The range of ways of carrying your stuff seems to be growing exponentially, and it’s the perfect illustration of how the different branches of our sport – and others – can come together to create lots of interesting hybrids. The bags on test here show influences from enduro, bikepacking, and even trail running. It’s a bit like what happened to dogs: after years of looking fairly standard, they diversfied into all sorts of shapes, and while some are a bit too tiny to be practical for the outdoors, there’s probably someone out there who will love them.
Such is the pace of change that we could probably re-run this test straight away, with an entirely different selection of bags, and still have as many in there. In some respects this is a good thing, but it’s also annoying when the product for you is phased out of a manufacturer’s line-up. But there are also some, like Revelate and Wingnut, whose line-up stays fairly constant and is more a process of refinement than reinvention.
Where the bags in this test didn’t please, it was often because they were asked to do things they simply weren’t designed for, but sometimes it was because they fell foul of the British weather. Testing these in the dark months of the year was perhaps an odd choice, but it did flag some issues that might not be apparent if they were only deployed at the height of summer. By the time you read this, hopefully winter will have released its grip on the UK and the promise of spring will have delivered. It’s easy to pigeonhole small riding packs as a summer-only item, but many of these are cleverly designed enough to be good for year-round use, as long as you’re not trying to make them go beyond their design brief. After all, when the weather’s grim, you probably don’t want to head out for a six-hour epic. Equally, you don’t want to be stuck for want of a vital spare part, or feeling the hunger knock at the furthest point of your ride.