Specialized Shiv Fuelcell Storage
I purchased a 2013 Specialized Shiv Expert in January 2014. It was on sale at my LBS Colorado Multisport being the prior year's model, and available in white (harder to keep clean, but IMHO better looking than pink). What a fantastic bike to ride! But after riding it for a month it was painfully obvious that storage is minimal on this bike. The Fuelcell is built by Specialized specifically for this bike to solve that problem. It's a bit expensive at $75, but if you're already buying a bike at this price point it's worth a try, especially when Specialized says it makes the bike slightly more aerodynamic.
The Fuelcell had mixed reviews when I bought it so I was skeptical (and still am skeptical). It took a lot of trial and error to find a good match for its small size and strange top/bottom compartment arangement. If you're not careful, it doesn't hold much beyond a spare tube, gel and a bar. This is hardly worth the trouble of buying and installing the Fuelcell. After trying many packing arrangements, here's what I found is the optimal solution for carrying what I need.
First, get a sharpie and draw a line where the top rubber container is at its lowest point on the lower plastic container. This will help you figure out how much you can fit without putting the rubber top on and off numerous time (which is surprisingly slow, complicated and annoying! I'm amazed Specialized produced an ineffective design for the top rubber piece, but more on that later).
Next, fit in all the stuff you can below that line. Be creative re-wrapping the tube into different shapes, a triangle seems to be the most efficient. I usually don't train with CO2, so I really wanted to fit a pump somehow. I happened to see the Blackburn Airstick SL at another LBS, Bicycle Village. It's a durable little pump that isn't expensive. Turns out the length of this mini pump is just about right to fit in the Fuelcell. Don't expect to inflate a tire quickly, it takes several minutes, but for the convenience it's hard to beat.
Finally, where to put the tire irons which don't fit in the lower plastic container of the Fuelcell? At first I put them in the upper rubber container, but occasionally they would pop out and fall to the road while trying to get a gel or bar out. I ended up cutting an inch or so off the tire irons to reduce their length and sliding them into the rear fairing of the Fuelcell. It just slightly (less than a millimeter) moves the Fuelcell away from the downtube, so maybe there's an aerodynamic disadvantage, but it can't be much.
This arrangement frees up the entire upper rubber container for gels, bars and a multi-tool. I can usually fit one bar, two gels or bloks, and a multi-tool with room to spare. At first I hoped to carry my cell phone in the extra space but quickly realized that was a bad idea. Why? Because of what I think is a critical design flaw of the Fuelcell: the upper rubber container's opening doesn't close. It's wide open, so if you hit a bump or especially railroad tracks, everything inside has a pretty high probability of flying out. The lightweight items like bars and gels usually stay put, but the multi-tool... man, it gets launched! I try to wedge the multi-tool into the rear part of the container where it usually gets locked into place, but every time I hit a bump I always reach down to make sure it's still there. About 10% of the time it isn't.
I really hope Specialized does something about this. Velcro, magnets, a zipper... anything to hold that top piece together! I'll probably try gluing or sewing a few velcro cross straps, but it seems like a hack for something that is OEM. I expect this thing to be completely dialed-in with all the bugs worked out. That said, I love my Shiv, it's a blast to ride (especially with aero wheels) and I certainly wouldn't trade it for anything else on the market.
