Inov-8 Race Pro 18 hydration pack review

The Race Pro 18 is a lightweight adventure-racing pack that’s minimalist in construction. It uses a unique horizontal bladder that fits into and around the waist strap and has internal baffles to reduce the water shifting. This keeps slosh to a minimum and should also keep the bag’s centre of gravity lower and the pack more stable.

The pack looks like it should sit further down your back, placing the weight on your hips, but that set the chest strap (already in its lowest position) uncomfortably close to our windpipe, so we ran the pack higher. Unfortunately, that meant it pulled away from us when riding – not ideal.

The drinking tube routing is good, but the bladder can be fiddly to put in when full and since the compartment that houses it is on the base of the pack, it gets covered in muck. However, the bladder does benefit from the ability to be refilled in-situ.