Soft-sided wins for bike commuters

For a bike commute, a soft-sided insulated lunch bag is the right call. It squishes into a half-full backpack, fits flat against your laptop sleeve, and doesn’t rattle around like a hard plastic box.

Hard lunch boxes waste space. They take their shape no matter what, which means they’re either too big for your bag or they leave dead air inside that lets your food slide around. A soft insulated bag molds around whatever else you’re carrying and drops into gaps a box never would.

Inside it, skip the Tupperware. Use a flat, rectangular container — a Monbento or even a LocknLock sandwich box — so nothing rolls around and it stacks flush. If you’re really short on space, a Stasher bag works too, but a flat box keeps your sandwich from becoming a sandwich-shaped crumple.

One thing to check: get a bag with a proper zipper and a wipeable lining. The velcro-flap ones are fine for a desk lunch, but they die fast upside-down in a pannier.

Your back will thank you.