REVIEW – I’m fortunate to live in an area with epic cycling right out my front door. However, not all my rides start at my house. Often I am driving to a different area or heading to a race, which means I ned a bag for my gear. I usually grabbed whatever was closest – maybe a plastic shopping bag, a rubbermaid tote, or if I was really lucky, an actual tote bag. But all of these solutions had a few major issues. First, cycling gear gets dirty and dumping it all into a bag with everything else means other stuff gets dirty too. Also, for whatever reason, cycling water bottles all leak, which means they need to be transported vertically to keep your gear dry. That means I usually end up with wet gear. Enter the WaterField Designs Cycling Tote – a bag designed to solve these problems, and more!
What is it?
The Waterfield Designs Cycling Tote is a bag that has features which make it specific to cycling, but it’s still a great bag for anything else.
What’s included?
- Just the Waterfield Designs Cycling Tote
Tech specs
Click to expand
Material: Waxed Canvas, Waxed Canvas with Leather, or Ballistic Nylon
Dimensions: 15.5″ (l) x 6.75″ (w) x 13.5″ (h)
Weight: 1.9 lbs.
Volume: 23 Liters
Pockets: 1 large main pocket, 2 large exterior, one small exterior zippered, four interior channels
Design and features
Even without the bike-specific features, this would be a great tote bag. It’s sturdy, attractive, and very durable. The features that make it great for cycling are on the inside. There are four vertical sleeves – two for your cycling shoes, and two for your water bottles.
The shoe sleeves are great because cycling shoes often have dirt and grease on them, especially on the bottoms. And the bottle sleeves are great because they keep your bottles vertical, and thus prevent leaks all over your gear. The bag is big enough to hold all your cycling gear for most seasons, and that includes a change of clothing for after the ride, and maybe some snacks. There is one small zippered pocket on the front, which is great for cycling electronics (computer, lights, phone, etc) and two large pockets on the sides for just about anything.
Performance
This has quickly become my go-to cycling bag, and it’s worked great so far. It holds all my gear with plenty of room left over, and had long and comfortable handles that can be held in the hand or swung over your shoulder. The material is robust enough that the bag stands up on it’s own, making it easy to load and unload, and the base is wide enough that it doesn’t fall over in the car on the way to the ride. The shoe and bottle sleeves worked great, keeping my shoes isolated from the rest of my gear, and my bottles vertical and thus not leaking. The bag is built very well, with all interior seams finished nicely, and stitching even and uniform.
I have a few suggestions. While it’s great to have the shoe sleeves to keep the dirt off of the rest of the kit, the sleeves are open at the bottom. So any dirt that falls off of your shoes ends up in the bottom of the bag, where all your gear sits. It would be better if these sleeves were closed off on the bottom.
Another suggestion would be to make the shoe sleeves and the bottle sleeves different colors. While they are different sizes, having them be different colors would prevent me from trying to put shoes in the bottle sleeves, or vice versa. My final recommendation is to add a gusset to the front pocket. I always seem to have a lot of stuff to put into this pocket, and while it’s large, it’s not very deep. A gusseted pocket here would make it a bit more usable.
What I like about WaterField Designs Cycling Tote
- Shoe Sleeves!
- No more leaky water bottles!
- Robust and well built
What needs to be improved?
- Close off the shoe sleeves at the bottom to contain the gnar
- Make the bottle sleeves a different color (blue for water?)
- Add a gusset to the front pocket
Final thoughts
I love the Waterfield Designs Cycling Tote. I’ve used it more than I thought I would, which is partially because I’ve been riding a lot this spring, and partially because it works well. And I just keep it with the rest of my cycling kit, so I don’t have to search for a bag when I need one. I think it’s 98% there, with just a few suggested improvements to make it perfect, But even as is, it’s a great addition to my bike kit, which has already made my cycling outings away from home better!
Price: $149 (Leather and Canvas, $219
Where to buy: WaterField Designs
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by WaterField Designs. WaterField Designs did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
