Around this time a year ago, Jamie from Skin Grows Back walked in the bike shop I was working in at the time with my new bag.
He pulled it out out of his own bag put it on the ground and gave me a comprehensive run down of the bag. It was actually more like a lesson. This bag has A LOT going on for it. Anyway, a year has passed, and I have been working with this bag for almost 6 months of that, so I figured it was about time I reviewed it. Now that I’ve had a chance to properly test it out.
Also, for those interested the bag is finally generally available through the Skin Grows Back website.
The best place to start is probably the first thing everybody notices – the thing is HUGE. Jamie says its 41L of capacity to the brim, but you can strap a whole lot more onto it. What I’ve carried in this bag includes, but is by no means limited too: a case and a half of beer, a kids bike, a wheelset, a frame, 10 bottles of wine in individual boxes, a weeks worth of grocery shopping and excessive amounts of folders, parcels, and envelopes.
After handling those kind of loads with ease, and yet remaining totally comforable on the body, thanks to all the padding (which is removable for washing!), and the X-strap set up (which spreads the load across both shoulders), the bag has already dealt with some pretty decent abuse. Then add to that the fact that I’m pretty talented at throwing myself off my bike at high speed. Here’s where the company name becomes quite apparently, very apt; while I’m continually successful at proving that skin does in fact grow back, I have only managed to inflict one tiny little rip in the front pocket of this bag.
As I mentioned previously this bag has a lot going on. Bungee cord to secure boxes to the outside of the bag, tube holders for carrying polo mallets, poster rolls etc, water bottle pockets, d rings, an amazing and user friendly strap system, washable padding, and on and on the list goes. The only feature I will go into a bit deeper is how water proof this thing is. Riding all day in the rain and I can still deliver bone dry envelopes to clients. One particularly rainy day when I rocked up to an office to pick something up I had the receptionist refuse to give me the delivery because they realised I was on a bike and they were worried it was going to get wet (I was dripping water all over their floor) – after I showed her the inside of my bag and how dry the contents were she happily handed the parcel over. And for those who raced this years Global Gutz in absolutely torrential rain, yes it was still dry inside when we finished.
The bag is still going strong and has proved itself an invaluable tool day after day for me at work, as well as being extremely handy for me in my down time as far as hauling groceries and whatever else I need to transport. Add to that the fact that the bag is all hand made right in our back yard, and how easy and friendly Jamie is to deal with, I am very happy with this bag to say the least, and so far it has handled absolutely everything I can throw at it.
Photo by Terence Chin
