SG Preview: EVOC Freeride Trail 20L

Evoc was kind enough to send Lorien at Sooke Mountain Cycle a few sample packs to test out and being the awesome guy that he is, he lent a Freeride Trail 20 ltr to me to test out and review here on Singletrack Geek.

I have been interested in these packs since I first heard about them, the real interesting bit for me was the back protection system. Anyone that has been reading my blog for a while or has ridden with me knows...I have a bit of a track record when it comes to injuring myself, so if a pack can help give me piece of mind out on the trail...and actually save my bacon if I ever need it...well this is something I am interested in.

Read more after the break.

The heart of the Freeride Trail

I have had a few packs over the past few years, I started with Camelback and have had a Dakine Nomad for a few years now, and none have had the features that the EVOC has. As soon as Lorien gave it to me I could tell it was high quality. It includes a lot of really well thought out features, I especially like that the area on the front of the pack for your helmet has bits of rubberized lining strategically placed in it to keep your helmet from slipping out...nice touch. Some of the other little things that I noticed about this pack that take it to the next level are the built in signal whistle, the nice wide waist belt and the integrated rain cover...yeah...my other pack does not have any of that...hmmmm.

This is the cleanest it will ever be...I fear for those bits of white...lol.

I have yet to ride with it, but I plan to put it through it's paces in the next little while...I am hard on my packs, I not only ride with them but I use them every day...carrying my laptop and lunch to and from work...going to the beach with the kids and just generally beating on it and that points to one negative so far...the waist straps, they are not removable...when walking around town or to work it looks kind of silly to have these huge straps dangling at my side...look, I have wings. Great for riding, but while off the bike it would be nice to have the option to take them off or store them in the pack somewhere like the storage straps on the bottom of the pack.

We will see how it fares in the months to come, I plan to take it on many awesome rides and just generally abuse the thing, so look out for the full review in the future to see how it fares.

Details:

Retail:       $179.95 CAD
Volume: 20L
Weight: 1 300 g (size M/L)
Size:         27 cm x 56 cm x 14 cm (size M/L)
Material: Nylon 210/D Ripstop PU coated, N150/D, N600/D