Travel: Plane from Seoul to Osaka. Bus to Kyoto.
Duration: 4 days (end of November)
It was time for a new biking adventure. I was in search of a
bag that would cradle my Brompton through the turbulence of airport baggage and
keep my mind at ease while flying overseas. After looking at various options online, I
found this protection in varying degrees.
We came across Vincita which can meet a variety of your bagging needs from daily commuting to long
distance trips. This is site also provided us with a few options of bags that
were not only affordable, but looked like they provided enough protection for
our travels. After contacting the company, we were excited to be offered Sightseer
bags for free as long as we completed a review (See their promo video and the link to the sightseer bag).
We were so excited when a giant box arrived with Thailand
postage stickers and the Vincita logo arrived.
The box arrived with the Sightseer bag, which includes a garment bag (The two come automatically together).
Upon unpacking, these bags looked solid. I was very excited to think of all the places
this bike would help be travel to, especially the upcoming trip to Kyoto,
Japan. I took the bag to my local
Brompton guy at bb5 (http://bb5.co.kr/). He’s
been my go-to guy for all things Brompton and supports many other Bromptoniers
in Seoul.
Packing the Brompton
Rating: 5/5
The bike is quite easy to put into the bag. There are Velcro
straps at the bottom inside the bag, which help to keep the bike in place. Strapping
the bike into the bag also helps make rolling the packed bag much easier. The
first time we packed the Bromptons, we found ourselves dragging the bottom of
the bag and it was cumbersome to roll; but, this was all because I didn’t strap
the Velcro bits on the bottom to the bike. After attaching everything properly,
it was much easier to roll the bag around.
Garment Bag
Rating: 5/5
The garment bag also packs and folds quite easily on top of
the bike. It adds a lot of added protection to the top and sides of the bike,
keeping clothes away from greasy bike parts as well as protecting the bike from
bumps and drops. That being said, we
were not expecting to be doing any camping as we were staying at an Airbnb
place and hotels so the majority of what was packed was clothing. If you would need more space, there is plenty
of room in the Sightseer bag to pack anything extra. It was really a pleasant
surprise as to how helpful and useful the garment bag was. Just looking at the website, I thought it was
just another thing to “buy” and even unboxing it wasn’t too impressive. But, it
REALLY worked well! Added piece of mind to cradling the Bromtpon, a nice way to
organize and divide up clothing, and so easy to slide in and out of the
Sightseer bag.
Ease of
Carrying/Rolling
Rating: 10.5/15
1. Rolling
Rating: 3/5
This is one area that I think the bag can improve on. You have to tighten the carrying strap quite
tight in order for the bag not to drag on the ground. I think if the bag was
made with the strap a bit lower and closer to the ground, it would give enough
space for the bag to be lifted upwards to give enough space for it to be
dragged. Not that the packed bags were
exceedingly heavy, the buildup of carrying them through terminals and bus
stations made muscles tired and posture hunchy. It became more and more
difficult to carry and the dragging resulting from anatomically being closer to
the ground, did not help the situation. We felt this more at Kyoto train
station, as there were no carts to use and we had to walk around a bit to get
to the information desk and find our way around. The plastic handle on the
front pinches the fingers a bit, but could be easily remedied with a bit of
material even with a cycling glove. Again, if you find that it's dragging too much, make sure that you've strapped your bike on the inside to the bottom of the bag.
2. Shoulder “side-bag” straps
Rating: 3/5
There is an option to pull out these two straps on the top
of the bag in order to carry the bag on your shoulder. This is a very good idea and helped to make
it more comfortable in carrying the bag when the hunchy rolling situation
became cumbersome. That being said,
there are two changes that could make this shoulder carrying a bit better. Michael was less of a fan of these straps
than I was (See recommendations at end).
3. Lifting from Transport
Rating: 5/5
The bag comes with additional handles to help lift it from a
horizontal position. Brilliant. Various grips and handles around the bag make so
easy to lift and handle the bag, something I’m sure that airport baggage
handlers must have also been unconsciously grateful for.
Riding Storage
Rating: 5/5
This was SUCH a pleasant surprise! It was very easy to fold
and roll up the bag to attach to the back rack of the Brompton. Being a long-footed lady and having had
attached various boxes to the back rack, I was a bit worried that I would have
to ride with the pedals at my heels; however, this was not the case at all. If
you fold up the bag properly and make sure that it is shifted back away from
the pedals, there is no problem with having your feet hit the bag. Although the additional garment bag with all
of my clothing made the bag a bit bulkier to strap to the back rack, it was
still very easy to bike with. The promotional video shows heavy duty straps
that attach the bag to the back rack, however, these are actually not included
and the straps on the Bromtpon did the job. Out first ride from Kyoto station
to the lodgings was about an hour ride, but I did not feel at all hindered by
the extra baggage behind me. A slight
bump here or there just helped keep me mindful of the additional perimeter I
had to keep in mind. I would even be comfortable taking this for much longer
trips where you would need to take all of your stuff with you. 
Padding &
Protection
Rating: 5/5
Upon first inspections, I was pleased to see so much padding
on the bag! It has a thick layer of plastic cushioning EDIT that would be easy to clean if anything were to explode
inside… There is still quite a bit of space outside of the garment bag and
around the bike to add additional clothing and items, need be. I have read that it’s a good idea to take off
the seat if you have a pricier one such as the Brooks saddles, but, we left our
on as they are the original seats and they made the whole bike fit quite snugly
into the bag. It felt like that would be
a safer bet than to take it off and have the post sticking out. I had
absolutely no worries as to the safety of the bike with all of the padding and
the added protection provided by the garment bag. I just pictured the bag being thrown about by
baggage control. Not a bead of sweat.
Overall Rating: 31 / 35
Notes:
Ware & Tare
From pervious experience, I added bubble warp padding to the
fold-over peddle on my Brompton. The clothes in the garment bag which lay on
top added all of the necessary extra protections needed for the sharp bits of
the Brompton. My bike and bag arrived in
one piece. Michael, on the other hand,
was not so lucky. In hind-sight, we both could have used maybe a piece of
cardboard to help give added protection to the bikes. Michael’s bike arrived in one piece, but the
hinged corner where the bike folds in half and that sticks out quite
significantly, must have had a significant bump on the way. A bump big enough to leave a hole through the
bag but, thankfully, no mark on the Brompton. I wouldn’t say this is a defect
for the bag, as that corner would pierce through most soft-case bags, but more
our own misjudgment in not enforcing the pointy bits of our bikes. Besides that one hole, there was nothing. No
marks, kinks, dents of any kind left on the bikes. Task accomplished. The bags
and bikes arrived intact.
Note of Caution “A
bike is a bike”
We had an unpleasant experience travelling back to Seoul
with Peach Airlines; more on that infuriating experience soon. I have read many
blogs that discuss checking the bike as a bike or as a bag. I’d like to stick
with checking the Bromtpon as a bag since it is always under weight and under
size restrictions even for regular luggage. That being said, even after all the
chaos that happened through check-in on our way back, a big give away (or
should I say WARNING SIGN) on our bags were the large, bright, happy bike
symbols on the outside. There is an option to order these bags without the symbol and I would strongly encourage
doing so if you are hoping to get these on the flight as a regular piece of
luggage.
Vincita Recommendations
– wish list
1. Back-pack straps
I wish the bag had the option of pull-out back-pack straps.
A friend of mine once lent be a bag that had the option of pulling out straps
to carry the whole thing as a backpack. Although, that particular bag was NOT
comfortable, I’m sure there are ways to make this a comfortable option. I think
I would also prefer it to the single shoulder strap option.
2. Shoulder “side-bag” straps
The current straps make it a bit difficult to carry the bag
for longer periods of time and could be improved in two ways. The first is to put a handle that you can
hold on to at the bottom of the bag to help with the weight. Carrying that much
weight on one shoulder is definitely not good for your back. Being able to help
support this with your arm would ease the weight. And, the second, is to make
the straps that sit on your shoulder hold together more firmly. Although there
is a velcro bit that connects the two, they shift apart quite easily, making it
more difficult to carry.
Surprise!
On the way out of the Tori gates we were just hopping back on our bikes as we heard someone calling our names. For a moment I thought there was no way this could be directed towards us since no one we knew had mentioned coming to Kyoto that weekend. We stopped, looked around, and there was a girl coming towards us, "Are you Maria?" You know that moment when someone approaches you and seems like they completely know who you area, but you're panicking on the inside that you have NO idea who this is? And you start feeling so bad that you don't recognize someone who obviously you should know? Well, this was one of those times. Turns out, we had bumped into the Vincita representative, Gem, who we had been in contact with about the bags. Not only her, but her entire family. What are the odds! It was such a pleasant surprise! They were were extremely friendly and the kind of people you'd love to visit with and share stories for a few hours.
On the way out of the Tori gates we were just hopping back on our bikes as we heard someone calling our names. For a moment I thought there was no way this could be directed towards us since no one we knew had mentioned coming to Kyoto that weekend. We stopped, looked around, and there was a girl coming towards us, "Are you Maria?" You know that moment when someone approaches you and seems like they completely know who you area, but you're panicking on the inside that you have NO idea who this is? And you start feeling so bad that you don't recognize someone who obviously you should know? Well, this was one of those times. Turns out, we had bumped into the Vincita representative, Gem, who we had been in contact with about the bags. Not only her, but her entire family. What are the odds! It was such a pleasant surprise! They were were extremely friendly and the kind of people you'd love to visit with and share stories for a few hours.
Thank you for helping making the trip to Kyoto so much easier, Vincita!
