Restrap showed us a handful of new bike bags at Eurobike earlier this month, covering everything from city commuting to ultra long-distance bike racing. The new olive City Range designed to complement your Brompton folder will be the earliest to market. But we were more enamored by their first, truly lightweight set of bikepacking bags, designed for the ultra-endurance racing cyclist…
Restrap City Range bags for Brompton folding commuter bikes
Restrap’s new City Range was created to add easy carrying capacity to compact folding commuter bikes, Bromptons in particular. The bags are specifically designed around folding bike mechanisms, so you won’t need to remove or even adjust them to fold your bike.
The £38 roll-top City Bar Bag was developed to fit Brompton M & H handlebars, tucking in between the bend of the bar with secure storage for small items like keys, wallet & mobile phone, all under the simple fold-down top and held in place with a simple bungee & hook closure.
The £35 City Stem Bag is designed be a bit more universal, to fit on any folding bike. Essentially a similar solution to a standard bottle bag, the Stem Bag will fit either a water bottle, snacks, or small items like a phone. It gets a cinch top closure and is designed to stay in place as the bike folds, out of the way.
The £40 City Saddle Bag also will fit any folder (available in two sizes) and can carry a change of clothes, street shoes, or tools & other commuter essentials, all suspended from the saddle rails. The Saddle Bag includes a long extendable strap to secure it down to a Brompton’s rear suspension bumper block.
All of the new City Range bags are made from durable & waterproof Cordura and nylon, with the bar & saddle bags seam-sealed to keep your gear inside safe & dry. The City bags are set to go on sale in late Oct 2019, and will be available in this olive green, navy blue, or classic black.
Restrap Adventure Race Series ultralight bikepacking racing bags
Adventure Race is an all-new bikepacking bag product line, still in the last stages of development, and a first for Restrap in its focus on lightweight materials & construction. The secret to light weight is of course a thin, ultralight, tough & waterproof main body fabric, plus some slimmed down detailing geared toward the ultra-endurance cyclist competing in multi-day adventure racing.
Similar to Restrap’s original saddle bag, the Adventure Race Tri Bar Bag uses a holster with a light plastic internal support that hangs directly from a set of aero bar extensions. Inside an ultralight roll-top drybag carries all of your gear and is cinched down into place with a magnetic Fidlock clasp.
The Adventure Race Frame Bag is a small pack that tucks into the front of your main triangle, not getting in the way of standard water bottle placement. It again is made of lightweight materials, coming in at 105g – more than 30% lighter than Restrap’s standard, similarly-sized small frame bag.
Then, an Adventure Race Saddle Bag uses a much lighter semi-rigid holster to secure another ultralight roll-top drybag under the saddle rails.
The new series is expected to launch in early 2020, and will include this tri bar, frame & saddle bag, plus a top tube-mounted fuel tank bag.
Another small addition to the family, an Adventure Race packable camp musette is designed as a bag for everyday use on & off the bike, or it can double as an overflow bag for the mid-adventure run into the grocery store.
It packs down loosely into a tiny ball about 6cm long & 5cm across, and weighs just 55g. Stuff it into a frame or saddle bag, and have space to carry snacks around once you make it to camp.
The complete Adventure Race Series is still in final stages of development, and Restrap has openly asked for feedback/suggestions from within the industry & adventure racing community. If you think they are great, or think some feature was overlooked, chime in down in the comments section below, and Restrap will see your ideas…
Restrap’s upcoming Canister Bag small handlebar pack
We already detailed the new small handlebar pack that Restrap calls the Canister Bag, when they quietly snuck it into their recent, but already sold out Limited Run 02 Polka edition bag series. But once polka dots production is complete, it looks like Restrap will offer the new 52€ bag as part of their standard product line as well.
They also gave us a little insight as to where the small bag came from. Premium Italian sunglasses maker Alba Optics approached Restrap to make a bag to carry some fancy shades on the bike. After developing the sunglasses case bag, Restrap figured that by tweaking the dimensions a bit and adding a couple of external mesh pockets, they could have a small bar bag that didn’t bounce around while riding and would haul all the small essentials & snacks needed for shorter rides.
Expect the Canister Bag to also make it into the standard line-up in early 2020.
