As more cyclists look to adventure with their bikes, Apidura’s latest Expedition DownTube Pack adds a bit of extra, out-of-the-way waterproof storage. Most of the latest gravel bike have adopted a standard three water bottle layout, with one set of bosses under the downtube – but for those of us looking to keep riding our road, all-road, cyclocross & mountain bikes on more solo trips, this new downtube bag securely straps an extra full size bottle or room for extra gear onto bikes with limited bottle bosses…
Apidura Expedition DownTube Pack strap-on 3rd bottle storage
I run through water like it’s going out of style on almost any spring or summer ride, so the idea that I could securely attach an extra bottle to any of my bikes sounds like a great idea for my rides further off the beaten track. Most recent gravel bikes I’ve ridden already have a 3rd set of bosses on the downtube, but even on a long ride this weekend, I was reminded that I was limited to just a 500ml bottle because of braze-on placement, and I ended up with a muddy bottle real quick that was best to just empty into my other bottles rather than trying to clean before I put it into my mouth.
In the works for quite a while now, the new Expedition Downtube Pack solves both of those issues in a waterproof roll-top bottle-sized bag designed for a 710ml bidon “+ a bit”. It straps to a 30-60mm diameter downtube to make bikes without accessory mounts just a bit more versatile.
But of course, it will strap to any roundish tube of that size so it could add more storage wherever you might need it, think: toptube, the upper portion of a downtube on suspension-corrected rigid bikes, we’ve seen bikepackers with bottle on either side of the downtube paired with full frame bags, even kids’ bikes…
DownTube Pack – Tech details, pricing & availability
The Downtube Pack is made of the same lightweight 3-layer waterproof laminate Trilon fabric as the rest of their dark gray Expedition family, with welded seams. It uses a single Hypalon harness that goes all the way around the pack and is secured with one velcro strap – designed to fit skinny metal to large carbon tubes with grip pads designed to keep it from moving once installed – just cut the strap to length for small diameter tubing as needed.
The small bag gets a roll-top closure on the top, a pull tab on the bottom to make it easier to get compressed, stuffed in items like a down jacket out, and has reflective yellow details for a bit of extra visibility before it gets covered in mud.
The new 80g Expedition bag officially offers up to 1.5L of storage when fully extended (8cm diameter x max 26cm long). The Downtube Pack sells for £52 / $71 / 59€ and is available from Apidura starting today.
