This Bontrager Rapid Pack Hydro hip pack is reviewed as part of our Kit Essentials grouptest from Issue 143 of Singletrack World
- Price: £94.99
- Capacity: 1.64L
- Bladder: 1.5L Included
- From: Trek, trekbikes.com
- Colours: Black
The non-hydro version of this bag has been much loved amongst hip pack-ing mountain bikers for quite a number of years. This larger – and bladder toting – Rapid Pack keeps the same stretchy material, which is its secret weapon really. Stretchy material makes complete sense for a hip pack; it hugs its contents just like it hugs your gut. It’s happy to swallow up large items, but is also perfectly fine with hardly anything inside it. It’s comfy, stable, discreetly capacious and compartmentalised. The pack appears to be really minimalist, but it’s an illusion. There are useful pockets all over the place.
The bladder feature is the key thing here. Sometimes, certain rides call for more water than a bottle can offer. Usually, I’d say just go for a trad rucksack hydration pack but the Rapid Pack Hydro does an acceptable job of both hydration rucksack roles and modest hip pack duties. The bladder itself is fine. I’m not a fan of the rather meagre magnetic hose attachment (it’s tricky to relocate post-drink and also doesn’t hold the hose as discreetly flush as on the Thule pack). If you’re not going to really need more than a bottle’s worth of water, this larger Rapid Pack still has the excellent centrally located bottle sleeve as its little sibling and that means you can leave the faffy bladder at home and just go with a simple bottle.
Overall
A shrink-to-fit stretchy hip pack that works well with light or heavy hydration loads.
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