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Simple made in Canada storage solutions with Wildwood Cycles’ “Flat Deck”

The answer to "what to do with those two boss mounts under your top tube?"

As the on-bike storage trend picks up steam, more brands are integrating options into their bike frames.

Norco, for example, has included two water bottle bosses on the underside of the top tube on its Optic, Sight and now Shore models for over a year now. Several other brands have a similar design. Many more use standard bottle spacing for mounts on other parts of the frame, like under the down tube.

But what do you use them for? There’s still not many options, and frame designers themselves have been vague. Vancouver Island’s Wildwood Cycles’ Jesse Hildebrandt, seeing few options out there, decided to create his own. Enter Wildwood’s Flat Deck.

Wildwood Flatdeck
Flat Deck in place of a second bottle cage on Hildebrandt’s own Wildwood steel frame. Photo: Jesse Hildebrandt

Wildwood Cycles Flat Deck

The concept is simple. Flat Deck uses standard bottle boss spacing, so you can use it in place of a second water bottle or on dedicated extra storage top tube mounts. There’s nothing crazy or too fancy. It is a machined aluminum and powder coated accessory that lets you carry, well, anything you want.

Since it uses standard bottle mount spacing, the Flat Deck can be used on any bottle mount on all but the most proprietary frames. You can use it for gravel riding, to bring extra snacks, or as a more secure mount for accessories while bikepacking (though Wildwood also makes a dedicated Cargo Cage for that purpose, too).

I’ve set it up on a Norco Shore test bike with just a tube, and with a tube, CO2 and a tire lever. Both stay firmly in place, and out of the way while riding. Wildwood leaves space so you can use any strap you want. Ski straps are the fashionable option. I used a wheel strap that arrived with the Shore in shipping, to match the frame. But a simple toe strap would work just as well (for those of us old enough to remember what those are…).

Another option would be to use a small bag, with or without strap loops. Which could be a good call to keep a tube grime-free if you’re doing more wet-weather riding

Wildwood Flatdeck
Wildwood offers the Flat Deck in a few different colours.

The concept is so simple that its surprising there aren’t more, or most appropriately priced options out there. Wolf Tooth offers one in it’s B-Rad system but it’s about $10 pricier. And there’s a few even more expensive options out there. At $25, Wildwood’s Flat Deck is the least expensive option I’ve seen. And it comes from a small, Canadian frame builder as a bonus.

Wildwood offers the Flat Deck in Olive Green, Sand or Black, for $25.00. It’s hand machined in Canada on Vancouver Island.