Kona's large Ute Bags are pretty good. It still puzzles me, however, why they sell the Ute with one bag. I guess you may not want to use their bags. So why supply any? Also, they do sell a sell a small Ute Bag. I thought that would have been the best of both worlds- you could travel balanced with 2 smalls for daily operations, and use 2 smalls and 1 large for the heavy days. This fell apart when it I discovered that 2 small Ute bags won't fit on one side.
I would be interested to hear comments on the Ute bag versus the Yuba Go-Getter-never having seen a Go Getter. The photo on the right shows how Kona looped the pull strap back on itself to keep it from dragging on the ground when a bunch of slack is taken up. Works well. Another good feature is that the straps may be buckled to the lid to cinch it down, or be buckled under the lid up near the top of the bag. There are 3 straps on each side.
One day as I was zoooming home I cut a corner a little sharp and caught one of the straps on the edge of a guardrail. This is when I found out that the buckles and slides on the Ute Bags aren't a very common style. (they are not fastex or national molding) I eventually (with the help of Kona tech support- THANK-YOU) learned that these buckles can be replaced without having to re-stitch the webbing. To repair the buckles you will need a "quick attach" buckle.
After you break a male or female buckle end you will need (1) male slide buckle, (1) ladder, and (2) female quick attach buckles. Remember you need 2, one for the lid and one for inside the lid. I replaced all 6 males and 12 females and now carry spares as shown in the picture. The quick attach is the one on the left and has a notch in it which to feed the stitched loop of webbing. You will have to cut or break the old female out. (not hard) I was a bit skeptical, but they work really well- and you can repair in the field with no tools.The ladder slide is to attach the loose end of the strap back onto itself through a ring as seen in the first pic. Kona stitches this at the factory- just cut the stitching and put the ladder slider on before threading the female end. Cheers!
I didn't get the Yuba Go getter bag because they cose about £80 each here, translating to about 250 CAD for a pair. I ended up realising the Yuba can have three Altura Arran bags on each side, 6 of them being a lot cheaper than the pair of Go Getters. I like being able to expand capacity based on my needs, rather than having 2 giant bags, and I can use them on any of our other bikes too.
ReplyDeleteFlexibility is the key. What I like about the large Ute bag- and likely the Go-Getter- is they can hold big items. I can slide a 20kg bag of feed INTO each large Ute bag. I sized my rear deck to accept the Kona bags as well. The Kona bags were $100 Cdn each. (no actually one came with the Ute, the other one was $100)
ReplyDelete