Everything old will be new again some day. I love looking at the bags from days gone by to get inspiration for my newer bag designs. Many details and features have gone by the wayside not because they did not work, but were often just not as easy to mass produce. Today, while at the swap meet, I could not resist grabbing this Bergans ruck sack:
I usually just look around when at the swap meet or local thrift stores, and kind of mentally capture the ideas, but this bag has so much going on there was no way to take it all in at a glance, so it came home. The amount of leather work alone would be hard to do at a reasonable price, not to mention the steel frame and other detailing. The leather is soft as a lamb’s ear. I threw it on with a small load and it is quite a comfortable bag. A quick weigh in on the scale at just under 5 lbs, not bad at all considering the amount of steel and leather. I am still working it all out, but am developing a saddle and porteur bag that would easily attach to the bike and work with rucksack harness like the one above. While looking at more military surplus bags than I would like to admit, this is one of the nicest assemblies I have seen.
Most things like this bag end up as catch and release, but I think this one will be staying around a while.
Whoa! 5lbs for the bag? That would offset your lighter frame set very fast. Cool looking bag though.
Oh yea, 5 lbs. But considering it is probably close to 3000 cubic inches, canvas, all the leather straps, buckles, rivets and a tubular steel frame 5 lbs is not too bad. Some paniers way more than that without the rack. There is quite a weight price to pay for the canvas and leather look in most cases. When you work with the synthetics like XPac as well the difference is even more apparent.