Brompton Bikes and Freitag Bags are Made for Each Other

Backpacks and bikes are not usually made for each other. You can wear the backpack and get all sweaty and add an uncomfortable amount of perineal pain, or you can try and strap it to a carrier. You can give up on the pack and buy pannier bags, but they do not work very well off the bike.

Then we have this new bag from Freitag. We have loved Freitag bags since Treehugger began; they are made from recycled industrial vinyl tarps used on European transport trailers and recycled seat belts. Every bag is different; it took me an hour to pick mine from their shop in Berlin. They are expensive, but are pretty much indestructible and will last as long as I do.

We also love Brompton bikes; Treehugger's Sami Grover had one and notes that they are expensive too;

"As someone who has owned a Brompton, and loved it, I would say that there have always been cheaper options out there. (Indeed an earlier version of the Brompton website used to include a summary of the competition, and why you should consider them.) This company builds really nice, sturdy, well-designed products that have earned a well-deserved following and excellent resale value."

Now Freitag and Brompton have worked together to make a bag designed to clip onto a Brompton quickly and easily. Even Zurich-based Freitag acknowledges that it's expensive.

"We have quite a lot in common with the London-based folding bike pioneers at Brompton. We’re both into 're-cycling', which means thinking and acting in cycles and riding bikes. We’re both crazy about quality and functionality. And both crazy enough to continue producing in two of the most expensive cities on the planet."

It's a big bag, roughly 18 inches by 12 inches by 6 with a big price, $440.00, and a big volume at 19 liters. It goes on your back vertically with or without its frame, as the company notes, "backpack straps attach magnetically – and almost magically – to the back of the bag, enabling one-handed docking and removal on any Brompton bike with any handlebar type." The sticker shock is somewhat ameliorated because they throw in a matching mudflap.

I wonder about the logic of making the bag so big for an urban bike, I would suspect that there would be a noticeable air resistance from having 1.5 square feet of bag in front like that.

However, a check of a few backpacking shops shows that most day packs are around 15 to 20 liters of volume. When I used to fly to New York for a weekend of meetings, with my Strida folding bike and a backpack, it was about that size, so perhaps it is appropriate for your modern multimodal traveler.

They do make a beautiful pair. And yes, they are expensive, but they will last forever. As Freitag notes, it's "an entirely new spin on two everyday items that have been through just about every change and improvement you can mention: bags and bikes." And very pretty to look at.