If you don't want to over-dress your bike in accessories or you simply don't have braze-ons to put a rack and panniers on your bike, the Chrome Dually messenger pack, which we sell in the Wheelgirl online store, is a comfortable way to haul your gear while commuting on your bike. More importantly, the Dually makes my back and neck feel much better than the one-strap messenger-style bike bags. Now, you carefree cats who wear cut-off jeans while riding across America on a bike that is two sizes too big and still go dancing at night until 4 am, heck, put forty pounds of groceries in the no-name messenger bag you found in the luggage bin at the Salvation Army for $2.00, and laugh aloud--for now. But, later my friends, if you become a day-time desk jockey, the Chrome Dually, which looks good and has great features, may save you from the eventual neck and back bonsai caused from sitting all day and then carrying the bulk of the cargo weight in your bag on one shoulder. Chrome calls it their small messenger pack, but it holds a ton of gear for the average bike commuter.
My favorite thing about the Dually is that it is light when it is empty. Yet, your cargo feels supported and stable on the bike when the Dually is filled to the brim with serious weight. The breathable back pad works well with the straps, and you can cinch it all down comfortably and keep the pack's weight really balanced and close to your body. You can haul tall and awkward items in the backpack, since you don't have to close the flap for your cargo to stay put. It is water-proof, so your electronic and paper cargo is safe when riding in the rain. There is a zipped compartment for your wallet, keys, money, phone. There are three inside pockets for quick access to daily items. You can abuse the Dually, and it lasts. Oh, and you can completely clean the inside waterproof floating liner if you spill Pad Thai and half-and half for your coffee during a combination dinner and grocery run.
(Jump for more photos and to read about my experience with my Dually; view a typical man purse dialog and Chrome's great guarantee; see why lady cycling cats might like the lighter Dually messenger pack, and test on your backpack cargo capacity with an item that everyone has in their home.)
(Photos by Wheelgirl. The black-on-black Dually is often sold out. I can usually get any type of Chrome bag in any offered color combination. If you want to buy something not on the site, send an email.)
I've been happily beating the heck out of my Dually backpack for a couple of years, and it has been well worth the $120 for the knowledge that the stitching and straps of the Dually always makes it through the storm. Except for the reflective tape on the main strap, which I have managed partially to scrape off, it works as well as it did the day I got it. My keys get clipped to the D-ring on the strap, and I throw it on the cement floor of the shop and on my home's old wood floor every night. In addition, I cram it full of a scary and wrong amount of groceries weekly. Even though the yellow liner shows dirt more readily, I like having a lighter-colored liner, since stuff at the bottom of the pack stands out against the lighter color.
And Chrome does have your back, as they state on their website: "We will repair or replace, free of charge, any item that is found to be defective in materials or workmanship. If you screwed up and broke your bag as a result of your own action...we can still help. Give us a call and let us know what happened. If your story is sufficiently ridiculous you may qualify for a free repair."
OK, for the skeptics, you do see Chrome messenger bags everywhere these days. The one-strap messenger bags with the seat belt buckle and the hip logo of the San Francisco company are cool, and who doesn't want to be cool? But all brands of messenger bags are getting a bit too over-determined to be extra cool, and more importantly, you may not be a two-wheeled asphalt stallion or thoroughbred mare of a messenger delivering fat Xerox boxes of documents through the city streets. You may actually sit at a desk for much of your work day to make your living, and if you do, you don't need a ginormous one-shoulder-strap-styled bike bag to haul around a laptop, some power cords, a cell phone, and some breath mints. The Dually's 1000 cubic inches are more than enough space to accommodate most urban cyclists' daily hauling and shopping needs.
For females, the comfort, proportions of the Dually, and the lighter bag weight translates into a much more pleasurable bike-bag-toting experience. Unless you are an Olympic female swimmer competing in Beijing this summer and possess world-class upper-body control and strength, the average slimmer-shouldered lady cat tends to feel the extra textile weight of a heavy bag much more than the typical male cyclists. Many of you tom cats already tote around a man purse that can weigh about 8-lbs "empty". We did a little survey at the bike shop a while back and weighed a bunch of the male customers' cycling bags. The experience went something like this:
"Empty your bag, then I'll weigh it."
"The inside is empty. I swear."
"Then why is it so heavy? What do you have in the front pockets?"
"Nothing, I just have my multi-tool, and a shirt, oh, and a jacket, and a tube, and some levers, and this really good book; have you read this? This guy is hilarious! Oh, and there's my other pair of earphones for my iPod, and my girlfriend's digital camera. Hum...I thought I lost her camera; I am so stoked to have found this! She is going to be really happy, and this tire pump this guy gave me for free, and a blinky light, and my U lock, and a combination lock. I forgot the combination, but I know I will eventually remember it. And there are those batteries. I knew I had some extra ones kicking around, and a pen that is also a flashlight, and a toothbrush, and my wallet, and an extra set of cleats for my bike shoes."
If you do need serious cargo-carrying capacity, check out Chrome's other messenger packs: Ranchero at 1480 cubic inches and Backbone at 2400 cubic inches. Strong suggestion: If you are not a messenger making a living on two wheels, and you plan to commute by bike for many years, don't buy a pack that holds as much as a Samsonite suitcase. Messengers are pros at hauling cargo via bike. And no amount of exercise and organic food is going to fix a weekend warrior's or grad student's tweaked back and neck after hauling around way too much gear on a daily basis. Get a rack if you have to carry heavy cargo, and make your bike frame, not your body, do the work.
For those inquiring minds, to do this test, I picked an item that everyone has in their house, toilet paper rolls. The Dually holds 14 rolls loaded vertically. If I loaded the rolls with the long end horizontal, I could probably compress the rolls and fit even more. The point being that a thousand cubic inches is a good amount of cargo space.
