Silca Mattone Grande Pack

The Silca Mattone Grande Pack is a great way to carry your ride essentials, though using the wire system with full finger gloves is a bit of a faff.

The Mattone Grande Pack is essentially a larger version of the Mattone Pack that Neil looked at a couple of years ago. One of his points was that it could have done with being a bit bigger, and Silca has obliged.

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The most unusual thing about this saddle bag is the Boa dial that sits proud on the front. It might seem a bit of a flashy and unnecessary way to secure a saddle bag, but when you actually use it this Boa dial makes perfect sense.

First off, it means the bag can effectively be shrunk to take up as little space as possible by tightening the dial, as it connects to a strap that surrounds the bag – you squeeze a full 360 degrees so everything is pushed together and wasted space is minimised. This allows it to sit tighter against the saddle rails so you can, for example, fit a larger light below it. I normally need to put my light below the collar of my seatpost, but carrying the same amount as usual in the Mattone Grande Pack, the light fits easily on the seatpost itself.

Secondly the tightening not only makes the pack smaller, but also secures things more snuggly, which means less rattling around. So even when I have a loose link and metal patch container in there, nothing rattles around.

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The bag itself has a 70cc capacity. Silca says you can fit three tubes, two CO2 canisters, a regulator, tyre levers, and a multi-tool. I had a go at fitting all that in and this is genuinely the case. As I run tubeless, I normally only take one tube for apocalyptic scenarios, so there was more than enough room for my other ride stuff in this pack.

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It also has a couple of useful compartments on the lid, and a main compartment in the other half. This is particularly helpful not only in organising your stuff, but also in reducing the chances of rattles.

In terms of protection against the elements, I took this bag out with only an Ass Saver (which sat above the bag) in the rain a few times, and although the pack ended up looking like a Jackson Pollock painting, nothing got through.

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Attaching it to the bike is done by running the strap through the saddle rails and a loop at the top of the pack, and wrapping it back round. You then hook the Boa wire to the plastic hook and tighten. This part can be a little fiddly, and isn't ideal when you've just made a repair out in the middle of a freezing February morning, although it gets a little easier once you've got used to it. Doing this in full finger gloves isn't ideal, though.

Value

With an RRP of £51, it's one of the more expensive saddle bags we've reviewed on road.cc. That said, it's only a quid more than the Fidlock Push that I looked at in 2020, which is now £49.99; that's much easier to use on the go, but it did tend to rattle which could get annoying. The Brooks Scape Saddle Pocket Bag has also gone up since Hollis tested it last year, and is now £45; that's still a £6 saving over the Silca, but it doesn't have the compartments or the Boa closure system.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a really good saddle pack, big enough to fit in everything you could need for a ride. It offers good weather protection, and the Boa closure system works well for tightening, though hooking the wire can be fiddly. The price is pretty high for a saddle bag, but so is the quality.

Verdict

Aside from a little faff with the wire, this is a great saddle bag