The PNW Rover hip pack is reviewed as part of our Kit Essentials grouptest from Issue 143 of Singletrack World
- Price: £52.00 (before shipping & duty to UK)
- Capacity: 2.7L
- Bladder: No
- From: PNW, pnwcomponents.com
- Colours: Star Dust (gold brown), Dark Matter (black)
The PNW Rover is a tough, sturdy pack that is clearly designed with a hard life in mind, as opposed to being minimalist, delicate, lightweight outdoor gear. It felt a little bit OTT and perhaps rather crude when compared to other less boxy hip packs here. If you’re hard on your kit and/or you often find yourself scrabbling through the undergrowth after having been ditched by your bike, then fair enough. This is an ideal rufty-tufty pack. But perhaps it’s not the best option for a trail riding hip pack. It’s just too overkill without offering anything over-generous on the storage front. However, I am not giving this pack back. Why? Because PNW have accidentally designed my perfect pack for outdoors photography.
I use dinky mirrorless hipster-precious cameras and lenses and the Rover is excellent for carrying a camera, a couple of lenses and a few batteries, alongside bike stuff. Heck, even the detachable bottle holster makes for an ideal lens bag! The waterproof zips and the padded body offer a great amount of protection from Mother Nature and The Elements. If not used as a part-photography pack, the main chamber is rather lunchboxy; items roll around in there unless packed fully and carefully.
Overall
If you like/need to take modest camera gear out mountain biking, the PNW Rover is perfect.
