Tag: Luggage (page 1 of 1)

After my review of their Western Flyer travel bag, Tom Bihn contacted me and asked if I would like to review their Ristretto laptop bag. They didn’t need to ask twice, and just a few days later UPS were at my door.

I’d originally planned to use the Ristretto as my “mobile office” whilst pursuing a new job, it seemed an ideal small bag for hitting  coffee shops with my iPad.

However, things moved on quickly and I decided to start my own business. I’m now working on my first contract, which is split between London and Warwick, so I’ve had a chance to use the Ristretto on a daily basis.

Design

The Ristretto is a vertical messenger bag, taller than it is wide, which makes a pleasant change from the usual messenger style. This design, combined with Tom Bihn’s excellent construction, lets the bag hang very comfortably at your side.

The Ristretto is a relatively simple design with a large main section that includes the dedicated laptop compartment, a smaller zipped front pocket, and an open pocket on the back of the bag.

The opening for the main section and the front pocket are covered by a large flap, which is fastened by a single large nylon buckle.

I went for the largest Ristretto, designed for the 13″ MacBook, which is still a very compact bag. In fact, the Ristretto pulls off the same magic trick as my Western Flyer: it’s bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.

The main section is obviously tall given the design of the bag. I was initially concerned I might not be able to get more than a magazine or book in the main section, but it is much deeper than it appears, and will easily accommodate the power supply and cables for my MacBook Air. One downside, for me at least, of the vertical design of the Ristretto is that you end up having to stack items on top of each other, and so if you want something at the bottom of the bag you need to remove the items above.

The laptop section is wonderfully simple, and yet offers excellent protection. The back of the bag is padded, which helps it retain its shape (nothing worse than a floppy bag Matron) and forms half of the laptop section, then inside the main compartment is a vertical padded wall, sewn in at the bottom and with a padded flap that goes over the top of the laptop. The bottom of the laptop compartment is slightly above the bottom of the bag so your lovely MacBook won’t ever touch the ground. Simple yet well-padded and offering all around protection.

The front pocket is approximately 3/4 of the height of the main section, and is opened by two zippers; inside are two smaller pockets and two pen pockets. One pocket is approximately A5 notebook sized, but sadly my Rhodia Webnotebook would not fit – a Field Notes notebook fits with room to spare. The smaller pocket is the perfect size for an iPhone, and making for a very pleasant change both of the pen pockets will easily accommodate a full-size fountain pen.

The open pocket on the back of the Ristretto is slanted at the top, and perfect for magazine, A4 pads or papers.

There is a simple handle on top of the bag which despite its relatively small size is nicely padded and comfortable even for my big hands.

Tom Bihn supplied their fabulous Absolute Shoulder strap with my Ristretto. I wrote about this strap in my Western Flyer review, and consider it the standard by which all shoulder straps should be measured. The foam section in the middle is both brilliantly grippy, I hate fighting to keep a bag on my shoulders, and has enough elasticity to cushion the weight of your bag – it honestly seems to make the bag feel lighter.

Construction

The Ristretto is made from the same high-quality materials as the Western Flyer: 1050 denier ballistic nylon on the outside, and lightweight Japanese Dyneema on the inside. Both are great materials, which a nice feel and look as if they will wear incredibly well. The Ristretto is very light despite its tough materials; a bag really should weigh no more than the laptop it is designed to protect, and yet so many do.

The padding for the laptop section and back of the bag is about 0.5 cm thick and fairly soft in comparison to some other neoprene foam laptop cases I’ve used, but it does feel as if it will offer protection for all but the biggest of impacts. The inside of the laptop section is neoprene at the front and Dyneema at the rear, both are soft and smooth and will not mark your MacBook.

The zips are the same excellent YKK Aquaguard water-repellent zippers as on the Western Flyer, and as with the Absolute Strap these are the zips I now compare all zips with; they are smooth, strong and of course, have the clever water-repellent rubbing coating.

The buckle that closes the flap over the main section and front pocket is the amazingly named Duraflex Warrior buckle. The ‘Warrior’ buckle is typical Tom Bihn: incredibly tough, and long lasting, yet simple and easy to use. This buckle looks strong enough to hang a small car from but is easily opened with one hand. Perfect.

In Conclusion

The Ristretto is a great simple, almost minimalist, laptop bag. It’s well designed and well made, as you would expect from Tom Bihn, using the best materials and components for the job.

It’s surprisingly capacious given its relatively small dimensions and offers excellent laptop protection.

For me the Ristretto is a little too simple for an everyday laptop bag; I need more space and more pockets, and since hurting my back last year I now use a backpack.

But I originally intended to use the Ristretto as a coffee shop or conference bag, and for times when I want to travel lighter – and for this it is perfect.

I’ve just returned from the latest New Adventures in Web Design conference in Nottingham and my luggage of choice was once again my Tom Bihn Western Flyer.

My Western Flyer has quickly become one of my favourite and most used pieces of luggage, so thought I’d write a quick review to explain why I think it’s so great.

These days I seem to be away for short one or two night trips more often than longer trips. I have a rather, ahem, wide range of luggage suitable for longer trips, but I was lacking a good overnight bag.

I’ve been aware of Tom Bihn bags for a while, but after seeing my friend Documentally’s great review of the Tom Bihn Tri-Star I looked again at their range.

The Tri-Star is great, but larger than I needed, however it’s smaller sibling the Western Flyer looked perfect, so I took the plunge, and ordered one.

I say I took the plunge, as while I believe Tom Bihn bags are good value, they are definitely not ‘cheap’. Then there is the rather high cost of shipping from the US, and the outrageous import duties charged by HMRC. Even more galling were the administration charges from UPS; tax is one thing, but charging me to pay tax is adding insult to injury.

Adding all of this together makes the cost of the bag significant, so it’s just as well it’s so good – let me explain why I rate it so highly.

Design

Using a Tom Bihn bag it’s clear that they are designed by travellers for travellers

The Western Flyer has two full-size compartments on the front and back of the bag. The front compartment can be split into two smaller sections by a zipped divider. A great and well executed idea.

On the front of the bag there are three pockets; two regular zipped pockets on the left and an unusual curved pocket on the right.

On the left there is one full height pocket, and one roughly half height. The intriguing right hand pocket is designed to carry a water bottle, there is a separate flap inside that can be closed with a press-stud to hold your bottle securely. I have a 500ml Sigg bottle and a 550ml Bobble Bottle, both can be comfortably zipped up completely within the pocket.

In each section is a nylon O-ring to which can be clipped a range of organiser pockets from Tom Bihn; I clip my keys to one at the front.

The capacity of the Western Flyer is surprising – it’s much bigger inside than it looks outside. I’m 6’ 4” and of big build so my clothes are larger than average, yet so far I’ve not needed to use more than the main section at the rear of the bag for my clothes.

To use the bag most effectively I recommended using Tom Bihn’s packing cubes, which are zipped containers tailor made for each section of each bag. Using my packing cubes, and the bundle method of packing I can easily pack a pair of jeans, two or three shirts, t-shirts and assorted underwear. Enough for three days, and being bundled means they arrive relatively crease free.

In one of the from sections I carry my wash bag, I have a great little wash bag from Muji for domestic trips or clear zipped container for when I fly. The other front section usually contains technology and related cables; my iPad easily fits, in fact an iPad will fit the taller front pocket if required.

With everything listed the front pockets are only half full with plenty of room to spare. On my trip to New Adventures I stowed my hat and scarf one side, and a copy of Hemingway’s Boat I bought in Nottingham on the other side – not a small book.

With all this packed away the Western Flyer can naturally get a little heavy, and this is where another great feature of this bag comes into its own. The Western Flyer has clips on top for a shoulder strap, and using Tom Bihn’s Absolute shoulder strap the bag is very comfortable to carry. But should you wish to save your back, or keep your hands free simply unzip the compartment on the rear, and deploy the excellent backpack straps hidden within. These aren’t token backpack straps, but full size padded straps complete with adjustable sternum strap. I love this flexibility and comfortable load carrying.

The Western Flyer has a comfortable full-size handle on top of the bag along with slimmer handles on both ends of the bag, which means you always have a handle accessible to pick up your bag.

Every part of the Western Flyer has been thought through and well designed. Every part is there for a reason, to be used, and to make the travellers life easier.

Construction

The other reason I like my Western Flyer so much is its construction; this bag is going to last me years.

The exterior of the Western Flyer is made of 1050 denier ballistic nylon, which apparently has twice the abrasion resistance of regular ballistic nylon. The material has a different feel to the nylon used in other bags I’ve owned; it feels softer and yet stronger.

The interior of the Western Flyer is made from super light Japanese Dyneema – a rip-stop nylon made especially for Tom Bihn I believe.

My bag has a striking Iberian red interior, which compliments the steel grey exterior beautifully. I normally buy black bags, but when I ordered my Western Flyer black was out of stock, as I needed the bag quickly so I went for the steel grey, and I’m really glad I did. It’s a great grey that is oddly distinctive in a sea of black bags. I love the way the black handles and zips contrast against the grey.

Speaking of zips those used on the Western Flyer are amazing. Tom Bihn use YKK Aquaguard zips which have a rubber coating making them water repellent, as you close the zips the rubber coating ‘seals’ behind the zip pull. The zip pulls are nice and big making them easy to locate and use. There cord pulls you can attach to the zip pulls, but I stupidly mislaid mine, and have not been able to try them.

The zips have a smooth, high quality feel as you use them – they feel like they’ll last for years. My only complaint against the zips is that the metal pulls can be rather noisy as they jingle against each other.

The last part of the construction, and arguably most important, is the stitching. The design of the Western Flyer hides virtually all the stitching, but what I can see looks, to my untrained eye, perfect – uniform and well finished.

In Conclusion

So there we have my Tom Bihn Western Flyer, a beautifully and thoughtfully designed and constructed piece of luggage.

I love my Western Flyer, it seems to almost have a personality such is my bond with this bag – it makes me want to pack it, and get out there and travel.

Update

See what I think of my Western Flyer six years later.