Apidura Half Frame Bag & Food Pouch Review by Jeff Price

20160313_145316Apidura has appeared on Fat-Bike.com a couple of times now, but this particular review, features one of their new products, The Food Pouch.

The concept is really simple, it’s an extra pocket that easily attaches to the bars and stem with carbon friendly Velcro straps. However this is not the first ‘bar bag’ on the market but in an ever increasing need for bike packing products Apidura has tweaked it slightly. For me, what makes the Food Pouch stand out from the crowd, is the 55 gram weight and three attachment points to the bike. Despite the light weight of the Pouch it is surprisingly strong and will no doubt last for many many miles. There is one fixed Velcro strap which you attach to the bars and then you have the choice of four other slots for the straps to fit through depending on the length of your stem. Then, the third attachment point is where Apidura has taken the Pouch to another level compared to most other. This attachment fastens around the fork crown by using an adjustable webbing strap with a quick release clip. This third strap makes the Food Pouch extremely stable. I’ve had a full 750 ml water bottle in the bag with a third of it sticking out of the bag and it was stable throughout a very bumpy ride. I’ve had no issues hitting the bags with my knees either when out of the saddle. I think the third strap helps, in making it very secure.

Another notable point is the cord and clip that is used for opening and closing the bag when riding. This is easily done with one hand, simply release the cord from the clip, open the bag, grab some treats and pull the cord and hook it onto the clip. Simples!

The volume of the Food Pouch is 0.8 litres.

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The other bag I used was the small Road Frame Pack which fitted my medium Mukluk like a glove. The bag again uses Velcro straps to fit to the top tube and adjustable straps at the front and rear. There are two zipped pockets either side. Each of the pockets are slightly different in size, the one on the left is the smaller and the right one is twice the volume of left. The internal of the bag has a yellow liner which helps when looking for the spare chain link. There is a cable/hydration hose port on the front end of the bag too. The zippers are easily accessed thanks to the lovely designed one fingers loops. According to the Apidura website the graphics on the bag are reflective which is a nice touch.

I found this bag great for stashing a spare tube, mini track pump, tools, buff and more treats in.

The volume of the small Road Frame Pack is 3 litres and weighs in at 125 grams.

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All in all a couple of quality pieces of kit that will enhance your ride.

 

 

 

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Just an old cat that rides bikes, herds pixels, ropes gnomes and sometimes writes stories. I love a good story.