Note: this bag was provided for review.
When I first saw the Radix line of bags, I was sold — but I was living somewhere where I didn’t go hiking. When I moved to Colorado, I thought I should get one, but wanted to wait and see what I might need. Well, I now have a Radix 31 in to review, and I’ll just say this now: it’s my favorite hiking bag.
Here’s what the Radix line is to me: it takes the concept of ultralight backpack bags, attaches a real harness to the bag for carrying weight and doubles down on that by adding a stellar internal frame.
Mystery Ranch absolutely nailed this bag.
Materials & Specs
The bag itself is simple, whereas the harness is magical and builds off the best harnesses in backpacks. The pack material is effectively a very light weight Robic Ripstop nylon, which Mystery Ranch lists as ‘Technical Ultra-PE birdseye’ ‘Recycled 100D Robic Ripstop’. For me it’s a very thin, but durable feeling and well performing nylon. Make no mistake, it is thin.
This is all attached to a Futura style adjustable Mystery Ranch harness with a removable load bearing hip belt. They took it one step further by adding a removable ‘7000 Series, aerospace aluminum frame’ which helps to distribute the weight further. All of this comes in at a stated 28.8L, in a 23” x 12” x 9.5” layout. This weighs 3.1lbs.
Not exactly ultralight, but for a bag with this serious of a harness, that’s light.
One other trick worth noting is that all the compression webbing is designed to be easily repairable. Meaning it can be taken completely off the bag without tools or cutting. That’s a neat trick — not sure the overall need to replace this webbing. But it does mean you can strip the back down by removing a lot of the straps.
Here you can see how the compression strap loops on to a mounting point, so it can be removed. It also compresses behind the water bottle pocket, instead of over, which is the proper approach.
In Use
A nearly 30L bag is substantially more in size than I need for most day hikes, but the Radix has excellent compression on the bag, and as such I’ve taken it on several hikes now.
This bag carries loads with ease — it’s supremely comfortable to carry a decently heavy load out. There’s a few reasons for this: the compression keeps things close to your back, making the weight much better balanced. The height and width spreads the weight/items so you carry a lot closer to your back as well. The frame, and the harness work together to make the weight feel spot on, no matter how little thought you gave to loading the weight in the bag, it feels evenly distributed across your body.
Or to make what I am saying a little more clear: this bag carries general purpose weight more comfortably than any other bag I have tried. Which says quite a lot, given the depth of bags which have found their way to my backpack closet.
The grab handle is nice, but it can run the back of your neck if it doesn’t push flat.
It’s not a perfect bag, there’s a few things which I would like to change:
- The water bottle pockets are simply massive. I know this is a trend with UL style packs so that you can slip two Smart Water Bottles in the pocket, but that’s what I want. I’d much prefer a standard sized water bottle pocket with an additional smaller accessory pocket.
- I really yearn for the top lid/flap to have an integrated zipper pocket in it, as many Mystery Ranch bags do. This pack is so stripped down, that if you remove the hip belt, you lose your ability to have small stash pockets. This makes it rather hard to find a spot to stash your wallet and car key.
- This bag comes in two colors: black and white. I’d love to see this in more colors in general, as I think this is a really great bag overall.
- Lastly, while the grab handle is really nice to carry the bag with, it has a fair amount of structure such that it can touch the back of my neck at times, which is a little annoying.
Those are some pretty minor downsides, even for me.
One thing I love that Mystery Ranch did on this pack is the addition of the off-center zipper to open up the pack. You could use this as only a top loader, and never worry about the zipper. But for those of you who, like me, like to get a full view of the gear in their bag, the off-center zipper is a gem to have. I actually found this bag to be really nice for hiking (where top-loaders generally excel) as I never needed to worry about gear spilling out.
Cinch the top closed, secure the flap and you are good to go. There are, however, a lot of straps on this bag. As I mentioned they compress the bag really well. In fact, most of the time I hiked with this bag, I had it compressed to where the depth of the bag is only around 5 inches, and the gear is spread over the tall and wide footprint. This does a lot to make the bag feel very nimble on your back as you move, and it’s perhaps the best feature of this bag.
I kept the frame stays in the entire time, as they don’t add much weight, but the structure and comfort is a huge plus. There’s a nice, but slightly small, front stash pocket as well. You won’t be lacking for a place to compress, or attach, a bit of gear with this pack. Though there are not dedicated MOLLE style attachment points, so you are going to be strapping things to the bag.
I like to use a lot of pouches in this pack to keep things well organized, and that’s a must for a pack of this type. And while I laud the compression, you should note that compressing this tight can mean it’s a little trickier to stuff in a layer, or get it back out later.
Overall
The way they turned the daisy webbing here is a nice touch, and adds some nice anchoring options.
There’s no doubt in my mind that this is the best pure hiking pack I’ve used. The rub is that it is a hiking pack, and for some people it will feel like the overkill that it is for dayhiking and strolls — that’s the tradeoff for all of the benefits I listed above. It’s not something I would use outside of hiking either. However, when it comes to throwing down miles on the trail — this is absolutely the pack I want to use.
My highest recommendation on this one.