The Oxford Aqua Evo Adventure Seat Pack is a great option for bikepacking, offering top-notch waterproofing and minimal sway. Despite lacking some premium features found in higher-priced saddle packs, its competitive retail price makes it an excellent choice for budget-conscious cyclists.
- How to pack bikepacking bags - carry everything you need and more
- Best bikepacking seat packs for gravel and mountain bikes - tried, tested and reviewed
- Gravel racing - what's next for cycling's fastest growing discipline?
Oxford Aqua Evo Adventure seat pack - Technical details
The Aqua Evo Adventure Seat Pack is designed to withstand challenging weather and environmental conditions during long weekend rides or multi-day trips. It features IPX6 waterproof construction, protecting against heavy rain and dirt.
For stability and reduced sway, the pack includes two strong hook and loop velcro straps for securing it around the seat post and two straps with clips looping it around the saddle rail.
Made with super light 400D Ripstop TPU material and welded seams, the bag is reinforced with Hypalon panels to maintain its shape. With a 10-litre capacity, it fits universally on seat posts.
Oxford Aqua Evo Adventure seat pack - Performance
The Oxford Aqua Evo Adventure seat pack comes with a very purse-friendly price tag, which makes it an appealing option for those that want to invest in their bikepacking setup without busting the bank. Despite the low cost, this seat pack has proved to be a worthy contender among the much more expensive, premium seat packs, although it doesn’t come without its niggles.
The 10-litre volume proved to be well enough for my testing rides, and I could comfortably fit in the kit for a couple day’s bikepacking trip. The bag does get quite narrow so if you are planning to fit in a sleeping bag, it’ll have to sit quite far back in the bag, but otherwise, you can easily stuff it with things such as spare clothes, wash kit, slippers and the like and have room for snacks, too.
Unlike some holster and drybag seat packs, this Oxford bag is one single bag that attaches directly to the saddle rails and seatpost. The attachment system is rather simple, straps with buckles for the rails, and velcro straps for the seatpost. I found the velcro straps a little stiff to my liking and the ends of them came loose rather easily, and then started to rub on the legs when pedalling. There is a bungee cord on top for quick access to lightweight items, and some reflective detailing which enhances visibility during low-light conditions.
The bag’s water- and rip-proof construction is very lightweight, but the Hypalon panels inside the bag help maintain its shape. It sits rather upright and the base part is tall, which is definitely an issue for those with small frames. I could not fit the bag on all of my bikes, and even on the titanium frame pictured here, the bag sat quite awkwardly. It does, however, remain pretty stable when pedalling.
The taped seams and roll-top closure meant that the bag endured any showers easily and kept my things dry - but you do need to remember to close the roll-top properly for this to work.
The overall performance of the bag is great, but it was the buckles and straps that made me feel some compromises had been made to achieve the low price. The stitching attaching the saddle straps isn’t very confidence inspiring (and I’ve had issues with similarly attached straps slowly unravelling before) and similarly, the side straps that secure the roll-top closure are rather feebly stitched to the side panels.
Oxford Aqua Evo Adventure seat pack - Verdict
Priced at £55, the Oxford Aqua Evo Adventure Seat Pack offers excellent value for money, costing about half of some of the premium seat packs on the market. There are some even cheaper options available, such as the LifeLine Adventure Seat Pack (£40), and the Oxford bag is also quite similar in design to the Topeak Backloader (£75), which doesn’t have waterproofness. The Altura Vortex 2 Waterproof Compact (£60) is probably the nearest competitor in terms of both price and performance.
Oxford Aqua Evo Adventure seat pack’s materials, construction, and waterproofing make it a compelling choice for budget-conscious cyclists venturing into bikepacking. It does, however, lack the premium finishing that the more expensive options often offer and if you do a lot of bikepacking, investing on something with better finishing might pay dividends in the long run.
1 comments
This sits weirdly, save yourself even more money and get a cheap Rockbros one online, they work just as well in my experience.