Riding without a pack is all the rage. You still need to carry some essentials though, and that’s where the Palos bumbag comes in.
It’s got a 4l capacity and comes with CamelBak’s 1.5l lumbar reservoir – one of our go-tos, thanks to its fast-flowing mouthpiece and easy-to-fill quarter-turn cap. The hose wraps around the waist strap and connects to the pack via a magnetic ‘Tube Trap’, making disconnecting it to drink an absolute doddle.Related: Race Face Rip Strip bumbag
The storage is cleverly organised too. Popping the clip on the front of the Palos and opening two flaps reveals a series of mesh stash pockets. There are two main zipped pockets too, plus one zipped and one elasticated pocket on the waist strap.
CamelBak’s 1.5l lumbar reservoir has a fast-flowing mouthpiece and easy-fill quarter-turn cap
Fill the reservoir up and pack the essentials in, and, as far as bumbags go, the Palos works well. Chuck your weight around and it does shift slightly (though CamelBak assures us this will be less of an issue with the production bag, which will have more flexible padding), requiring you to cinch the waist strap up pretty tight.
Riding without the reservoir in place underlined the comfort and general stability, but you’ll need to be able to fit a bottle to your bike to do this.
