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Thoughts on Ego

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    Thoughts on Ego

    Hi, everyone, first post, and just found Tom Bihn bags a couple weeks ago, when looking for a daily bag to carry to work and home.

    When I initially found out about TB bags, I was looking for a messenger style bag for daily use, to sometimes carry a laptop, and other things that I tend to bring back and forth between work and home. I immediately thought the Super Ego was the bag I wanted, but couldn't pull the trigger for some reason. I then started gravitating towards the Empire Builder, and almost pulled the trigger on it, but really wanted more of the messenger style I was looking for in the bag...so then I ended up looking at the ID. After looking at many reviews, I had decided it was the bag I wanted to get, and was proceeding ahead with the order, until I realized, I couldn't select the size 4Z Brain Cell for the 15" MBP (which I don't even have yet), and then later found out, that it's dimensions wouldn't even fit into the ID bag. So I was back to looking again, and after looking at several reviews, decided that the smaller Ego, was what I was after. It allowed me the BC option that I wanted, was not too gigantic to be carrying around everyday, and was a messenger bag.

    So, at this point, I placed my order, although, I was hoping to get Black/Black/Wasabi (any chance of someone in the factory messing up, and using Wasabi instead of steel on mine????), I settled for Black/Black/Steel, of course, every combo of Ego is currently out of stock, so I'm stuck with just looking at pictures of what my bag will look like when I get it in December... I also decided that the Little Swift looked like a cool little purse my wife might like to carry around (of course, in ultrasuede), so I ordered that along with it.

    Anyway, everything in the reviews I have seen of the Ego has been pretty positive, and I can't see anything really wrong with it, which is probably how it was intended to be designed. However, there was one review, which after seeing it, there were a couple of things that stood out to me, that could be improved, and just wondered if there was a possibility of that happening.

    The first, was the strap attachment to the bag. The reviewer mentioned that with the attachment straps the way they are, the clips have to be removed from the strap, to feed the strap into the buckles sewn into the bag. However, in the case of the Empire Builder and Ristretto, a metal attachment loop is sewn onto the bag. At first, I didn't think this was a huge deal, until he pointed out, that if you just wanted to pop out your Brain Cell, and go to a meeting, or something, and you wanted a strap on your BC, you would either have to have another strap for your BC, or replace the clips on your strap, after taking it off your Ego bag. Seems to make since to have the clips and attachment loops on these bags, but maybe it was done for noise reduction?

    Secondly, are the removable waist strap buckles, like those on the Ristretto, ever going to be used on the Ego bags, so that all is left, is a little loop of webbing, instead of the plastic buckle?

    I can't wait to get my first TB bag. I've have 2 Crumpler bags for camera bags, which are nice bags, but I'm just guessing, that the TB bags will be even nicer. I am sure this will not be my last, either, I'm already looking at the backpacks!
    Last edited by geogecko; 11-05-2010, 01:41 PM. Reason: Typo

    #2
    hi geogecko!

    welcome to the forum!

    Originally posted by geogecko View Post
    The first, was the strap attachment to the bag. The reviewer mentioned that with the attachment straps the way they are, the clips have to be removed from the strap, to feed the strap into the buckles sewn into the bag. However, in the case of the Empire Builder and Ristretto, a metal attachment loop is sewn onto the bag. At first, I didn't thing this was a huge deal, until he pointed out, that if you just wanted to pop out your Brain Cell, and go to a meeting, or something, and you wanted a strap on your BC, you would either have to have another strap for your BC, or replace the clips on your strap, after taking it off your Ego bag. Seems to make since to have the clips and attachment loops on these bags, but maybe it was done for noise reduction?
    if i understand correctly, you're asking about the shoulder strap that attaches to the ego. the ego is a messenger style bag, so rather than the shoulder strap attaching via snap hooks to "d-rings" on the bag, the shoulder strap attaches to slider buckles (i think that's what they are called, but my memory may fail me). the brain cell and briefcases like the zephyr and empire builder have "d-rings" to which you attach the shoulder strap via the snap hooks.

    you can remove the brain cell from the ego and carry it with a shoulder strap, but the shoulder strap would need to have snap hooks. the easy way to do this would be to have a dedicated shoulder strap with snap hooks already attached so that you're not unthreading the shoulder strap from the ego and threading snap hooks onto it.

    another option is to consider the empire builder, which will accommodate the size 4X brain cell and also allow you to share the shoulder strap between the empire builder and brain cell.

    Originally posted by geogecko View Post
    Secondly, are the removable waist strap buckles, like those on the Ristretto, ever going to be used on the Ego bags, so that all is left, is a little loop of webbing, instead of the plastic buckle?
    indeed, the ego uses gatekeeper clips for the waist strap, so if you remove the waist strap, all that is left is the webbing loops. if i'm not mistaken, earlier versions of the ego had the webbing loop and buckle that remained behind - but the current design does not.
    -m

    Comment


      #3
      maverick

      That is exactly what I was getting at, although you used better terms at describing the hardware. So I guess the slider buckles are used because the bag form is a messenger bag, and the d-rings are used on more briefcase like bags.

      I don't know, I guess I am a hardware guy. Like the metal d-rings and clips, and not so much the buckles. I guess that is why I ordered my Ego with the seat belt buckle.

      At least the current bags have the new gatekeeper clips, which are a nice feature. I don't think for every day use, I will use the waist strap, but maybe on trips or something, it would come in handy.

      Thanks for the reply!

      Comment

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