Posting a pic of what I carry in my bike commute bag. I’ve got an inkling that I’m probably carrying too much stuff, but since my work commute is only ~11 miles round trip, it hasn’t been a big deal for me.

• Lezyne alloy mini pump
• Bungee cord
• Headband
• Pants clip
• Zip Ties
• Cable/Lock (I leave my main cable/lock at work; this is for quick stops)
• Tire levers
• Multi-tool
• Planet Bike blaze 1/2 watt headlight
• Altoids tin with patch kit, battery
• Sunglasses/Mirror
• Spare reading glasses
• Old padded envelope I use when I store my phone in the bike bag
• Two inner tubes

Typically,

Tube
Patch Kit
3 tire levers
Underwear
Shorts/Pants/Swimming trunks (one of these - season dependent)
Undershirt
Work polo
Wallet
Rice container (part of lunch)
Extra lenses for riding glasses

It sounds like more than what it looks like when it's packed.

Looks like I have same bag as op. :-)

Yeah, this reminds me to mention that in addition to the bike bag I keep on my rear rack, I'm also usually carrying all of the above, plus a laptop computer in a messenger bag strapped to my back.

- quarters, in case I'm lucky enough to get a flat near a gas station
- emergency simple carb

Multitool, rain cape, lights, and bungee net.

I started out following the advice of the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink guys. Ten years and 50,000 miles later, I've cleaned out the stuff I've never used.

Each bike has its own Road Morph G pump mounted on the seat tube. Standard load in all my seat bags is one tube, one tire lever, and a single 5mm allen wrench, since I use 5mm bolt-on skewers. I've never used any of the other stuff typically recommended. Since I keep up with regular maintenance at home, there's no need to carry a full toolkit and spare parts every day.

On Mondays, the panniers carry food (other than a daily sandwich) and clothes for the week, and any library books I have to return. One pannier stays at work, the other comes home in case I need to carry raingear during the week. Then on Friday, I use them again to bring home the laundry.

Food for the week means 5 apples, 5 oranges, small containers of miso paste and instant dashi powder, and a leftovers container of diced shiitake mushrooms and sliced green onions. Morning snack is one of the fruits, lunch is the daily sandwich and the other fruit, then afternoon snack is miso soup.

On the three midweek days, I can get by with just my ID, glasses and the daily sandwich sandwich stuffed in a jersey pocket.

My lock stays at work, and that may soon become superfluous when I get a bike locker.

30+ mi RT. I also have a mini-pump on the bike frame

the usual emergency kit (patch, spare tube, tools...) lunch box, spare clothing, spare batteries and for the last 2 month, my epipen! Yep, at 40 years old I suddenly became allergic at I still don't know what, the allergy test is scheduled in 2 weeks but now I have 3 of these thing because I kept forgeting to bring it with me. So now I have one at work, one at home and one in my front bag with a tag clearly indicating that there's an epipen there. So if I can't take it by myself any rescuer will quickly see where it is.

I need to go through my handlebar bag, but I think I'm down to really just keeping a cable lock, spare tube, security wrench for the bolt on skewers, and a tire lever in there. I suspect there are some superfluous things in there I have collected and just put in, but I can't think of what it might be right now. Apart from clothes and lunch, I see no need to carry any more than I would on a road ride, which is a way to fix a flat and a multi tool (though, apart from adjusting the saddle height, I can't think to a time I ever needed to use a multi tool during a ride). My commute isn't a tour nor is it a century. 12 miles, each way.

None of your damn business what's in my bag or on my handlebars or anywhere else. Who are you? The NSA?

Interesting, I'm surprised you don't include a patch kit. I guess 99% of the time you don't get a flat, and 99% of the times you do get a flat, it's only one flat, and your spare tube gets you home where you can patch. So it's worth it to not carry a patch kit. For a teeny extra weight/space penalty, you could get a little pack of those 'glueless patches', which are really just stickers. Maybe someday you'll get a second flat, and that could get you home.

In my kittier, I carry my seatbag (I don't like my seatbag on my seat, it swings around and bumps my thighs), my Park 3-way 4-5-6 wrench, a bungee net in case I want to hold anything larger on the rack, a faux leather case for my flip phone (which is rarely turned on) and spare 18630 headlight battery. Daily fresh clothes (shirt, socks, underwear -- jeans&towel live at work and get brought home occasionally for washing. shoes live at work). Cable lock and badge for work. It only gets full/heavy if I am bringing food to work. Canned soups/tuna, loaf of bread,...

The seatbag contains a tube, a patch kit, a spare quicklink, a set of allen keys, and a Nashbar Woody multitool. The bike has a frame pump (vintage silca impero with campy head).

In 'rainy season' I'll also carry a folded up poncho, rain paints, and a small plastic container holding half a dozen plastic shopping bags (emergency rain protection for feet and leather saddle).

Brompton front bag , O bag. (Made by Ortlieb)

2 back pockets water bottle in one, tools to fix a flat tire in the other (+ my new double ended Spork)

We had two pumps, seventy-five patches, five sets of high-powered sockets, a saltshaker half-full of HEED, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored clips, bungees, baggies, gloves... Also, a quart of tubeless sealant, a quart of grease, a plastic poncho, a pint of raw chocolate milk, and two dozen allen wrenches. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you are locked in to a serious tool collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.

I carry a tube, multi-tool (with chain breaker tool), tire levers, and nitrile gloves in my saddle bag. Mini-pump is strapped under the down tube. In my trunk bag I carry an assortment of plastic zipper bags, an emergency gel, reflective ankle straps (only used in winter), and a small sweat towel with my club's logo on it (freebie). Oh yeah, and a snack-size zipper bag with my Aldi quarter.

After a couple "side of the road" repairs that involved an oily chain, I now also carry a pair of nitrile gloves.


It's a great feeling to be able to preform basic emergency repairs ... riding home with greasy hands, not so much.

My buddy had to top off his tires - the gas station wanted $1.25 in quarters.

For air.

For that the air should have been scented with lemon, lavender and rosemary and lubricated with unicorn tears.

Robbery, pure and simple.

I find that if you buy gas at the gas station, and go inside and ask, the attendant is always happy to turn the air on for you for no charge. Probably also if you buy a snack and ask for them to turn on the air for you, they would turn it on as well. Of course, if you buy the snack and then ask, you risk them saying no in which case you're out even more...

I move this seat bag from bike to bike. Normally, I hang my blinky tail light from it, but in this picture, the tail light is mounted on the bike.

The bag contains

- tire levers
- spare tube for my first flat
- patch kit for subsequent flats
- small pump
- allen keys for seat and handlebar adjustment
- wipies
- a small length of Gorilla Tape
- rag

Is the gorilla tape wound on itself? Or on wax paper or something?

Fix-It Sticks
Patch kit
CO2 inflator
Rubber gloves (keep my hands clean if I need to do any repairs or get caught in unexpected rain)
Waterproof cover for my bag
A few body wipes

...and of course the collection of random junk that I forget to remove. I had quite the collection of change when I dumped my bag out the other day.

It's wound on a little plastic tube. I haven't needed to use it on the road, but someone here on BF said it could come in handy, most probably to boot a tire with a rip in the sidewall.

I like what you did there.

Wait, did I miss a movie reference or something?

Breakfast, lunch, wallet, work ID, a plastic bag, two spare tubes, a pump and the rain cover for the bag.

I used to carry tools but in 12 years I never used any of them, I'm never more than about 6 miles from either work or home where there are tools, so in a rare case where I might need them, I'll just walk, walking is good too.

I have a Topeak MTX DXP trunk bag/pannier set, so I've got lots of room. In that, I keep an entire clip-on saddle bag that includes a tire lever, tire patches, Presta to Schrader converter (I fix other people's tires more often than I fix my own), stand-alone chain tool, small length of spare chain, individual Allen wrenches, small screwdriver, individual flat wrenches, spoke repair kit, tire boot, 2 Band-Aids, rubber gloves, identification/medical info card, a quarter, and a $5 bill. When I don't need to carry the whole trunk bag, I can just slide it off the rack and clip the saddle bag under my saddle so I have any necessary tools to handle a breakdown.

Alongside the saddle bag in the trunk bag's main compartment, I keep a pencil case filled with miscellaneous first-aid items, a second spare tube (the first is rolled in a sock and strapped to the top of my rear rack), my mp3 player and speaker (when foul weather requires me to remove them from the handlebars), spare batteries, lunch, and miscellaneous clothing and other items I need for work.

Wish I had a photo, but I am too lazy to go out to the garage and take one right now.