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Blackburn Outpost Bag Review

I’ve been running a set of these Blackburn bags this spring on our Framed Basswood groadie test-bike. Blackburn sent us four of these soldiers, so we gave a couple of them away in a contest. John Lackey (2015 ITI-350 Champ) won the other pair. This is what he had to say after he won. “Got the bags and love them. We have a couple similar ones from Revelate.  Now I don’t have to fight my wife for them when we go bikepacking.” I have a set from Revelate as well as a set made by Cedaero, so I’m pretty familiar with this style of bag. I’m a fan of running my drinks and snacks up on the bar/stem and now that the weather is warm, I’ll take all the extra beverage carrying capacity that I can get.

Blackburn Outpost

The Outpost differs from the Revelate and Cedaero bags on the location of the lower attachment point. The Outpost attaches to the frame, while the others attach to the fork. The outpost can carry short or tall water bottles which is a nice feature and they have an elastic pocket on the outside that holds an Rx bar perfectly.

After I attached them correctly (to the frame and not the fork) they carried their load like good soldiers. One thing that I noticed straight away was that these bags were made from lighter material than either of the Feed Bag style bags that we’ve tested. They don’t hold their shape as firmly as the Revelate nor the even stiffer Cedaeros. The top bag closure takes two hands to adjust. The Revelate system takes one hand and the Cedearo has a one-handed magnetic top. I should also note that none of that stopped them from functioning well during a gnome ton of miles this spring.

Packed to the gills – Note the Rx Bar in the side pocket.

These guys work about as well as the other drink shaker bags that we’ve tested. They handle both sized water bottles, so that’s better than my Cedaero’s (but I could have chosen to buy taller versions of them). The question at the back of my mind is, will they last? Bikepacking is rough on gear. So to find out how many miles it takes to get to the center of a Blackburn Bag , we sent these bags to our Ambassador to the Ozarks – Old Man Fat Bike and he’s going to put them through the wringer for the next few months. Maybe he’ll include something about it in his next video. I’ll probably check in with John Lackey to see how his pair of Blackburn Bags weather the storm. We”ve got all of that and more…(somewhere down the pollen path amigos)

Ride & Smile ~ g

One Response to Blackburn Outpost Bag Review

  1. David July 9, 2020 at 5:53 am #

    I don’t have a question about the outpost bags. But I see you use a lot of revelate bags. Would you pick those (specifically a terrapin and a tangle) over apidura? I was leaning towards RD but having challenges getting them in Canada. Apidura are much more available. Thx. David.

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