The Clairebarian’s KRS Shred ‘Til Bed hip pack has been a staple part of her kit going back to nearly her first days mountain biking. There was plenty of room for a spare pair of gloves, a light, a granola bar, and a buff and she carried all that stuff without complaint. The pack is very weather resistant and attracts plenty of compliments thanks to the Shred Til Bed characters on the fabric, and she finds it as comfortable to wear now as day dot. 

This fall, however, Claire started feeling her hip pack was too small to carry the things she wanted to bring along. Now her multi-tool is carried in her steerer tube, a One Up EDC Light, and I carry the remainder of our mechanical bits and bops, so there’s not that much stuff, but I understand her concerns:

1) Claire would like to carry two spare pairs of gloves – one heavy and one lightweight.

2) Claire would like to carry two granola bars instead of one.

3) Claire is required to carry her own light on night rides and night-adjacent (i.e. could become night) rides.

4) Claire’s cruel and unreasonable papa will only carry one spare layer for her in his pack, so she needs somewhere to put another layer if she gets “too boiling.”

Now I fully understand the dry gloves thing, she certainly gets it from me, and so I already carry an extra pair of Briskers for her and me in a dry sack at the bottom of my bag. An extra-extra pair as it were. But, as Claire will tell you, those are the gloves of last resort and their psychological value deep-and-dry in a pack may actually be more warming than their physical value if we’ve gone through that many other pairs already. 

I also recognize that ‘be bold, start cold’ isn’t a great strategy with kids and our changing weather zones can result in a day where a warm layer, weatherproof vest, and just a light jersey can all be the right gear choice at some point on a single ride. It’s not that I’m unwilling to play pack mule – I can be a proper jackass – but there needs to be a commitment to some level of self-sufficiency. 

It also helps that Claire’s obsessed with bright colours in general and the colour blue in particular, and she spotted this* 3L Cotopaxi hip pack on a wander through MEC. She also happened to have a Gramma asking if there was anything special she was hoping to get for Christmas and the rest is serendipity. (Thank you Gramma! #SponsoredByGramma)  

*They’re made of repurposed fabric so there’s a bit of a get-what-you-get-and-don’t-get-upset factor with the colours**. 

**Or your dad can subtly stash the one at the very bottom of the bin and return promptly at the next solo opportunity to save the surprise.  

A quick note on fit, that just reinforces my try-before-you-buy mentality whenever possible. I wrongly* assumed that being a 3L hip pack this would be massively too large for the Clairebarian. And, I told her so when she started to seagull her way toward it. In fact, Cotopaxi’s 2L model, the Coso, didn’t fit at all whereas the tall and relatively thin construction of this Kapai model fits fantastically. 

The pack easily swallows her vest if she wants to take it off, but even though it then looks rather bulbous it doesn’t bother her at all riding. Likewise, adding the weight of her headlamp goes unnoticed. We have performed one modification which was to ask Gramma to shorten the waist straps to remove the pair of massive flapping flagella. 

*Yes, Claire, I wrote that I was wrong in the article.

Clearly, as a Christmas gift, the price is right. Quality seems excellent after a month of regular use, colours pop, and it’s the best-fitting larger hip pack that Claire has tried on. That’s my unbiased opinion, I’m fairly certain Claire would have declared it the best hip pack ever on looks alone, and hey if that makes it extra rad that’s cool too. 

Whether it’s just packed with gloves and snacks or stuffed with a layer and a lamp it’s comfortable and stays put both climbing and descending. So far she doesn’t notice it being warmer than the KRS but based on the surface area covered that feedback may change when summer hits. Not that it won’t be worthwhile for the extra space. 

So that’s two thumbs up from Claire, two thumbs up from Papa, and Gramma gifted something super sweet so she’s happy too. All around winning at gear.