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ViaTerra Raptor - Tail Bag review: It takes More
Acknowledgement:
Would like to start with a thankful note to ViaTerra team specially Sukhi and Nicholas who have shown trust and gave this bag to be practically tested and reviewed. Thank you for handing over their only prototype which they have been working from quite some time and even for having immense patience to wait for my review which got delayed due to uncontrollable circumstances.
Preview:
Tail bags are perfect. It is mainly used to carry the exact amount of required things for a ride extending over a weekend which is less for a big saddle bag or a tank bag which is not capable of carrying because of its obvious various reasons.
ViaTerra Raptor Tail Bag: First Impression
AWESOME, yes exactly same reaction when I got to see the carton in which bag came up.
Upon unpacking it, I was left bit confused and puzzled, wondering hope the bag is not small.
But, after thorough analysis of bag it was clear what all things can go inside it. I was able to imagine how much luggage I can carry in various bags and how would it look at time of riding.
ViaTerra Raptor Tail bag is meant to be used for long runs extending to 3-4 days which remove hassle of carrying irrelative amount of other bags.
I have usually used Rynox Optimus-I as a tail bag, which is generically not meant to be used as tail bag for rides extending for a week. Though I have been using Viaterra Claw from its very first day of launch and pretty satisfied.
Yes it is BIG. One can easily vouch it for keeping it many things which anyone needs for a week long journey. Easily I was able to pack and carry 4 clothes, one tissue paper roll, a pair of floaters, a can of chain lube, extra pair of bungee cords, medical kit, a tool kit and puncture kit. Even after this I had extra space.
It has top loading with U opening one single component, open it and you shove your hand in. The upper cover is provided with small mesh pockets where small things can be kept like some papers, cards and there is even place for keeping pen (guess one can carry it for small official trips).
It also has a pair of additional pockets on its sides similar to conventional baggage system where one can easily keep small things from chocolate bars to stinking socks to extra bungee cords.
One added benefit, it is expandable from its two parallel sides and can be unzipped along to have extra space.
Volumetric capacity: 24L capacity (an estimate)
Extra expandable zippers help in having an extra 5L volumetric capacity each on two sides, making it around 34L in total volume at its max utilization.
| Upper front width | 12.5 inches |
| Upper back width | 14 inches |
| Side length | 14 inches |
| Extended side width | 2.5 inches each |
| Extended upper front width | 17 inches |
| Extended upper back width | 18 inches |
| Side pocket length | 10 inches |
| Side pocket height | 8 inches |
| Back | 19 inches |
| Width | 16 inches |
| Front side depth | 6 inches |
| Back side depth | 9 inches |
| Base | 14.5 inches |
| U opener flip front width | 7 inches |
| U opener flip back width | 9 7 inches |
| U opener flip length | 11.5 7 inches |
<<and this is small pouch over the flip were smaller items can be kept>>
ViaTerra Raptor Tail Bag: How to Mount.
This bag has got 2 different mounting features.
1) Firstly, a very special feature about mounting is a pair of bungee cords (33inches each with good elasticity) which come along with bag. The bottom side of the bag which is covered with a Velcro supported layer can be removed from one side and have four tugs through which bungee cords can be tucked in cross manner. Thus ideally bungee cords are stuck to the bag and due to the cross placing it restricts the bag while moving.
Four ends of the bungee cords can be hooked at appropriate place with proper tension.
In R15v2, I was able to hook the first two ends of both bungee cords on the chassis near the rear foot pegs and could be easily pulled across the opposite two ends under the tail of bike to hook them on the plastic strap holders.
One good thing of these plastic strap holders are that they are of very good quality and can keep the tension of the bungee cords and even extra bungee cords, which I used to strap the tripod along with the luggage. Also bungee cords are having metal heads and thus I was never afraid of quality which is just opposite of cheap plastic head bungee cords which get bent upon high tension.
<<they have provided now provided 2 bungee cords of length 24 and 36 inches each>>
<<they have removed this on final product>
2) Second mounting facility is an independent pair of straps with fittings of lengths ~ 21 inches and 38 inches respectively. Bag already comes up with 4 fitting clips, 2 at each side of the bag on base portion. These straps can be strapped under the bag to clip in along with bike placing it parallel to each other or they can be strapped across each other to give much effective locking with bag.<<they have removed this on final product>
Thus bungee cords helped me in placing and fixing the bag tightly to the bike and these straps gave added mounting feature to strap it along with saddle bags which was already strapped up to the bike.
ViaTerra Raptor Tail Bag: Ease in removing and carrying it!!
It does take some time to unstrap and remove from the bike, but there is no hassle involved as every end is like plug and play. This bag has a handle at the narrow side of the bag thus does gives it a professional office bag (by looks only if all straps and bungee cords are removed). The professional look of the bag gets it more charm due to a long shoulder extensible strap provided with it does makes perfect luggage for official trips too.
<<ignore the plug and play straps they are not available in final product>>
ViaTerra Raptor Tail Bag: Rider comfort and Riding comfort!!
What to say about the comfort. Once placed and strapped properly it dare not to move an inch from its position (only if rider straps it properly). Rider can easily slide on his seat forward and backwards and bag doesn't even touch their back.
It places and sticks well with and without saddle bag.
Taller people can easily sit and step down from bike while putting across their legs over the bag without touching the bag much.
Straps on the bag make it more comfortable from not moving to and fro on even while sudden breaking or acceleration.
ViaTerra Raptor Tail Bag: Build Quality.
ViaTerra Raptor Tail Bag review: Expectations or changes.
Also expecting a good rain-cover for this too which will be helpful even after using the extensible components.
If there are plans to make variation to this bag can there be a single extensible part at the bottom instead of two expandable sides!! This will also help in keeping a helmet along with other small stuffs thus giving it one more feature.
Lastly but not the least, there can be a 3M reflector on the rear side of the bag which will help rear vehicles to see the bag atleast and get an idea of a bike moving ahead.
Viaterra Raptor's Tail Bag: Competition
Rynox Hawk
Dirtsack Overnighter
ViaTerra Raptor Tail Bag review: My verdict
ViaTerra Tail Bag is one unique and best in class product which I have used till now. It is surely a must have for long rides where you can keep almost anything for those 3-4 days. Rynox has already announced about its own tail bag but this one stands far better part from a distorted shaped mentioned tail bag.
One can carry several things from clothes to tool kits to floaters to important documents to even DSLRs.
Again hoping for a good VFM product with good pricing and early launch.
<<this review is of ViaTerra Raptor - Tail Bag prototype which i used and reviewed in Month of Feb 2015, and now the already final product is in market, for more details and purchasing you can visit: Viaterra Raptor Tail Bag >>
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