Bike Seat Secret Compartment/Survival Kit

If you have an unhealthy obsession with secret compartments like me, at some point you've probably looked at your bike and wondered, "where could I hide stuff in that?". If you don't have an unhealthy obsession you probably haven't, but can likely see the value of a hidden compartment on your bike in which to keep a spare key, survival gear, secret government documents, or other, more questionable, items (like your memory stick containing every single Nickelback album). I've ridden around town a bit with a key and my Swiss Army Knife in the secret compartment, and it seems to be very secure. I haven't had the chance to take the bike on the trails yet, but when I do I'll let you know how the compartment fares. (If you want to see the rudimentary survival kit I put together head to Step 3; it's nothing like this, but it's not bad.)

Step 1: What You Need:

- Your bike seat

- A tapered wood cylinder that fits in the shaft of your bike seat; I used the end of an old rake handle

- A saw of some sort

Step 2: Making the Plug

- Push the piece of wood (narrower end first) into the shaft of the bike seat and mark where it stops.

- Cut off the bottom of the narrower end about 1" from the mark. Discard what you cut off; you now have your plug.

- To seal the compartment push the plug into the shaft of the bike seat. Pound the plug against the ground a few times to make it more snug.

Step 3: The Survival Kit

Let me start off by saying that this is in no way a complete survival kit; I'm sure that I'm missing some key components. However, it's a decent example of what can fit in this compartment. If you have any suggestions of what to add, please let me know!

I threw this together from what I had lying around. The compartment was able to hold:

- Band-Aids

- A lighter

- 6' of paracord

- A Swiss Army Knife

- A Fishbone

- Ibuprofen and water purification tablets (in the tinfoil)

- A flint