How To Carry A Knife On A Bike?

A lot of cyclists prefer cycling in isolated areas for the calm they offer. However, isolated areas can be unsafe, and a knife can help you protect yourself to some extent at least. You may try to outrun the bear but it is a good idea to carry something that provides some protection – be it a knife, bear spray, or rifle.

Then again, knives can come in handy in multiple situations, so carrying one with you can never go wrong.

However, you won’t be able to carry a huge knife in your trouser pockets while you’re cycling. This is why you must resort to other methods. In this article, that’s exactly what we’re going to explore. So, stick to us till the end to find out interesting and viable ways of carrying a knife on a bike.

Disadvantages of Carrying a Knife in Front Pocket of Trousers

First of all, never attempt to carry a knife in the front pocket of your trousers. You won’t find a single trouser pocket that’s designed to fit the shape of a knife. So, even if it may feel comfortable at first, as you start riding, you’ll find that the knife is jumping around and it’ll make you feel extremely uncomfortable.

Just imagine what may happen if you don’t sheath the knife in the first place! In fact, the knife will fall eventually, even if your trousers pockets have a clip to lock it in. No matter how sturdy the clip is, it’ll fail to hold the knife in. If you have a zippered pocket, you will be able to prevent the knife from falling. However, that will still be very uncomfortable.

These are the reasons as to why we recommend against carrying a knife in the front pockets of trousers.

How to Carry a Knife on a Bicycle?

Here are some of how you can carry a knife on a bicycle. Go through all of them to find out what suits you best.

Sheathed Knife Strapped to the Top Tube

KA-BAR 1216 Full-Size Black Hard Knife SheathCHECK CURRENT PRICE

One of the best ways of carrying a knife on a bike is by strapping the knife on the top tube of the bicycle. You’ll need to get an appropriate bike sheath first. We recommend getting the KA-BAR 1216 knife sheath because it offers great build quality and a few other convenient features like a built-in strap.

Granite Rockband Mountain Bike Frame Carrier StrapCHECK CURRENT PRICE

Now, once you have a sheathed knife, all you need to do is strap that to the top tube of your bike. We recommend getting this carrier strap from Granite Rockband. It’s the best one we’ve come across till now. It’s durable and it won’t fray like other straps. The strength of Velcro will stay strong for a long time, and you’ll be able to strap the sheath with this easily.

Once you strap the sheath along with the knife, you’ll be able to unsheathe the knife anytime without having to unstrap the entire thing. This is one of the best features of this method. Plus, you’ll be able to keep the knife at your hand’s reach all the time, which is another plus. We recommend this method the most.

Pannier

Thule Shield Bike Pannier BagCHECK CURRENT PRICE

If you want to carry your knife with you while riding a bicycle but aren’t planning on using it, you can simply carry it in a pannier. A bike pannier is an extremely viable solution to carrying just anything on a bicycle. Sure, it doesn’t make sense to get a pannier just for carrying a bike.

However, if you’re planning on carrying other stuff with the knife, then you definitely should get a pannier. Just take a look at this pannier bag from Thule. This will allow you to carry all sorts of stuff. It offers a carrying capacity of 25L, and you’re getting two bags of this capacity. These bags are built to last, and they offer inner compartments for organizing your belongings.

Backpack + Strap

Another popular method of carrying knives on a bicycle is to strap them on the strap of your backpack. A lot of backpacks offer some sort of small strap built into the large front straps. Even if your backpack doesn’t, you can always get one of these straps from Sumind Store.

You’ll get straps of all sizes from this package. So, no matter what the width of the strap of your backpack is, you’ll be able to attach a knife to it. However, this method will be viable only if you’re planning on carrying a backpack in the first place. Otherwise, carrying one just for the sake of strapping a knife on it isn’t viable at all.

Saddle Bag

Roswheel Race Series 131432 Ultralight Bike Saddle BagCHECK CURRENT PRICE

Last but not least, you have saddlebags. Saddlebags are inexpensive, and they allow you to carry a handful of tools and accessories under the saddle of your bike. You can carry your knife in there too. What makes this method viable is that you won’t be forced to carry a huge bag just for the sake of carrying a knife with you.

Then again, if you aren’t willing to carry a knife where it’s visible, this will help you as it’ll conceal the knife completely while keeping it within your hand’s reach.

We highly recommend this saddle bag from Roswheel. It’s a race series bag, which means it won’t affect the aerodynamics of your bike. It offers a carrying capacity of 0.8L, and there’s a main compartment and a hidden compartment in it. As it’s made using ultralight fabric, it weighs 30% lighter than most other bags of these dimensions.

Conclusion

There are tons of choices when it comes to carrying a knife on a bicycle. However, as you can see, all of these offer distinct advantages and disadvantages, and this can make choosing very difficult.

When choosing the right method for yourself, there are multiple factors that you must focus on. Firstly, is it a problem if the knife is visible to others? If not, just strap it to the front tube. If that’s a problem, you can strap it to your backpack, as it’ll be less obvious.

If you want to hide them, you can carry them in a pannier or a saddlebag. Those who won’t be carrying anything more than a knife will benefit highly from choosing the saddlebag over the pannier.