New product summary

[mrae]

Is there a post somewhere that describes the upcoming new products and revisions of old products. It seems like there's a lot going on and I can't find all the information. Is there something, for example, describing changes to the Smart Alec etc?

[pretzelb]

Darcy probably knows best but I just discoverd that the blog area (http://www.tombihn.com/blog/) seems to contain a lot on "breaking news". Maybe that's where they always put the latest news as soon as it's available?

[Doh]

Good question

I just saw a reference on OBOW that suggested Tom is coming out with a new carryon bag a little smaller than the aeronaut. Any idea what that's about, or when it will be out?

[mrae]

I think that's called the Western Flyer. There's some information about it in the blog.

[Tom Bihn]

The Western Flyer is a small carry-on bag similar to the Aeronaut in function. It's volume is about 25 liters or a little more than half the Aeronaut's volume. Rather than convert to a backpack as the Aeronaut does, it has a sling-bag strap, like the Buzz. This strap is designed to be worn cross-body on the right shoulder; it zips away when not in use. A Poron padded handle and two heavy metal "D" rings (for an optional shoulder strap) allow you to carry it the conventional ways too.
The Western Flyer has three exterior pockets (two zip closed) and two equal-sized main compartments (like the Brain Bag). The front compartment can be further divided in two with a zip-out divider, creating two compartments well sized for shoes. The back compartment has webbing loops so you can use annex clips to secure a Brain Cell (horizontal or vertical; we'll let you know soon which sizes fit, not all for sure). Matching packing cubes will follow shortly.
The Western Flyer is made of 1050 ballistic nylon in crimson, steel or black; lined with Dyneema/nylon ripstop. Available late December or early January, we hope!

[Doh]

Thanks! I'm looking for a holiday gift, but I think that might be too small anyway. (Is the aeronaut really small enough to fit under an airplane seat if necessary?)

[pretzelb]

The Western Flyer is a small carry-on bag similar to the Aeronaut in function. It's volume is about 25 liters or a little more than half the Aeronaut's volume. Rather than convert to a backpack as the Aeronaut does, it has a sling-bag strap, like the Buzz. This strap is designed to be worn cross-body on the right shoulder; it zips away when not in use. A Poron padded handle and two heavy metal "D" rings (for an optional shoulder strap) allow you to carry it the conventional ways too.
The Western Flyer has three exterior pockets (two zip closed) and two equal-sized main compartments (like the Brain Bag). The front compartment can be further divided in two with a zip-out divider, creating two compartments well sized for shoes. The back compartment has webbing loops so you can use annex clips to secure a Brain Cell (horizontal or vertical; we'll let you know soon which sizes fit, not all for sure). Matching packing cubes will follow shortly.
The Western Flyer is made of 1050 ballistic nylon in crimson, steel or black; lined with Dyneema/nylon ripstop. Available late December or early January, we hope!

Sounds like it might be a nice replacement for the Imago for a personal carry on item.

By the way, what are the regulations for the personal carry on item? Most times I see facts and figures it's for the regular carry on and not the personal one. I assume there are limits on size and weight for the personal one too.

[mrae]

It sounds like it might not work left handed. I have a right handed older buzz and I don't use it because of that. I had used it a bit before I discovered you sell a left-handed buzz. Someday it will go to ebay.

[Just]

The size should be about right, and the setup sounds like a win. =) Not too thrilled about the sling strap, but I should probably wait to see it.

[Tom Bihn]

My experience with shoulder bags in general and sling bags in particular is that which shoulder or hip one wears the bag on is not strictly related to the wearer being right-handed or left-handed. I carry an Imago quiet a bit and wear it both left shoulder/right hip and right shoulder/left hip.
For a while we made the Buzz available in both right shoulder and left shoulder versions: this made a few people really happy, but left many people confused and was an inventory nightmare for us. The new way we make our sling bag straps requires choosing one configuration or the other (we can't simply flop the strap over to make a mirror-image bag as we were able to do before). We've chosen a right-shoulder version for the Buzz and the new Western Flyer as well because that's been the most popular configuration.
There is some possibility that we will make the Western Flyer in a non-strap version in the future.

[moriond]

Comments on the Western Flyer (smaller bag with Aeronaut-like function)

Sounds like it might be a nice replacement for the Imago for a personal carry on item.

At 25 liters the Western Flyer has a lot more capacity than an Imago, ID, or Ego (which, at 23 liters, is closest in volume to the Western Flyer). This does sound more like a design for a non-maximum-capacity carry-on bag, that also made its way into the other option suggestions for the (long!) Carry-On Traveller's bag thread that eventually led to the design of the Aeronaut. This size sounds like it would work well on smaller airplanes and buses with shallower overhead stowage space, while using the svelt lines of the Aeronaut to make stowing workable. I like the option for a laptop, too.

The size should be about right, and the setup sounds like a win. =) Not too thrilled about the sling strap, but I should probably wait to see it.

I'm actually curious to try the sling strap design, since I really liked the way Tom implemented a sling design for the original version of the Buzz. (I'm also hoping that if Apple introduces a sub-notebook laptop model for the Intel processors that Tom will be ready to whip out an amended Buzz design.)

[Just]

Well actually I wasn't so much concerned with handedness, but more about the weight on a single (sling) strap... I was thinking the 25 liters would be roughly Smart Alec-ish in size, and could (and probably would) therefore be quite a load on a sling strap.

I know I get pretty fatigued carrying just a Buzz around for a few hours..

[Darcy]

Like the backpack straps on the Aeronaut, the sling strap on the Western Flyer isn't designed to be used for long trips or for hours on end. The strap(s) would have to be a lot bulkier for that to be their intended purpose, plus the shape of the bag would have to be different. The sling strap is designed to be n convenient way to carry the bag if you have to run to catch your flight or if you have your hands full with other bags and you're going through the airport.

That said, I've found it to be quite comfortable when I've tested it.