Nice little pack

By Goatboy Ranked #62 - Hydration Packs - Small January 11, 2012

So I had this old Camelbak Mule for years. It worked well but after doing Transrockies with a buddy a few years back it gained a "perma stink." No matter what crazy method I tried to get the stink out it would just come back. So in kindness to all of my riding buddies I decided retire it. I then went on a quest to find a pack and this Osprey Raptor 6 fit the bill. Here are the main things I like about it.

-You can actually ride aggressive descents and you don't have this thing shifty around. It stays relatively put which is important when your ass is over your rear derailleur and you are trying to go down some descent. I had a Deuter that sucked and would be shifted around and it was pissing me off.

-The adjustability of the straps make sense. The waste straps are easy to tighten up while riding. It seems that I always start looser and then cinch up during the ride and doing this without stopping is nice.

-The bladder and compartment rock! They use the Nalgene bladder system which has a rigid piece down one side that makes it easy to get the bladder in and out of the pack very easily.

-The Nalgene bite valve and magnet is just plain awesome. You turn the valve to straight to shut it (I usually only do that when it's in the back of my car) and the bite valve has a little magnet on the back of it. The strap across the chest has a piece of metal the valve can attract to. It's so badass. You just take a drink and then "click" the magnet into place. Makes it sooooo much better than the lame ass feeling of a hose flopping all over the place.

All in all, I dig the pack and it was well designed. Now to get a larger one for epic rides...which one, which one...

I forgot one thing. I believe they have another pack line they tout as well for mountain biking. The Viper. I haven't actually tried one out riding but I was drawn more to the Raptor line because of the larger amount of material that wraps around the waste with the waste strap. Again, my major issue with other packs is that they sort of shift around too much at speed or in a situation where you don't want them to and I figured the Raptor waste area looked more to my needs. I could be completely on crack and the Viper may work as well but they would have to send me one for "eval." Heh.

View Details: Osprey Packs Raptor 6 Hydration Pack - 360cu in

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