Bagaboo Messenger Bag review plus 10% discount at Urban Hunter
Posted January 13, 2012
There are certain products that work so well that you love them from the moment you first use them. The Bagaboo Messenger bag is one of those brilliant products that somehow gets it just right.
Papa’s got a brand new bag
Lacking a rack on my commuting bike, I transported my gear in a cheap rucksack picked up in a sports shop. It was ok, but not waterproof and fitting work shirts into it was always a bit of a battle if I wanted them to look as if they’d been near an iron in the recent past.
Sadly for the rucksack, the zips could not take the strain and it finally burst open (fortunately on the way home). I needed a new bag and decided I wanted a good one. Who better to ask than the technical editor of Cycling Plus magazine – his recommendation: the Bagaboo Messenger bag.
Individuality
Bagaboo are a small Hungarian company producing custom handmade messenger bags, shoulder bags, and other accessories for bike messengers.
Set up by a Budapest cycle courier – the bags are designed and refined by someone who really knows their stuff. The customisation means you can choose the main outer colour, the inner colour, the trim colour and the velcro colour of your bag from the numerous options on the website.
If you want to go for complete individuality, you can also have almost any custom embroidery design added to your bag. I went for an “off the shelf” colour combination from Urban Hunter’s excellent range.
Quality
The bag itself is brilliant. The outer is made from heavy duty Cordura, with the lining made from waterproof truck tarpaulin. With the flap closed there are no openings to allow water to creep in. Tough velcro and straps keep the bag closed no matter how much gear is stuffed in.
I bought the small size and found it very capacious, easily fitting the aforementioned (now uncreased) work shirt, a pair of shoes, a waterproof and my packed lunch. The bag is available in four sizes, the huge XL topping the capacity league and probably big enough to move house with.
Stability
There are 6 separate internal pockets to allow organisation of the contents. The pièce de resistance is the shoulder strap. With a comfortable detachable pad, it has a clever buckle system that allows adjustment with one hand on the move. A second chest strap keeps the bag stable in use – the bag feels as solid as a rucksack whilst riding.
Un-clipping the stabilising strap and pulling on the “D” buckle lengthens the main strap, enabling access to the bag without the need to take it off your shoulder – one of the advantages of messenger bags over backpacks. Safety is provided for with a reflective stripe on the back and a loop for a clip on light.
Beautifully made
The Bagaboo Messenger is a beautifully made item. It comes with a 12 month warranty and a lifetime repair service is also offered by the company.
This sort of quality does not come cheap, and a price of £120 might put some people off. Bagaboo also make a lower spec “Eco” range which is cheaper, but lacks the excellent strap system.
If you’re in the market for a new bag, I would definitely consider the investment – this is the sort of bag you keep forever.
10% off at Urban Hunter
Urban Hunter, UK stockist of the excellent Bagaboo range are offering Daily Cycle readers an exclusive 10% discount across the whole of their store – not just the bags. Visit www.urbanhunter.biz to see their fantastic selection of gear and enter the discount code MESSENGER at the checkout. The offer is valid until 3rd February 2012.