Podsacs small saddlepack - good? bargain?

[ianbarton]

I think I would go with an Alpkit one, which looks to be much better made. POD (aka Pete O'Donovan) from Sheffield started by making chalk bags for climbing in his garage. He then started to make rucksacks. He was bought out by Rab, who continued to make high-quality rucksacks and dry bags with his name as a brand. For some reason PlanetX bought the brand from Rab. It came with a load of stock. PlanetX being a cycle company, not really having anything to do with mountaineering thought "Oh shoot, we have just paid lots of money for something that's completely different to our core business". They had a fire sale of all the POD stock. I bought several rucksacks and dry bags for family members. It looks as though they have resurrected the brand name for their own stuff, which looks to be not very good quality or design wise.

 

[Crackle]

I'd judge it on the bike. That Pod one has mounting straps which make it quite vertical, that would actually work for one of my bikes whereas the more horizontal one from Alpkit would foul the wheel. However, the more vertical POD would also stop me moving back over the wheel on the mtn bike I'd mount it on, so it's no good.