Sunday 13 November 2011

Tool Kit Hack: Lezyne Elite Wallet Reworked

The Lezyne wallet, given that it is promoted as a wallet, has a very mean pocket to hold cash - it will take a few coins or a folded banknote but little more. Enough cash to grab some food and drink at the cafe stop but it'll struggle to hold enough money to cover a night away.

So time to hack:

Step 1, use a stitch picker to remove the existing sewn-on pocket.


Step 2: I grabbed a cheap and thin wallet from eBay and used Sugru to 'glue' it into place in the Lezyene wallet. I left it overnight with some packing to push out the sides of the Lezyene wallet and with a heavy weight on top to ensure the two pieces were in contact.



Step 3: A little additional Sugru around the edges to keep it neat and prevent the glue peeling.



Step 4: Finished - a couple of pockets for banknotes and slots to drop in 3 credit cards.



Saturday 5 November 2011

Tool Kit Refresh: Lezyne Elite Wallet

As part of the preparations for the Evo-K I thought it was maybe time to take a look over my on-bike toolkit, refresh some of the tools and see if there are weight reduction/consolidation opportunities at the same time... Here are my 'first look' feelings on the changes:

Lezyne Elite Wallet 


This is a cyclists-specific wallet, it is oversized in order to take a multi-tool, a puncture kit, tyre levers, a mobile phone as well as cash and a credit card, making it a one-grab package when heading out for a ride. For Roadies the idea is that it will drop into the pocket of a riding top.
The overall thing is bigger than a wallet, smaller than a bag, with the black leather-effect finish kind of giving the impression that unzipping it is going to produce a neatly bound bible...
Strangely the older (2010?) 'Elite' model of this wallet is big enough to take an iPhone, but, for inexplicable reasons, the current new-and-improved 'Smart' wallet is not. This model is becoming increasingly difficult to find, but was in stock at Wiggle.co.uk at time of writing.
The new model is available both empty and also populated with tools but the older model comes 'empty' - this does, however give you the opportunity to pick-and-chose the contents although information on what will fit is rather hard to find.

The tools slide into pockets on the 'inside front cover' of the wallet. For now (and shown in-situ in the photo) I've gone with:
  • a Crank Brothers m17 multitool (because it offers both cross and flat bladed screwdrivers which seems to be rare on Lezyne's multitools, and was on special for £12 at CRC, which is very much cheaper than the competition) - this seems about as big a one-piece tool as will fit, tho I've heard rumour that it is possible to fit a Topeak Alien with it split into two pieces.
  • Leyzene Matrix tyre levers - they look a bit tiny, do seem to be nice and stiff, but I'll reserve judgement until I've used them in anger. I'm not sure whether levers that are any bigger would fit in the marked pocket, tho there is space between the lever pocket and the edge of the wallet for something 'custom'
  • TipTop TT02 puncture repair kit - old faithful - I've been burnt trying 'self-adhesive' patches that just don't so am sticking with tried and tested 'wet' glue patches. There might be scope to repack the contents of the kit into a smaller box but I've not tried yet.
The middle 'leaf' of the wallet is a ziplock bag that comfortably takes an iPhone. There seems to be sufficient neoprene covering the tools that there is no risk of damage to the phone.

The back inside cover is the 'money/ID' part of the wallet and, to be honest, is a little disappointing and is the weakest part of this offering - curiously so as it is advertised as a wallet! There is one pocket that will take an ID or credit card, possibly two back-to-back. Fair enough - minimalist but workable. However the 'money' pocket is about the size of the change pocket in a pair of jeans. It will take a folded £5 note, or maybe four £1 coins but not much else. There seems to be no reason the whole of the back cover of the wallet couldn't be a more functional pocket taking unfolded banknotes and there could easily have been a change purse big enough to hold money for a cafe stop and a call home if needed. There is certainly no scope to carry enough cash for an overnight stay, a train ride home or even a round at the pub.
This will be the first area that needs 'fixing'.