Choosing the winners for this one was pretty simple, unlike some of the other awards I’ve been working on. I don’t have a car, I get around by bike everywhere, or by train, and so I am using the best cycling backpacks on a daily basis. I’ve had a stack of twelve options to choose from after completing our buyer’s guide, and of these, there are a few that I gravitate towards and one that has cemented itself firmly as my go-to daily driver.
In my eyes, the recipe for a good cycling backpack is simple: Comfortable straps, waterproof construction, some extra pockets for organising, and not too big that it’s ungainly. While it isn’t perfect, nothing hits the Goldilocks zone of all of these as well as the Chrome Barrage, though the Rapha backpack is a close second for me. Add into the mix a quality build and solid hardware and it’s the bag I reach for when commuting, and for every press trip I’ve been on while working here at Cyclingnews too.
The winners
Best overall
I use the Chrome Barrage more or less every day now unless I have a specific need for a larger cargo capacity, like doing the big shop. At 18-22l (depending how rolled the top is) it hits the sweet spot for size, the inside is made of seemingly bulletproof tarpaulin, and while the outside pockets are a little tight when the bag is chock full they are capacious enough to accept a D-lock and a water bottle, which in my experience is all you ever really need from a side pocket.
The real star of the show is the cargo net though. Without it, it’s still a very good bag, but adding a very sturdy net to the whole outer face of the bag is so much more useful than I ever envisaged. For those awkwardly shaped items, it’s perfect. I’ve carried shoes, helmets, camera tripods, five kilograms of supermarket fusilli, bike wheels, wet gear after a swim… And when you don’t need it, it just cinches away and blends into the rest of the bag.
It’s not necessarily the most comfortable of the lot, the back gets a little sweaty, to be honest, but it’s comfortable enough and the ability to carry much more than would ordinarily be possible with a backpack is…
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