The Finest Mountain Bike Hip Packs of 2024

How We Examined Mountain Bike Hip Packs

We love driving bikes, and one of many key components of fulfilling bike rides is being ready. Carrying the mandatory instruments to deal with mid-ride mechanicals, sufficient water throughout the journey, enough meals to maintain the vitality up, and the suitable layers for the climate are all essential issues that may make or break the expertise. Hip packs are considered one of our favourite methods to hold all of the requirements, and we’ve been driving in them for years. Whereas there are actually extra methods than ever to stash gear on our bikes, in cargo bibs or backpacks, we nonetheless gravitate in the direction of hip packs for his or her consolation, stability, comfort, and ease of use.

Our Professional Testers

For this purchaser’s information, overview authors Paul Clauss and Jeremy Benson personally examined the 12 hip pack fashions chosen for this overview. Clauss is an avid path rider, mountain bike coach, and path builder who lives in northern Vermont. He’s been driving for a few years and has a terrific appreciation for any gear that helps to boost his efficiency and elevate his expertise out on the paths. A mechanical engineer by commerce, Clauss is especially vital of design and building and he brings a really measured and logical strategy to product testing. Along with testing hip packs, Paul has examined and reviewed quite a few different classes of drugs, together with dropper posts, bike pumps, flat pedals, and the finest flat pedal footwear.

Benson has been professionally testing and reviewing mountain bikes, elements, attire, and equipment for over eight years. He’s an obsessive rider who spends an inordinate period of time on mountain and gravel bikes, coaching for races, driving for enjoyable, and testing new gear. He’s been driving in mountain bike hip packs for the previous decade and has seen them evolve from their humble beginnings into their extra superior varieties. In that point, he’s personally owned 5 completely different hip packs and examined over 20 completely different fashions. As a full-time product tester, he’s always scrutinizing every bit of drugs he touches to tease out the efficiency variations that separate the very best from the remainder, whether or not that’s hip packs, the newest mountain bike footwear, or a hitch bike rack.

Our Testing Course of

After researching the very best mountain bike hip packs in the marketplace, we rounded up 12 fashions to check and examine. Every mannequin was weighed earlier than inspecting their design, supplies, and building to evaluate the construct high quality and storage structure. Then, we loaded them up with all the instruments, gear, water, and meals we might match and hit the paths. Whereas driving, we thought of the match, consolation, stability, and air flow of every mannequin when used with a full load on trails starting from clean and flowy to tough and rowdy. On rides starting from fast laps on the native path facilities to all-day suffer-fests, we used and abused every mannequin identical to anybody else would. We obtained aware of every mannequin’s storage capabilities and hydration programs by filling and cleansing bladders and ingesting from hoses and bottles. After months of testing, we in contrast notes and zeroed in on our favorites and people who carried out properly in particular methods in comparison with the remainder.

Shopping for Recommendation: The way to Select the Finest Mountain Bike Hip Pack

Hip packs, also called fanny packs, lumbar packs, and waist luggage, have had a resurgence in recognition within the mountain bike world prior to now decade or so. What was beforehand a reasonably non-technical accent used primarily by vacationers on trip has developed into a comparatively specialised piece of kit that many riders depend on to hold the mandatory instruments, snacks, water, and different gear out on the path. Hip packs signify a contented center floor between the minimalist on-bike and physique strategy and a bigger backpack, the latter of which may be sweaty, uncomfortable, and bounce round when driving technical terrain.

Carrying the hydration, meals, and instruments it’s essential preserve driving within the occasion of a mechanical and to satisfy your fundamental human wants in a means that doesn’t intrude with biking motion is a basic problem for mountain bikers and one which hip packs goal to beat. In comparison with most backpacks, hip packs are usually extra steady and comparatively small, in order that they cowl much less of your again and are worn across the waist so weight is decrease in your physique. They’ll additionally normally carry extra water and equipment than most individuals are capable of strap to their bikes or stuff into pockets.

With so many hip packs in the marketplace nowadays with completely different kinds, designs, cargo capacities, and hydration programs, discovering the best one to fit your wants is usually a problem. For such a seemingly easy product, there’s so much to contemplate when deciding what’s best for you. We’ll break down the essential components to contemplate when making a purchase order determination.

Cargo Capability

Mountain bike hip packs range fairly dramatically of their cargo-carrying capability, with fashions made to swimsuit nearly each want or desire. The capability is often measured in liters with tremendous slim, minimalist, race-belt fashion packs beginning round 1 liter and high-volume fashions topping out round 7 liters plus a 1.5 or 2-liter water bladder. We examined 11 completely different hip packs starting from 1.6 to 6-liter capability, with the Bontrager Fast Pack because the smallest and the USWE Zulo 6L as the biggest. The correct capability for you relies on what you propose to hold.

When you simply want the necessities – your keys, telephone, pockets, a tube, multi-tool, water (in a bottle or bladder), and a few CO2 – any of those packs will work with house to spare, with the Bontrager Fast Pack being probably the most streamlined choice at 1.64-liter capability, adopted intently by the two.2 Excessive Above Enterprise. When you’d like slightly extra flexibility to hold extra meals and a few bulkier gadgets like a mini-pump or a super-packable layer, fashions within the 3 to 4-liter vary, just like the PNW Rover, Evoc Hip Pack Professional 3, Osprey Seral 4, Thule Rail 4, or Patagonia Dust Roamer are good decisions. And, when you’re a heavy packer, going for a protracted journey, or heading out in variable climate, packs with 5+ liters of capability shall be simpler to stuff with packable jackets and bigger meals gadgets. The biggest packs we examined are the Deuter Pulse Professional 5, the USWE Zulo 6, and the Dakine Sizzling Laps 5L.

It’s additionally essential to notice that many of the packs we examined function extremely usable compression straps, permitting the pack to be compressed when not totally loaded or to maintain the load compact to forestall the contents from bouncing round inside. Compression straps can successfully lower the amount of a bigger pack, making it usable for rides whenever you want quite a lot of gear and people whenever you don’t.

And, regardless of our excessive reward of hip packs, generally even the biggest fashions aren’t fairly sufficiently big for some individuals’s wants. Maybe you’re going out for an enormous journey into the alpine, the place it’s essential convey a jacket, layers, and further meals, or possibly an in a single day bikepacking journey? Conditions like these might require considerably extra cargo capability, and backpacks may merely be a greater choice. Bike-specific backpacks are available in an enormous vary of sizes and designs to satisfy numerous wants, way more even than hip packs. Deuter, for instance, makes 12 completely different fashions of motorbike backpacks ranging in cargo capability from 8 as much as 30 liters.

Storage Structure

Practically as essential because the capability, the storage structure of a pack dictates the group of your gear and the way you should use the house. Some packs, just like the Osprey Seral 4, take a quite simple strategy, with a single massive compartment with a zippered pocket inside. Others, just like the Deuter Pulse Professional 5 and Thule Rail 4, are extremely compartmentalized, with separate zippered and open group pockets and bigger open sections. The cut up design of the Bontrager Fast Pack and its small capability makes it tough to hold bigger gadgets, whereas the extra open designs of packs just like the Patagonia Dust Roamer or PNW Rover make it simpler to stuff bulkier gadgets into them. 

If you wish to separate your meals out of your instruments or preserve your telephone display screen protected from scratches whereas driving, a extra compartmentalized design may be just right for you. Among the extra organization-heavy designs depend on the consumer storing instruments and different gadgets of their separate pockets to get probably the most out of the house. It might take some getting used to, however when you’ve obtained your system, every thing can have its place and be fast and simple to search out whenever you want it. If you would like a bag to toss the necessities into, zip up, and overlook it, an easier structure like that of the Excessive Above Enterprise might swimsuit you simply positive. Like capability, a hip pack’s structure relies on what it’s essential carry and the way you favor to prepare it.

Pockets on the hip wings of the waist belt are one other issue to contemplate. Many packs have them, and they are often very useful to maintain smaller gadgets that you simply wish to entry on the fly with out having to spin the bag round to the entrance. These range in dimension, however most are good for smaller gadgets like keys, gels, chapstick, or bank card/ID, whereas a number of are able to becoming a smartphone. Moreover, a number of fashions, just like the Dakine Sizzling Laps 5L, Deuter Pulse Professional 5, Excessive Above Enterprise, and the Patagonia Dust Roamer, have exterior strap programs that can be utilized to connect bulkier gadgets like knee pads or a jacket to the skin of the pack for additional carrying capability.

Hydration Type

Most mountain bike hip packs present the flexibility to hold additional water in extra water bottles, water bladders, and generally each. Like the general capability of the pack, the best water capability relies on how a lot you drink and the period of your journey. Having extra water than you want is at all times higher than not having sufficient. Of the packs we examined, 4 of them carry water in bottles solely, 7 of them carry water in water bladders, and a pair of of the fashions with bladders can carry an extra bottle or two. What works finest for you is often a matter of non-public desire.

Bottles

The bottle-carry fashions can normally deal with one or two 20 to 25-oz bottles, which can be greater than sufficient to your wants, particularly when you’ve already obtained a bottle on the bike. Each the Fox Normal Hip Pack and the Patagonia Dust Roamer can carry two bottles in sleeves on both aspect of the storage compartment. The PNW Rover comes with one removable bottle holder, and you may add a second if it’s essential. The Bontrager Fast Pack can solely carry one bottle, however it does so very securely within the heart of the pack between the storage pockets.

In comparison with hydration bladders, bottles are tremendous straightforward to fill and clear. For these packs that may carry two bottles, you’ll be able to virtually get the identical quantity of water capability as a pack with a 1.5-liter bladder. For many of those packs, it’s additionally fairly straightforward to succeed in again and pull the bottles out of the pack for ingesting, however not fairly as straightforward as reaching a hose as much as your mouth whereas driving. And, whereas most bottle holders are fairly safe, there’s the prospect they may bounce out over tremendous tough terrain or in a crash.

Bladder

Of the bladder-equipped packs we examined, six of them, the USWE Zulo 6, each Evoc fashions, the Deuter Pulse Professional 5, Thule Rail 4, and the Osprey Seral 4, include a 1.5-liter bladder (50.7 oz). The Dakine Sizzling Laps 5L comes with a 2-liter (70 oz) bladder. Moreover, the Evoc Hip Pack Professional 3 can carry two bottles, and the Deuter Pulse Professional 5 can carry one. Any of those packs ought to carry sufficient water for 2-3 hour lengthy rides, or longer, relying on the temperature and your private charge of consumption.

There are some benefits to bladder-style hip packs. Consuming from them is tremendous straightforward and handy. The hoses and nozzles are positioned on the waist belt, and reaching down and grabbing it to drink is fast and simple and might normally be achieved whereas driving on clean sections of path. The bladders are additionally mushy and squishy, in order that they conform to the form of your again and different contents in your pack and might distribute water weight extra evenly, which may improve pack stability. Bladders are carried internally, so they need to by no means fall out on a tough path, and also you’re unlikely to set it down and overlook it on the aspect of the path like you possibly can with a bottle. The disadvantages of bladders are that they’re barely extra cumbersome to fill and clear, and micro organism and mould can develop within the bladder/hose/nozzle if uncared for. Some individuals simply don’t like ingesting from a hose, and the hoses can sometimes pop free whereas driving, which may be annoying and probably harmful.

Waist Belts

Whereas all of them carry out the duty of securing a hip pack across the waist, there are two important kinds of waist belts on the packs we examined. Most packs include a extra fundamental, adjustable, static webbing belt with a plastic clasp to safe it. The PNW Rover, Patagonia Dust Roamer, Fox Normal, Bontrager Fast Pack, Evo Hip Pack Professional 3, and Dakine Sizzling Laps 5L, all use this fashion of waist belt.

Different packs, sometimes the costlier ones, have extensive, overlapping velcro belts that even have a webbing strap and clasp excessive to safe it. This fashion of waist belt is discovered on packs just like the Deuter Pulse Professional 5, Evoc Hip Pack Professional 3, Thule Rail 4, and USWE Zulo 6. Realistically, each kinds work fairly properly and provides little to complain about, however the softer, wider, overlapping fashions are typically slightly extra snug and steady, they usually distribute the burden of a loaded pack slightly extra evenly across the waist. The flip aspect is that they’re a bit extra finicky to placed on, as you must line up the overlapping straps earlier than securing the buckle on prime. Regardless, it isn’t that a lot of a trouble, and the added consolation and stability are usually definitely worth the few additional seconds it takes to place them on.

Each kinds of belts are adjustable to suit a spread of waist sizes and preserve them comfortable when in use. The designs range considerably, in fact, however most are fairly straightforward to regulate and keep safe whereas driving. The advisable waist dimension ranges additionally range among the many fashions we examined, with some fashions just like the Thule Rail 4 and USWE Zulo 6 becoming waists between 31 and 40 inches in comparison with the PNW Rover, which is claimed to work for waists between 24 and 48 inches.

Air flow

In comparison with hydration backpacks, hip packs cowl solely a small portion of your again and are inherently higher for staying cool and managing sweat. That stated, they nonetheless make contact along with your decrease again, which may grow to be fairly sizzling and sweaty. Nearly each hip pack makes some try at managing moisture the place the pack makes contact along with your physique by way of the usage of breathable mesh supplies or extra superior air flow programs, however they don’t seem to be created equal.

The 2 Evoc packs, the Hip Pack Professional 3 and the Hip Pack 3L have by far the very best air flow among the many fashions we examined with their Air Circulate Contact System. The again panels function raised, channeled foam blocks which can be coated in an open mesh materials that permits for superior breathability. Moreover, the Venti-Flap system permits the consumer to rapidly loosen the higher a part of the pack and create a spot between your again throughout climbs or different occasions you wish to improve airflow, then rapidly cinch it again down for the descents. The remainder of the fashions we examined do a commendable job of selling breathability and are usually a lot cooler and fewer sweaty than carrying a full-on backpack.

Value & Worth

Like anything in mountain biking, hip packs range fairly extensively by way of value. The extra fundamental designs and people who carry bottles are likely to price a bit much less. Once you add a water bladder or fancier waist belt, the value goes up a bit. Nonetheless, they’re among the many extra reasonably priced equipment you should buy, and most will final for a few years.

Price range

On the decrease finish of the value vary, hip packs are typically a bit less complicated in design, and most carry water bottles, in the event that they carry water in any respect. The Patagonia Dust Roamer ($69) is a superb instance. Not solely is it reasonably priced, however it’s well-made and it occurs to be our favourite bottle-carry pack, too. Different fashions on the low finish of our value vary are the Bontrager Fast Pack ($68), the Fox Normal Hip Pack ($70), and the PNW Rover ($79), all of which have comparatively small capacities and carry water in easy bottle sleeves.

Mid-Tier

Across the $100 mark, hip packs start to incorporate water bladders. Whereas these packs are nonetheless fairly easy, bladders and hoses alone can price within the neighborhood of $25-ish, so having them included drives the value up a bit from the price range fashions. Fashions just like the Dakine Sizzling Laps 5 ($100) and the Osprey Seral 4 ($90) are each easy and efficient designs that embrace water bladders for simple hydration on the fly. They lack the bells and whistles of the premium fashions, however they’re completely useful and nice choices for loads of riders.

Premium

With solely a slight bounce in value, we get into premium hip pack territory above round $125. On this value vary, most hip packs include bladders and plenty of boast bigger carrying capability or options that goal to boost consolation. Evoc’s Hip Pack Professional 3 ($150) neatly organizes as much as 3 liters of drugs, carries 1.5 liters of water in a bladder, and has a brilliant snug overlapping stretch waistband and the very best again air flow system we’ve seen.

On the less complicated aspect, Excessive Above’s Enterprise Pack ($135) is made within the USA from tremendous sturdy supplies. Home manufacturing merely prices greater than doing it abroad, and including cool options like Fidlock buckles — and the choice so as to add a Fidlock bottle — contributes to the upper value. Fortunately, a lifetime assure additionally ensures that you simply’ll get your cash’s price after which some.

Steadily Requested Questions