Porter 65 is a great Duffel alternative.

By Albert K Ranked #776 - Luggage December 5, 2006

I bought this pretty much for urban excursions.. The occasional trips I take to San Francisco, where a good bag would be useful since I always have to take the BART and walk some. This bag is great. It shouldn't be confused for a mountaineering backpack, but if you wanted to use duffel anyways, this thing is so versatile and will fit your needs well. The "straight jacket compression" is a necessity for this particular bag's design and actually wraps the bag quite nicely; makes it a bit slimmer and cooler looking and I think the Porter 65 could pass for carry on if not absolutely filled. I probably had this thing 75% filled, and with the nice, aforementioned compression system and the backpack straps, it worked great walking several blocks through the city. I did use it on another trip with the bag nearly filled to capacity and it was some what uncomfortable to carry on the back for too long (I’m 5'11' 200lbs) but then again that was quite a bit of weight and I’m kinda out of shape and I’m not used to carrying a heavy backpack, maybe it was just me; 3900 cu-in can amount to quite a bit of weight though. Material is absolutely solid, held up great when I checked it on a flight (tucked in the backpack straps in the great, zippered hideaway on the back) and when it got kinda wet from the rain (I don't think it is waterproof though). This bag is great too if you don't quite need a mountaineering backpack. I want to reiterate for those needing the features of a mountaineering backpack that it is still fundamentally a duffel bag, i.e. it has one major opening and then some small little pockets here and there, and the straps, although pretty adjustable, are not sized to torso like mountaineering backpacks. My only concern at this point is the buckles... the straps require two each to attach at top and bottom when taken out of the hideaway and the main bag straps for the straight jacket compression require them. Theoretically if they broke, you'd be kinda screwed...but they are pretty sturdy looking and I would assume that Osprey would have designed the bag with this in mind. And I didn't utilize the hip belt that much, but it seems satisfactory. I almost went for the Porter 90 but I wanted the possibility of using it as a carry on. And the smaller, 45 would be awesome for the small trips but eh.. I bought the 65 and it’s pretty darn handy. To help you decide on the size you need, I'd compare the specified dimensions of each model (check out the Osprey website if you can't find them here) to a standard carry on (check out your favorite airlines carry on restrictions/dimensions or TSA's) to get an idea of what you need.

View Details: Osprey Packs Porter 65 Backpack - 3900cu in

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