The Trunk bag from Italian bikepacking aficionados Miss Grape is a 4.5 litre stuff sack that can be fitted to a number of areas on the bike. It is strong, waterproof and versatile, but it is quite expensive.
- Ortlieb Fork-Pack review
- 9 of the best bikepacking frame bags for gravel bikes - tried and tested packs that are the best you can buy
- Best bikepacking seat packs for gravel and mountain bikes - tried, tested and reviewed
Bikepacking bags don't come much simpler than a stuff sack, and they work particularly well on handlebars and forks – though they're versatile enough to attach in all sorts of places.
This one's designed to work well with an 'anything' fork cage. There are three vertical webbing attachment points, and they're well-judged for popular straps such as those from Voile, while Miss Grape sells a TrunKit bar mount separately for £15.
The bag holds 4.5 litres of cargo, and I was impressed with just how much can be stuffed inside. Repeatedly ramming in sleeping bags and the like showed the bag to be extremely strong, too.
Before heading out on the first big overnight adventure I did a full waterproof test, firing a hosepipe at full blast directly at the bag – and also the closure. It proved to be perfect, with not a drop inside. This gave me the confidence to pack clothes, sleeping bags and so on without an additional drybag, which is often recommended with other bags.
The waterproof material is surprisingly light; at just 100g the Trunk is lighter than most similar bags, such as the Altura Anywhere at 140g.
Key to waterproofing is rolling down and securing the top correctly, although in reality it is very easy to do. The hardest part is making sure you get all the air out first as there's no valve if it rolls up into a balloon – a handy feature that's starting to appear elsewhere.
At £55 the Trunk isn't cheap, especially if you're planning on fork mounting and will very likely want one for each side. It is extremely well made, however, plus it's large enough to be very useful and completely waterproof.
Even so, it's £30 more than the similar Altura Anywhere Drybag, and £5 more than the Ortlieb Fork Pack which includes a QR fork attachment.
The Miss Grape Trunk is a high quality, waterproof and very strong stuff sack. It's really versatile and light too, but it's hard to ignore the cost.
1 comments
Alpkit airlok xtra, a fraction of the price and certainly look just as effective.