Three winters in, the welds still hold and the dry-bag still seals.
We have run this saddle pack across the Iceland Divide, two Badlands and more wet Swedish nights than we care to count. It is the bag we reach for without thinking — and the one we trust with the things that have to stay dry.
Three winters in, the welds still hold and the dry-bag still seals.
We bought this saddle pack for one specific reason: the Iceland Divide has a way of finding every seam and every zipper you own, and we needed something that would survive a full crossing without turning our spare layers into a wet sponge. Three winters and two Badlands crossings later, it is still the bag we reach for without thinking, and that says more than any spec sheet.
The hydrophobic outer shell is the real story here. Most 17-litre saddle packs sag and swing once you drop below about two-thirds full, and that sag is what causes the dreaded tail-wag on fast gravel descents — the bag starts steering the bike instead of the other way round. This one keeps its shape loaded or half-empty, and the dual-strap seatpost mount stays clamped down over washboard where lighter, single-strap packs start to work themselves loose within an hour. We have ridden it fully loaded down loose Icelandic F-road descents at speed with no more than the usual amount of fear.
Waterproofing is genuinely welded, not just a roll-top bolted onto ordinary fabric, and after three seasons of Swedish autumn rain and Icelandic river crossings we have yet to open it to a wet layer inside. The abrasion panel on the underside has taken direct hits from gravel kick-up and rock strikes without wearing through, which matters more than people think — a pack that fails structurally at day four of an eight-day trip is a pack that ends the trip.
It is not the lightest 17-litre bag on the market, and at this price point it arguably shouldn’t need to be — you are paying for the welded seams and the abrasion resistance rather than shaving grams. The roll-top closure can be fiddly with cold, wet fingers first thing in the morning, which is a minor but real annoyance on multi-day trips in the kind of weather this bag is actually built for. Neither issue has come close to outweighing the fact that it simply works, trip after trip, without drama.
If you ride loaded and unsupported more than a couple of times a season, this is the saddle pack we would tell a friend to buy. If you are doing occasional overnighters in fair weather, a lighter and cheaper pack will serve you fine — save the premium for when the conditions actually demand it.
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