It’s pretty hard to justify £179 on a rucksack, but Kriega have done a very good job of making that easy! After doing ALOT of reading, and just taking the leap, we bought ours from GetGeared a few months back now. So now that we’ve spent some time with it, and finished justifying it to our wives, here is our Kriega R30 Rucksack review.
If like us, your motorcycle is your primary mode of transport, its likely that you will find yourself needing to lug things from A to B. For some the answer is a topbox, or panniers, but a lot of us just don’t want to add those monstrosities to our pride and joy! They’re generally pretty unsightly. This is where the good old fashioned backpack comes in!
Depending on what it is that you need to lug around, and how often you need to do it, you could get away with simply using that old rucksack you have lying in the cupboard. If its something that you want to keep away from the elements though (electricals) or something with a fair weight behind it, that old rucksack probably isn’t going to cut it.
As with most motorcycle accessories, when it comes to rucksacks, you can pretty much get something for £20, or you can sign away your first born child. So, the question is… Is Kriega’s R30 Rucksack really worth the £179 price tag?
When you first get your hands on your Kriega R30 rusckack, the first thing you’ll notice is the incredible build quality: the fabric feels strong and sturdy, and the seams are well stitched, its unusual to see stitching of the quality you’d expect to be on a £700 jacket being used on a rucksack!. The buckles and clasps all feel high quality, and are unlike any we’ve come across in any application previously! On first inspection, it really does feel like it would survive pretty much anything that we can throw at it. In-fact, Kriega are so confident that they offer a HUGE 10 year guarantee on this rucksack! (Thats just shy of £1.50 per month you’re spending on guaranteed usage of this high quality rucksack!)
As the name implies, this rucksack has quite a generous 30 litre capacity. Thats enough to hold a change of clothes, your laptop a couple of bits from the shop on the way home (milk and the like), so it’s the perfect size for the average commuter. If we were planning a small weekend away we’d probably fit everything we need in there, so very short term touring is possible, although for longer than a couple of days, you’d want to start building up your luggage system.
The main compartment is a roll-and-clip type bag, it kind of reminds us of a dry-bag. Kriega say that this compartment is classified as completely waterproof. Then you have 2 ‘water-resistant’ outer pockets. Useful for keeping the less water sensitive items that you’re travelling with. The zips pulls are ‘extra chunky’ which we appreciated when trying to get stuff out of the bag with gloved hands!
As you’d expect you have reflective highlights on the bag which work wonders when the headlights hit them in the dark, but they don’t look overbearing during the day. One of the things that make this rucksack feel incredibly secure is that it features 6 cinch-straps. These can all be tightened up once your packed up, ensuring that none of your belongings are moving around in the bag.
Adjusting the straps is really straightforward, and is a feature that we particularly like. Kriega have designed this to be super easy to do, even with your gloves on! They have an aluminium ring on the bottom of the two straps, you literally just pull them to tighten up!
The fastening system of the Kriega rucksack is probably described as ‘robust’. Once you’ve slipped on the shoulder straps, you then join the 2 straps together over your sternum with 2 Kriega designed clips. On the first go, it kind of felt like overkill as it reminded us of strapping on a Parachute. However, once we were in, we could instantly feel how secure the bag was, it really does ensure that its not going anywhere! It also helps to ensure that the weight is more evenly spread across your upper body rather just pulling against your shoulders.
It’s not easy to stomach £179 for a rucksack, when you can see things that ‘appear’ that they do similar jobs for much smaller amounts. If you’ll be using your rucksack daily, you WILL appreciate the ‘biker friendly’ design, it just makes life easier! Bearing in mind the 10 year guarantee, over the lifetime of the product, it probably works out cheaper too! With high usage, realistically, you’d have to replace your £50 rucksack atleast every couple of years, over 10 years, thats atleast £250. So it could actually work out the more economical choice, not just more convenient!
If you’re on the fence, we’d encourage you to take the leap like we did, you won’t regret it! Here’s a link to the Rucksack to learn more about the specs, and check stock availability at Getgeared: http://bit.ly/2p6RUrz. So there you have it, thats our Kriega R30 Rucksack review. If you’ve found it useful, please do share this with your friends!
