Topeak Burrito Pack – a flexible storage solution

Unless you are a professional cyclist with a support vehicle on call, you’ll need to carry your own supplies when riding. Depending on the length of your ride, you should at a minimum have a spare tube and tire repair kit with you just in case. Although you can stick these items in a jersey pocket, a saddlebag is a much more convenient and comfortable place to store them. Saddlebags offer secure storage that you can simply leave on your bike and keep your jersey pockets clear from clutter. In this review, we’ll be looking at the Topeak Burrito Pack saddlebag that is a unique variation on the traditional saddlebag.

While the smaller size of the Topeak Burrito Pack means you probably can’t fit a regular size burrito, it’s a well constructed and flexible option to carry supplies on the road with.

Although the Burrito Pack won’t probably fit a regular size burrito, it offers a three pocket folding design that has a burrito-like wrapped appearance. The retail price for the Burrito Pack is $39.95 which is inline with other saddlebags. A simple Velcro strap design also means you can mount the Burrito Pack on your saddle rails or on your top tube as secondary storage. Constructed from polymer material with water-repellent and stain resistant coating, the Burrito Pack also has the premium build quality and durability Topeak is known for.

Category	Bicycle Saddle Bag
Rating	8.8/10
Retail Price	$39.95
Measured Weight (in g)	90
Likes	+ Premium construction + Easy to organize gear and tools + Flexible mounting options
Dislikes	– Limited storage – Doesn’t have a tail light clip – Must be removed from bike to access contents
Where to Buy (US)	Topeak

UNBOXING

Topeak packages the Burrito Pack on a simple cardboard box with their iconic white and yellow graphics. Minimal environmentally friendly packaging is used with the Burrito Pack prominently displayed. 

In the box you’ll find:

• Burrito Pack
• User manual

FIT & FINISH

The Burrito Pack is a unique fusion between a traditional hard shell and a roll-up style saddlebag. It has a small form factor that is nearly the same size as small saddlebags but with the three pocket folding design offers a more organized and flexible solution to carrying supplies on the road. Fully opened, the pack looks like a miniature messenger bag without the straps with three decent sized pockets and a bright yellow inner liner. The right pocket has built-in loops perfectly sized to security hold CO₂ canisters or other small diameter tools. The attention to detail is what really impressed us, from the clean contrasting stitching to the subtle graphic overlay on the exterior.

Packing up the Burrito Pack is like wrapping a burrito, as you first fold the upper portion on top of the pockets and then overlap the right and left pockets. A Velcro strap on each side keeps each corner of the Burrito Pack cinched tight while the large Velcro mounting strap tightens everything down. Topeak uses a water repellent material with a subtle graphic print that can only be seen at certain angles. Unfortunately, due to the folding design, the Burrito Pack does lack a hook for clipping a tail light.

STORAGE

How well does the Burrito Pack work as a saddlebag? Well we have mixed feelings about that. The big advantage of Burrito Pack for us was the fact that it has three distinct pockets which allow you to organize the contents. This is in contrast to a traditional saddlebag where you simply jam everything in and hope you don’t have to pull them out again. The simple Velcro strap makes it easy to open the pack up and grab exactly what you need from the pockets. Without an exterior accessible pocket, you’ll also need to remove the Burrito Pack from your bike to access anything. It’s a bit of a compromise as you don’t have the quick accessibility to the contents as you would with a traditional saddlebag but it offers a much more organized solution that makes it fast to find what you need once opened.

The small form factor of the Burrito Pack also means you don’t get the expandability that roll-up saddlebags offer. With the two way folding design, you can’t fold the Burrito Pack up if any of the pockets are overfilled or have items longer than 5 inches in them. We found that the pack had similar storage capacity to our small Topeak wedge saddlebag and easily transferred the contents over (spare tube, tire lever, cash and patch kit). Those with more supplies may find the Burrito Pack too small, but hopefully Topeak offers a Burrito Pack XL option (aka a Super Burrito Pack) in the future. The Burrito Pack tipped our scales at 90 grams which is nearly the same as the 100 grams our small Topeak Aero Wedge weighs in at.

THE VERDICT

Overall, we found that the Topeak Burrito Pack is a unique variation on the traditional saddlebag. While it does lack an exterior pocket and tail light clip, the Burrito Pack’s three pockets let you organize and find items quickly instead of having to dig them out on the side of the road. We thought that the build quality and finish of the Burrito Pack is also consistent with other Topeak products and justified the $39.95 retail price. The simple Velcro mounting strap also makes the Burrito Pack flexible enough to mount on a top tube for bikepacking or as secondary storage. Even though the smaller size of the Burrito Pack means you can’t probably fit a regular size burrito, it’s a well constructed and flexible option to carry supplies on the road.

Disclaimer: The product for this review was provided by Topeak. The views expressed on this website are solely those of the authors and are here to help people make an informed choice before a purchase. The authors or the blog itself does not get any monetary compensation from the product manufacturer or third-party websites/vendor links that are posted here.