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1319 Review
39 Karma

Review on Dark Slate Thule Rail 18L Backpack by Reginald Hamilton

Revainrating 5 out of 5

An almost perfect backpack for cycling.

Well this bag impressed me. I have several Thule bags and while the quality is top notch I don't think Thule are particularly inventive in their designs. My other bags are very well made but rather dull workhorses like the excellent but padded Spira backpack. On the other hand, Rail looks like it was designed after everyone at Thule's went out for lunch and stumbled back into the office and decided to go crazy. First of all, he looks great. Everything from the ribbed shoulder straps to the scalloped memory foam back protection and bright canary yellow interior is awesome and well thought out. There isn't a single angle this bag looks bad from and the inside looks so amazing I feel like I have to wrap everything in plastic before putting it in the bag. Don't want to screw it up. Second, the main compartment is deceptively large. When the bag arrived I thought it was just a hydration pack with enough room for a phone and some snacks, but if you open the bag fully there's plenty to carry. Even with a full water bladder, I can fit my tablet, phone, chargers, change of clothes and lunch in this thing with plenty of room. This is the perfect size for a day pack. The ReTrakt drinking tube system is really smart. You can detach the hose from almost any position and it will be caught by the magnetic strip. Although the hose itself is kind of ugly. I would love it if it was the same canary yellow as the inside of the bag, but I guess you can't have everything. I really can't think of any cons here. except the price. I love this thing and once bike season starts again I can't think of a better backpack but it's quite expensive.

Pros
  • Pleasant to use
Cons
  • Lots of stuff