Last February, I went bike-packing with JMW Atsushi-san, Tabiiko, and Luca (@unknownroute).
This was my Evasion at the time.
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I’ve always liked a no-rack bike packing setup and the main reason is simple: I want to keep the bike as light as possible so I can enjoy the riding too.
Honestly, that doesn’t only apply to bike-packing. Even in everyday life, I think bikes are just more fun when they’re light.
When I know I’m carrying a lot, I have a bike for that— Charlie, in my case. None of my other bikes have racks.
This trip had a decent amount of distance, plus plenty of gravel and trails. Even without racks, I remember thinking, “Man, this still feels heavy. This section would be so much more fun if the bike were lighter.”
It was also especially cold that day, so we were carrying quite a lot of extra layers.
Somewhere during that trip, I started thinking:
For those short one or two night trips, maybe carrying some of the load in the backpack actually makes sense?
Where we live, it’s pretty difficult to ride all the way to every destination, so we often use trains with our bikes packed up. And when you’re doing rinko, a heavy bike can be a real pain.
As soon as I got home, I talked to MAX-san about it.
He made the first backpack prototype, and the following month we went to test it out together.
We rode basically the same route as before, but it felt like a completely different ride.
With less weight on the bike, controlling it was much easier, and the ride itself became more fun and I honestly couldn’t believe how much of a difference it made.
I’d always admired the classic bike-packing look, and I still think there’s something really cool about seeing a bike loaded up with bags.
But that trip made me realize that carrying the load on your back could totally be a valid option too.
At the same time, we came back with a huge list of things we wanted to improve and from there MAX-san and I kept making changes, testing and repeating the process.
I brought the prototype to OMM last year, and pretty much every bike-packing after that.
Like I mentioned earlier, it especially started making sense for the kind of bike-packing we do, where train travel and riding are mixed together.
Then, like everyone else, I got caught up in the hiking trend too.
I brought the pack on both overnight trips with a tent and simple day hikes.
The sample was quite a bit smaller than the final production version, so honestly, using it for hiking was kind of a struggle. lol
But I kept using it anyway. I think I’d reach the point where I couldn’t use anything else. And obviously, it wasn’t only being used outdoors. I used it everyday in the city too.
I basically kept using it as much as possible, feeding everything back to MAX-san, and having him update it little by little.
And now, finally, we’ve been able to release it.
I’ve spent most of this blog talking about outdoor use, but honestly, the most important thing is the everyday use.
You don’t need to be into outdoor activities.
You don’t even need to ride a bike.
We designed it hoping that someone could simply look at it and think “That’s a cool backpack.”
Of course, the functionality also works well for everyday life.
The look has a bit of an old-school backpack feel, but we used modern American fabrics to give it some contrast.
Something that feels like it could have existed years ago, but still feel fresh today.
Since bike-packing was what originally started this project, most of the blogs and photos naturally leaned into that direction.
But I wanted to make sure this came across too.
Anyways, I’ve rambled enough. So let me finish with something closer to an actual review.
You might be able to see that Wentz-san and I both have straws sticking out from behind our shoulders.
One of the references for this backpack was an old MTB hydration pack I used to own, so we carried over some of those details.
And after actually using the hydration setup during OMM, I can say: It works ridiculously well.
Even under blazing sun, the water stays surprisingly cold because it’s sitting inside the backpack.
Wentz-san said the same thing; there’s something unbelievably satisfying about being able to drink cold water whenever you want in the middle of a hot ride.
Freezing the hydration pack beforehand was especially good.
There was still ice left inside well into the evening, the water stayed cold all day, and having something cold against your back felt pretty amazing too.
It also removed the hassle of reaching for a bottle during the ride, and obviously the bike felt even lighter and cleaner.
The pack was designed to fit Mont-bell’s 2L hydration pack perfectly, although Wentz-san has been using one form Platypus as well.
Just make sure to check the dimensions of whatever hydration system you’re using before trying it out!
That’ll be it from me! 👋
