We had Erik de Brun from Redshift Sports on The Paceline a couple weeks ago, and he said they had a new product coming. Well it has dropped, or whatever the Gen Z kids are saying. It’s a seat bag called the Quickdraw and what makes it unusual is the way it attaches to the saddle.
There’s a wide strap that goes around the bag and seat rails, but here’s the thing: You needn’t remove the strap to open the seat bag. Simply loosen the strap and then pop the bag free from the magnetic retainer built into the strap. It uses two powerful neodymium magnets to help secure the bag to the mount.
When I first opened the box and took the Quickdraw out, I forgot what the folks at Red Shift had told me about it at Sea Otter, so when I loosed the strap, I wasn’t sure how to release the bag from the mount. I tried twisting in a couple of directions, looked for some sort of release clip and then, as ever, when in doubt, I read the directions, and that was when I was reminded of the magnetic mount. Pull down and … voila.
So once removed, you can zip it fully open so you have easy access to everything within. No stabbing two fingers in to try to reach that CO2 head buried at the bottom of the bag. One side features a pocket suitable for a mini tool, plugs or tire levers.
Red Shift makes the bag in two sizes, small and medium. They share the same length and width, but the medium is thicker. In their technical specifications not only do they give internal dimensions, but they have worked out just what each will hold.
From their site:
Internal Dimensions: 120mm x 80mm x 50mm (.48 Liters)
- Weight: 106g
- Capacity: road and narrow tire gravel, specific examples include:
- 700 x 43 TPU tube, electric pump, mini tool, tire levers/tire plug tool
- 700 x 50 TPU tube, mini tool, tire levers
- 29 x 2.4 TPU tube, mini tool, compact tire levers
- 700 x 43 Butyl tube, mini tool, compact tire levers
- 700 x 50 Butyl tube, compact tire levers
Medium:
- Internal Dimensions: 120mm x 80mm x 65mm (.66 Liters)
- Weight: 114g
- Capacity: MTB and wider tire gravel, specific examples include:
- 29 x 2.4 TPU tube, mini tool, 2 x CO2, compact tire levers
- 29 x 2.4 TPU tube, mini tool, electric pump
- 700 x 50 Butyl tube, mini tool and tire levers OR 2 x CO2s
- 29 x 2.4 Butyl tube, mini tool
That they went to the trouble to quantify exactly what fits in each size should embarrass every other bag maker out there. I say this as someone who, many years ago, was charged with collecting every seat bag on the market for a buyer’s guide. It became such a voluminous project my boss killed it, but not before I’d tried more than 30 different seat bags and struggled to figure out a way to come up with a yardstick by which to measure the bags. The one that made sense to me—two tubes, two CO2 cartridges and one tire lever—proved to be too tall an order for most of the seat bags. What I’ve placed in the Quickdraw as shown is one tube, two instant patches, an inflator, three CO2 cartridges and one minitool.
The Quick Draw Bag goes for $69.99, in either size. And while they aren’t available yet, you will be able to order additional straps so that you can move the one bag from bike to bike. That’s a kind of proof for how easy it is to remove.
Final thought: I can’t wait until Redshift takes on panniers.