The Holy Grail of Backpacks

[lb_lee]

Mori: a new president means a new homelessness backpack, which means... friends, readers, neighbors, let me tell you about the best backpack we have ever and will ever own: the Green Guru Gear 24L rolltop commuter bag.

We bought it in a Ohio bike shop because it was the only bag there that suited our needs and our long-suffering Homeless Year pack had finally eaten shit and died. The new one was pricey by our standards, a black rubber thing made of old inner tubes. We were dubious. We were wrong.

Friends, this backpack is impervious to weather. (Very important, because it carries all our merchandise, delicate paper products.) It is deceptively capacious; we have LIVED out of this bag for months at a time, and yet it fits perfectly in every train, plane, bus, car, and bike compartment. And the weight balance is AMAZING, which is good since it often carries a con or homeless load and a ill-balanced backpack is a curse.

We have owned this bag and used it damn near every day for ten years and though it shows its age, it’s still perfectly functional and likely has at least a year or two of life left in it. (Do you want it? Ask us!) Our sole complaints, mere motes of dust on the golden field, is that being made of black rubber, it was often hot in the summer and in certain weather left black stains on our ass.

Then we discovered that GGG has the exact same backpack made out of stormproof FABRIC (old tent material and crap). And it was on SALE. (A hundred bucks is a lot for a backpack, but not for a con/homeless survival bag. Fuckin sold, take my fucking money.)

It has arrived. It has even an extra water bottle pocket!

Have we discovered the Holy Grail of backpacks? How will this one compare to our black rubber workhorse? Stay tuned, true believers!

Comments

[talewisefellowship]

[Janusz]

That is a nice backpack! My only question is, can it fit my absolute unit of a water bottle

[lb_lee]

Mori: an excellent question, Janusz, and in the interests of SCIENCE! I decided to investigate!

The thickest bottle in the house (a mason jar) was just under four inches in diameter, and the water bottle pocket could just accommodate it. I wouldn’t try anything thicker than that. The pocket comes up high enough that length shouldn’t be a problem.

[pantha]

Ooooh, that does look good. My only question is, how well do you think it might do for someone with narrow shoulders? I find far too many rucksacks are designed solely for broad-shouldered cis men.

[lb_lee]

We don’t think our shoulders are particularly big (though we have indeed only worn this after our short stint on T) and never had a problem. The straps are only a couple inches apart; I think it was designed for cyclists, who are often leaning far forward and do NOT want the straps sliding off even if they’re turning at high speed, so we never had an issue with it being too broad (unlike our old man’s more traditional backpacker backpack).

[pantha]

Incidentally, the "causes questionable black butt stains" seems like it could easily be remedied. The photos seem to show it a) is very rectangular and b) is bound on all edges with fabric binding. Just buy or recycle a suitably sized rectangle of fabric (denim would work fine) and sew it over the panel that touches your back, sewing it to the fabric binding without going into the rubber body of the bag (a curved needle might help with this).

[lb_lee]

They may well have changed the design in ten years, but our problem was, the BOTTOM of our 2014 one is black rubber, it would curve out downward when loaded, and we got an ass like a dumptruck so in specific hot rainy (or extremely sweaty) weather, the rubber would be wet and continually under friction with our caboose. It never chafed or anything and was a pretty rare thing, though! Wouldn’t be surprised if later designs extended the fabric and fixed the issue.

[pantha]

Hmm, ok, you could still probably do the same fix. However, the downside would be that being the bottom of the bag the fabric would be highly likely to soak up water and just make you muddy and wet instead of doing the black marks. Probably why they didn't incorporate that into the design...

[lb_lee]

Yeah, and the waterproofing is a major part of our love for this backpack. Definitely a case where the design is very deliberate and the minor problems are an unavoidable result of the materials that give it the stuff we love about it! Which is why we were always pretty sanguine about them; it was clear exactly WHY they made it the way they did.

[sinistmer]

Ooo, a new shiny! What color did you get?

[lb_lee]

The multicolored roulette one! It came out with neon lime green, bright deep blue, and two shades of red (one more orangey, one just red).

Sneak is dismayed there is no neon pink but will survive.

[dismallyoriented]

Is this something a can of spray paint would fix? Only halfway joking here

[lb_lee]

Sneak: ... @_@ I have paint markers...