy leather and micro adjustable rachet... bitch
12 for £8 on amazon. Hold all my shit to my bike.
www.76projects.com/shop/piggypouch
www.doradocabletiesandstraps.com/products-1
Also pinkbike: use a fanny pack to put your tubes in
Also pinkbike: strap tubes to your bike
Me: put tubes in my tires