Life In The Saddle

This week's review is another great product from Portland based PNW Components – their compact and comfortable Rover Hip Pack. Made from super durable sailcloth material, with an air mesh padded back panel and a plethora of pockets for all your trail essentials; the PNW Rover Hip Pack is the ideal companion for off-road adventures in the forest, bike park or on gravel adventures. I was an early adopter of the bar bag on my gravel and road pursuits (check out my previous posts on 'bar bags' ); embracing the feeling of carrying little in your pockets, and letting the bike take the load. On mountain bike adventures a bar bag is less suitable though, as they bounce around too enthusiastically; the solution is a hip pack.  A hip pack is different from a 'bum bag' – the latter is designed to sit around your hips, whereas this is really a 'waist pack' that is meant to sit higher up on top of your hip bones, around your waist. Perched on top of your hips it can com...

PNW Components have developed a reputation for producing premium quality bike components, without the sky-high price tags. Their business model is based on years of experience in the bike trade; working directly with manufacturers to keep costs down, and constantly refining and developing their products to stay ahead of the game. The PEBBLE Tool from PNW is a pocket-sized multitool, which isn't much bigger than your pinky finger. The 50 gram package features the bare necessities to get you back riding when you need to do some trail-side repairs. The anodised smooth external plates house a Dynaplug® tubeless repair plug tool; 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, and 6mm Hex wrenches; and a T25 Torx (hidden under Dynaplug® accessory). The tool selection should cover most eventualities and loose bolts on a road or mountain bike repair.  Great to use, thanks to its smooth feel and lightweight nature; the Pebble's tool bits are perfectly machined for a good fit in bolt heads time after time. When a punct...