Lomo 13L Bikepacking Seat Pack Dry Bag

The budget-friendly Lomo 13L Bikepacking Seat Pack Dry Bag is a large capacity saddle bag for multi-day bikepacking adventures and more. Its 13-litre volume means you can carry a fair amount of kit tucked in nicely behind you when you're pedalling, though it may swing from side to side when fully packed. And coming from a company with a background making wetsuits, your belongings will stay dry too.

If you are looking for a bikepacking bag – seatpost bag, inner frame bag and more – then check out our best bikepacking bags buyer's guide.

The Lomo 13L Bikepacking Seat Pack Dry Bag is an excellent choice if you're looking to start bikepacking or perhaps considering different luggage-carrying options for your daily commute or general riding. Its generous volume means it could supplant a backpack for example on your ride to work, reducing the weight you're carrying, and it could also be a handy baggage option if your bike has no rear rack mounts.

Lomo is a Scottish company that makes wetsuits as well as dry bags, so it should know what it's doing, and the construction quality of the bag is very good. The dry bag-style closure, its high-quality waterproof outer material and welded seams prevent water from penetrating anywhere. This is important, especially if you're running a bike without mudguards, as road or track spray will be continually thrown onto the bag on wet rides.

One of the advantages of the bag's capacity is that it makes it easy to pack your kit and clothing, making planning more straightforward even if you're an inexperienced bikepacker.

That size and its potentially heavy weight can come with a potential downside, and the Lomo does have a tendency to swing from side to side, especially if you're riding out the saddle. It does have internal plates that are designed to stop the bag swaying but this isn't as effective as the anti-sway design of the Pro Discover Team Seat Bag – but then again the Pro is vastly more expensive. If you were to find this an issue, you can buy an anti-sway mount that fixes to your saddle rails for less than 20 quid, and even with that the Lomo would still be less expensive than most of its competitors.

There's a handy loop for attaching a rear light. Due to the size of the pack, it took up the entire length of my bike's exposed seatpost, so this is an important consideration. And with a little adjustment I was even able to fit a pair of rear lights side by side for maximum visibility during night-time and low-light rides.

Depending on the size of your bike, and especially if you're a smaller rider, it is also possible that the bag could encroach on the rear wheel, so I'd strongly recommend checking the bag and your bike's measurements before buying.

I also found that the straps weren't long enough when I tried to use the bag with an aero seatpost. Okay, so using a seatpack with an aero post isn't the most obvious pairing, but it is at least a possibility. And after adjusting some of the items in the bag I found I was able to attach bag's Velcro strap, albeit slightly squishing the bag around the post.

For the great majority of us, those with round seatposts, this will not be an issue.

Value

There's no doubt that this Lomo bag is very competitively priced. Lomo has a reputation for putting out its kit at attractive prices and its Bike Packing Seat Pack Dry Bag is no exception to this. At just £36 it undercuts – often by a large margin – a lot of the competition's products.

Mike was very impressed with the 14-litre Restrap Saddle Bag Holster and Dry Bag. He found it safe and secure but it was £99.99 when he tested it and it's now even more expensive at £119.99. And Restrap also does an even larger 18-litre capacity Saddle Bag but that's pricier still at a salty £129.99.

Emma found the Topeak BackLoader 10L seat pack perfect for light touring and bikepacking, though it's water resistant rather than genuinely waterproof so you might want to consider an internal dry bag for it. And since we tested it Topeak has added a 15-litre model to the range.

Conclusion

Lomo has created a large capacity saddle pack that'll let you try bikepacking without bankrupting yourself. Its 13-litre interior will accommodate your entire wardrobe, or at least most of it, on a multi-day adventure. My only real criticism is that the straps are too short to work well with non-round seatposts.

Verdict

Well-made waterproof seatpack with an excellent capacity and a very appealing price