I’ve been using the pannier for around 3 months now. On the bike it’s great and very stable. It is well made, looks good and is a good size for my needs. In the first week though, two of the reflective stickers came off.
In use
My primary usage of the bag is to ride to the station and then walk to my office. The walk takes roughly 15 minutes. I carry a change of clothes, lunch, laptop, bike tools, puncture kit, towel, phone, keys, lights, pump, water bottle, gloves, light jacket and a waterproof jacket. This combination fills the bag to capacity.
Enhancements
1. The shoulder strap is woefully inadequate. After walking for more than a few minutes with a fully laden bag it is very uncomfortable. I now use a padded strap from my crumpler bag which is perfect
2. The laptop sleeve should be moved to the back of the bag, next to the stiff backing. Putting it at the front puts a strain on the laptop chassis when the front pocket has more than a few items in it and makes the bag prone to falling over
3. The laptop sleeve should be an inch larger. It is quite a squeeze to fit a 17 inch laptop sideways and stretches the front pocket making it unusable for all but the smallest items
4. The laptop sleeve should have some kind of thin padding for protection
5. The bag has plenty of space but I find that it needs some kind of organizing. I don’t use the pockets on the side of the laptop sleeve because once the laptop is in there it is difficult to access them. What I would really like is a small semi-rigid compartment where you could put lights, pump, water bottle etc. which would be separate from the main compartment. I envisage something like a camera bag where you can alter the compartment size by using velcro strips. In fact Crumpler have something called a bunion which turns a normal bag into a camera bag via a special insert. This kind of thing would be great.
6. I find that when fully loaded or nearing capacity the bag is difficult to close because the straps are too short and cannot be extended. This is especially evident when using the laptop insert.
7. The protection flap that covers the hooks should be thicker. I find I can only walk with the bag comfortably if I place a couple of newspapers in the flap :-).
Of all the ‘commuting’ bags I have looked at, this is the best in terms of space and looks. Keep up the good work!