Bicycle commute, pack review

I've decided that I can get in more of my training miles if i commute to work by bicycle (40 miles round trip). Right now I've got two of my three bikes ready to roll. My current favorite, my Giant TCR3 and my Trek 1100 (with BOB trailer - see my stable). So far I've been able to squeeze in two commutes a week. Yesterday was my first try at one day after another (with a weekend century) and boy am I tired. I need to get my Ti bike setup and ready to roll. It will be my all weather bike. It's a great bike and seems a little faster than the Giant (???). Over the next few weeks I'll working on lighting and wardrobe. So far the commutes have been really nice despite being tired. I've scheduled them for the off hours so I'm not fighting the rest of the auto commuters. This may change next week as it's the first week of school and then things will get nuts. I intend to keep this up until we start to get black ice. We have a lot of natural streams here and they cause lots of problems with various roads. I had one bad meeting with black ice and I'd like to avoid any more.

So for commuting to work I decided that the Camelbak Ventoux (1300+ cu in) wasn't large enough. It can hold my clothes, towel bladder, tools and toiletries but not my laptop. So I went looking for another back pack. I searched the Internet and I asked around at work. Elke (Hi Elke!) suggested I check out Ebags.com. I came, I saw and I purchased OGIO Metro (2200 cu in). This is a good pack and I like it very much. It sits still and comfortably on my back even on fast downhills and on sprints (with traffic). It's a good pack when I'm off the bike as well as on the bike. I now use it daily for work. It's not perfect and that's more because of my special commuting requirements. First what I like, it's waterproof, the laptop section is great as are the pockets. Strangely enough I didn't think I'd be able to get my note book (i.e. bound paper), my clothes, some tools, tire and lunch in the main compartment. Well it fit. I put the towel in the laptop compartment with the laptop (more on that in a moment). I put my light kit in the water bottle compartment and the rest of the odds and ends in the other three compartments. The main organizer compartment has my calculator, pens, screw drivers and other work related odds-n-ends. When done the pack is a bit heavy but it rides pretty well anyway. I have no trouble with sway and looking back while riding is no problem as the pack doesn't block my view (as does a framed pack). The front chest strap holds the shoulder straps in place, even with the heavy loads I carry.

The problems are few and that's good. The first one was that the laptop causes the pack to sit flat on my back. I ride a road bike with a very aggressive setup (I lean forward, a lot). That leaves my back arched and the flat pack sat funny until I made adjustments. That adjustment was the towel in with the laptop. The laptop compartment has room for both the laptop and the towel. So far the laptop has stayed dry but I need to do a few more tests and I'm keeping the laptop in a plastic bag anyway (better safe than sorry). The towel allowed me to soften the pack on my back and to cause the pack to be a bit more curved. The next problem is that the pack doesn't have a waist strap. For bike commuting with a large load a waist strap is probably a good idea. Because it doesn't have a strap sometimes the pack sits a little off center which is an odd feeling but not really uncomfortable. It would be nice if the pack sat a little further down my back but with the stiff laptop I'm glad it's not. The last thing is that I can't ride with my Camelbak. I've gotten spoiled by having that tube over my right shoulder. I've switched back to water bottles but I miss the Camelbak. I may attempt to use the older simple bladder sleeve somehow strapped to the Metro. Well see. Overall I give the Metro a 4 out of 5.

Oh the music player pockets, I haven't tested them yet. I normally don't ride with a music player as I don't want anything blocking my hearing. For an hour commute I can live without music.