Brain Bag back material?

[TomS]

Hi - I was looking at the brain bag, and I couldn't find any information about the back material. Is it a meshy/breathable type material? How thickly padded is it? (I know it needs a brain cell to protect a laptop, I'm thinking about protecting my back )

I'm looking for something to carry my new, but unfortunately large and heavy, dell d800 (15.4" wide screen) when I ride my bike to work. It just barely fits in a sleeve in my current backpack (a semi-cheapie timberland) but the backing material on that is not breathable at all and my back gets really hot and sweaty... it also doesn't do a good job of keeping the load balanced comfortably. Unfortunately I can't fit my laptop in my camelbak which has a nice contoured, squishy-meshy-breathable back

[wheat]

Say, I was wondering the same thing. Even if only because I don't like getting too awfully sweaty when hauling a pack around for the many hours one tends to spend at airports.

I am also wondering what the nylon on the outside is like.

I have an older Spire Zoom I am looking to replace, perhaps with the Brain Bag. And one of the problems I had with that bag was caused by my tendency to open the laptop sleeve while in the bag, which gave the hook side of the fastener strips a chance to slowly but surely fuzz up the outside top of the bag.

Not a big deal I suppose, but it makes the bag look, well, fuzzy.

Seems to me the Brain Cell doesn't have the same large flap, so maybe it's a non issue with the Brain Bag. But what is the feel of that? Soft Cordura? Or smooth and shiny like "ballistic" material?

I do like the softer Cordura as they used in that Zoom, but it doesn't seem to hold up as well as the shiny stuff does.

Kudos to T.B. for the design of the back side of the pack (or is that front?). Those tall water bottle compatible pockets and umbrella holder thing in the middle are exactly what I have been looking for.

Thanks for any answers, which will only result in another order.

[wheat]

Well, to answer the primary question, from the Brain Bag description...

The back is made of Dri-Lex Aero-Spacer mesh and is padded with 3/8", high quality, closed-cell foam.

Poking around the net seems to indicate this is a good material for such a purpose.

Oh, but now I thought of another question.

So say I use the compartment closest to my back for a laptop, how deep is the other main compartment? I need to carry around my digicam cases, which are about 3.5 inches deep or so. I can stuff them into my current pack, but they get squished quite a bit.

And, does that compartment have any interior pockets? Or is that what the freudian slip is for?

[Joy]

And, does that compartment have any interior pockets? Or is that what the freudian slip is for?

There are no pockets on the two large interior sections. The only pockets are the three on the front (the "water bottle" sized pockets, and the one above the umbrella loop). The "water bottle" ones have pen organizers, and the one on top has a key clip.

So say I use the compartment closest to my back for a laptop, how deep is the other main compartment? I need to carry around my digicam cases, which are about 3.5 inches deep or so. I can stuff them into my current pack, but they get squished quite a bit.

It's plenty deep enough! The bag can hold quite a lot, I find. My laptop is about an inch thick, and I can carry it inside the brainbag, plus a few texts and notebooks, all in the same section. (The two main sections are identical in size).

Did I mention that it's big? Seriously, if you need to carry more stuff than fits into it, you're carrying too much stuff!

Edited to add - as to the original question, I find that the back is slightly meshy and fairly comfortable. But if it's a hot and sweaty kind of day, I do get hot and sweaty on my back, especially if the backpack is full and heavy.

[wheat]

Thanks for your reply.

At first I was thinking that hey, I like all of those internal pockets, but really I prefer to have cavernous open space that I can use as fits the current need.

Now I just need to decide between plump purple, bubbly blue or basic black.

[Joy]

One thing I was going to say before, but forgot-- I bought the Freudian Slip because I thought I would need more organization but I have never used it. In the end, I didn't like the idea of adding unnecessary weight to my bag, and I ended up storing papers in their own folders (or just sticking them behind the brain cell in a pinch!), and I use the pockets for small things like Palm, phone, pens, etc. YMMV of course.

Basic black is boring, go for some colour!

Just fyi, the sapphire (on mine, at least) is not nearly as bright as I thought it would be based on the photo on the site. It's nice, just not quite so sapphire-y as I thought it would be. Who knows, maybe I'm just not looking at it under the right light...

See, now I'm visiting the site again because I really want to get a cafe bag to store all my medical gear! I know I shouldn't, because I really need something with organizer pockets, but they're so nice looking... sigh.

[wheat]

Hah, sounds like you have what I recently caught - BAGITIS!

In the past week I have bought and used:

Timbuk2 Commuter XL messenger bag.
Spire Endo 17.

And I will probably keep both, though I have discovered I am decidedly a backpack sort of guy, not a messenger bag fella.

[Darcy]

We only have a few Brain Bags left before they're out of stock for a couple weeks so order soon...!

[wheat]

Just did.

[Joy]

What colour?

[wheat]

Well, um.

I ordered crimson, but then chickened out and called them to change it to BLACK.

[wheat]

Got a nice black Brain Bag from my friendly UPS guy today.

I must say I am quite pleased after stuffing the pack with a simulated "trip-back-East" not to mention the daily pile-O-stuff I lug to the Apple campus every day.

As an engineer, I appreciate good design, and the construction and layout of this pack is quite pleasing. Thanks!