+1
Have sent Dave a message, pretty much all that chunky toad can’t do is hold water bottles… until I saw a custom one on his blog that he had made.
Yep, waiting on an email for my custom toad including bottle pocket. …
My custom BO Gear Chunky Toad in action.
Yes thats a 55L Willow esky.
See that is pretty cool… but I will never be in that situation where I need to lug something like that around which is why I think it is going to be too big for me.
fuck thats impressive lorday …or should i say dave!
So two shoulder straps is the new single messenger strap?
Better for your body too.
Techically I will never be in a situation to have to use the size of the bag either. In this above situation I was going to drop by a mates house cause I haven’t seen him for a while, he lives about 1k away. I realised his esky was at mine so I thought i’d drop that back to him. I have a perfectly functional car to drive to his, which, probably would have been a more sensible option but meh.
I’ve been using a chrome citzen bag for the last 2 years and while it was big enough I certainly couldn’t have done that with it. The bag get’s used 4 days a week for uni. That means a change of clothes and shoes when riding, a ulock, a 15" laptop, charger, mouse, paper, pencil case, wallet, phone, keys, headpones etc at a minium. On any given day it will also require me to take in, a dlsr, small-medium sized models, a second change of clothes, raincoat, tools, spray paint, alchol and any other things which I can’t think off.
Now the chrom cizten squeezed in the first lot, infact I took a whole alleycat worth of prizes as well as manifest/maps for an alleycat I organised but that was at the absoulute maxium.
I don’t think from normal use I’ll ever fill the chunky toad up past maybe 50% daily, but it’s a nice change not to have to fold and jam things into a bag.
See, you say that, and then you have to carry a frame home / find something awesome on the side of the road…
I have the same bag, and you can cinch it all down fairly small when it’s not full.
You have to remember I live in Canberra. The only awesome thing we are going to find is road kill.
And what if you find HEAPS of roadkill? You’re gonna need a big bag for it obviously!
Nah, I would just dine in instead of take away.
welcome to 2009 horatio… keep your sunglasses on, its real bright here.
I upgraded to a bigger bag every year for four years. Ended up with the Skin Grows Back messenger bag. Always better to have to much room than to little.
This. I miss my Elephantitus cause you can just throw everything in it and if it’s a bit pointy chuck a jumper between the stuff and your back and it’s amazing. And when you do actually fill it up (I.E. Two Archive boxes riding across the city) you look badass.
I have the pleasure of being able to use several different types of bag on a weekly basis so here’s my 2c
Mission Vandals and Ramblers are kinda overkill for a daily bag, but with the expansion they have much greater versatility, especially good for the occasional massive load (twss), and the 2-3 week trips away etc…
IMHO the Fitzroy is about as good as you can get for an all purpose Rucksack for daily use. It’s got awesome capacity (36L iirc) the blindspots aren’t as bad as the bigger expandable backpacks or the Chunky Toad, its deep/long (so it distributes the weight over a greater area on your back whilst riding and doesn’t stick out like a tortoise shell) and is SUUUUPER comfortable. Lifetime guarantees, they look the biz, and have loads of different configurations - pockets, sleeves, rolltops etc.
The chunky toad is super functional, if my other BO bags are anything to go by it’s pretty much forged in the fires of Mount Doom, and the shoulder straps are cut to a great shape so they sit really comfortably. It’s very wide at the top, so the blind spots are kinda big, but nothing too gnarly, but it does protrude off the back a bit more than I’d like, and i find it a little harder to adjust the straps on the move (only just though).
I love my BO Gear Elephantitus more than almost any of my other possessions, it’s awesome and has served me incredibly well, but for backpacks I’d go Mission over BO gear (sorry Dave). The service from BO Gear is second to none though, and I cant recommend their satchels highly enough.
So my current back pack has worn out and looking at getting a replacement. I’m currently living in cairns and am frequently stuck in torrential down pours. Possibly moving to melbourne soon but looks like staying out of the rain down there will be hard aswell. There seems to be a lot of love for the chunky toad. Is it fairly waterproof? I dont think i need such a big bag but figure it might come in handy at times doing shopping trips. Does the extra size/weight get annoying if not being used? whats peoples opions of the extra waist strap im guessing its worth getting?
I received a T-Level Infinity in the mail yesterday, a week after ordering one.
I packed my usual carry in it and was pretty happy with how it sat. The roll top does obstruct your vision when you turn around to check cars, but not complete blindless and not enough to cause any mishaps. Bags never sit well with no weight in them, so luckily I bought two pair of shoes while out.
Usually I ditch the boxes when buying shoes because my last bag struggled to fit the massive Nike SB boxes, but thanks to the roll top and extra draw string bit, I was able to fit both boxes in my bag for the ride home. Obviously it isn’t water proof when doing this, and its not a feature I will use everyday, but being able to expand the bag so much is always helpful. It would hit the back of my head when I would sit up while riding, but again, this isn’t something that will cause me day to day issues.
This morning I rode to work with my spray jacket, jeans, tshirt, hoody, shoes, work pants and work shirt in the main compartment and it rolled up as seen in the photo below, so as you would have the bag normally. It sat better on my back with a bit of weight in it and didn’t bounce around.
I’m still adjusting it as I go, so far though it seems to be ok. I can’t report on durability and the waterproofness of it obviously, and I’ll give an update in a little bit to confirm how useful all the straps etc are on it. There are quite a few.
EDIT: Also, there are extra straps on it that go over the side pockets from about the L and around, then repeated on each side. You have to undo these to get in the long side compartments, which is frustrating. I plan to only keep tools and other things that aren’t used day in there because of the awkwardness of having to take the bag off, undo the strap then unzip the pocket. Toats awks.
Good to know I’ve been ahead of the trend for 5 years…