Trying to decide for work carry

[PandaOps]

Is that just some paracord? Looks like a nice touch and adds some nice usability. I'd consider adding something like that to my future A45 purchase.

Yes indeed! Here's a thread I posted originally about zipper pulls in anticipation of my new Pilot.

http://forums.tombihn.com/photos-vid...per-pulls.html

[jhnmason]

Is that just some paracord? Looks like a nice touch and adds some nice usability. I'd consider adding something like that to my future A45 purchase.

[PandaOps]

Pilot arrived on Friday! So excited for this bag!

[PandaOps]

I placed an order for my BB Pilot on Tuesday. Tracking update shows ETA for Friday. I made these after dinner tonight. I'm excited!

[Muni_Jedi]

Excellent choice and well taken to get the Absolute strap. I hope you enjoy it.

[PandaOps]

I held out ordering my Pilot for today's debut. I wanted to make sure all my "wants" were in the basket. Ballistic Pilot inbound!!! I'm so excited. Thanks all for the feedback! Pics to come!

[PandaOps]

So many great colors. I don't know which to get... I wish Black Ballistic/Iberian Dyneema was an option. Or better yet, Black Ballistic/SOLAR DYNEEMA.

[moriond]

Does anyone have images of the Pilot in Verde, BO, or Coyote? I mainly see Black and Steel only. I like Navy, but not with UV.

@Lefty posted some pictures of the Pilot in Coyote:

Excerpting one:



@SIM included photos of a Burnt Orange Pilot in the thread, My BO Pilot Mini Review, again, excerpting just one picture


I can't recall any recent Verde Pilot pictures, but @ceepee and her partner had Co-Pilots to match their Aeronauts in Verde and Burnt Orange:



If you want to see verde and burnt orange in other lighting (for Aeronaut colors) try this post

HTH

moriond

[PandaOps]

Does anyone have images of the Pilot in Verde, BO, or Coyote? I mainly see Black and Steel only. I like Navy, but not with UV.

[moriond]

Got it! Thanks for clarifying. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Pilot doesn't have the webbing loops to attach a cache with gatekeeper rails, right?

The Pilot does have webbing loops to attach a cache with rails via GateKeeper Clips. Nearly all current model bags have these, and in a few instances where this is not supported, like the Western Flyer luggage bag, which instead has Annex clips for attaching a Horizontal Brain Cell, there's an easy hack to adapt that bag for a cache with rails (in brief, you pull off the Annex Clips and attach a couple of thick Velcro ties to the webbing loops and add a pair of Single Gatekeeper clips to the Velcro ties -- total cost of mod is less than $5). The current model ID bag also has the webbing loops for the Cache with Rails. My older model ID Bag (from 2006 or 2007) can be hacked the same way as the Western Flyer to take a cache with rails.

The main reason some people, like @tpnl, may use other caches in these bags (like the Pilot), is that the exact match of cache to laptop isn't as good for non-Mac laptops -- they used to have more cache and Brain Cell size options in the past for Windows laptops, especially for the ThinkPad line before Lenovo went over to the wider displays. However, you're using a Mac, so you should find an exact fit among the caches for your laptop. (The other factor, in the Cadet briefcase discussion, is that @tpnl has the older version Cadet, as do I -- and the Cache with Rails design changed for the new version of the Cadet to allow the same (horizontal or vertical) cache to be swapped between a larger range of different bags that support the current cache with rails. See my post (#22) and Darcy's post (#23) in the old Cadet 15/13 - Not Listed thread from two years ago if you want to read about the the way the Cache with Rails design was generalized).

HTH

moriond

[PandaOps]

@PandaOps,

The size 6Z is the cache designed for 13" MacBooks of the non-retina and non-air variety. People who have the 13" retina MacBook Pro and the 13" MacBook Air can also use the cache for the 13" MacBook Air for both.
...

Got it! Thanks for clarifying. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Pilot doesn't have the webbing loops to attach a cache with gatekeeper rails, right?

[moriond]

Size #2 Knitting Toolkit Pouch as Pen/Pencil pouch option for Daylight Briefcase

Regarding the Daylight Briefcase, Eliza asked:

@weirdguy -- What pouches have worked for some pens and tools in the Daylight Briefcase? I am adopting now, and I need somewhere to put pens, maybe some train tickets, etc.

and @monisbrett replied:

Fulton,
I actually use the #2 Knitting pouch for my pens & pencils in my DLBC. They fit snugly and the pouch can be clipped vertically using a carabiner in either front or back pocket. I prefer it to the pen/pencil case clear pouch which I find to be too long (although that pouch is perfect to hold my travel cutlery and stuff).

I agree that the size #2 Knitting Tool Pouch will work here for pens and pencils, and that another bonus of its shorter length is that you can easily shift it into a Side Effect's front zippered pocket, and hook to the keystrap snap hook there. I also use this to carry connectors for my MacBook (Ethernet, thunderbolt, etc.), because the Ballistic nylon ends provide some extra protection and help securing the ends. If you do use this size tool pouch for cutlery, the ballistic nylon ends can act as guards for the curvature and tines.



(aside: is this a new feature for the forums? I'm typing on an old iPad 2 and was going to attach a URL for a previously uploaded picture, but when I was in the "from Computer" tab I was just prompted with an option to take a picture or video instead of selecting an upload location. Cool, if true)

I was going to say: "I don't have a convenient picture of this pouch carrying pens or adapters, but here's an early post of the size #1 and size #2 Knitting Tool Pouches:"


The size #1 Knitting Tool Pouch at the right is the same size as a Mini organizer pouch or Clear Organizer wallet. It's holding an old SIM card and SIM card replacement tool, along with the adapter for using old power bricks with the new retina MacBook Pro power connector at the bottom, and an old iPad (30 pin) connection Kit adapter for photo transfer to SD card at the top --- both sitting in front of ballistic nylon end reinforcement.

The size #2 Knitting Tool pouch at the left shows standard fork and spoon (these are recyclable, made of corn versions rather than plastic) lying on top.



The same fork and spoon in the size #2 Knitting Tool Pouch with the bowl and tines protected by the ballistic nylon ends. (These photos are from one of my posts in the middle of a thread discussing new Side effect colors (and accessories). I was traveling, so the local lighting was really bad for my iPhone.

HTH

moriond

ETA: Sorry, I was so excited on seeing the prompt option to take a photo from my iPad in the regular Safari browser that I didn't try to check orientation, as I usually do, when I took and uploaded the first picture. So it's upside down. But it does show the Size #2 Knitting Tool Pouch with pens inside and against a Tom Bihn ruler from my Little Swift for size. The only down side is that the Kiwi options for the Size #2 knitting tool pouch are now all sold out, so you can only get this in Aubergine right now.

[monisbrett]

Fulton,
I actually use the #2 Knitting pouch for my pens & pencils in my DLBC. They fit snugly and the pouch can be clipped vertically using a carabiner in either front or back pocket. I prefer it to the pen/pencil case clear pouch which I find to be too long (although that pouch is perfect to hold my travel cutlery and stuff).

[moriond]

@PandaOps,

The size 6Z is the cache designed for 13" MacBooks of the non-retina and non-air variety. People who have the 13" retina MacBook Pro and the 13" MacBook Air can also use the cache for the 13" MacBook Air for both.

I don't know whether you want to carry your bag with a Quick-Adjust Mesenger Strap (Q-AM Strap) the way @tpnl shows. (This involves getting both the pair of snaphooks from Parts, or unthreading them and pulling them off from the ends of an Absolute strap, along with a pair of Triglides to hook the snaphooks onto the end of the Q-AM Strap webbing, as @tpnl described.) The bags designed to take a Q-AM strap, and this includes the ID bag, have toothed slides at the side that attach to the strap webbing directly. There's also an option to use a stabilizer strap that connects to one side of the waist strap for the bag (again, which the ID Bag has, and the Pilot doesn't).

As @tpnl and @maverick said, don't discount the ID bag just because it is being retired. Some comments: if you do like to carry bags Q-AM strap style on your back, this option with the ID bag is very comfortable -- a bit more so than @tpnl's hacked rig for the Pilot, which I've tried, and requires a bit more of fiddling with the positions to find the comfortable carrying positions. The Pilot capacity is about two-thirds that of the ID bag (13 liters vs 20.9). I think it will hold what you want, but may occasionally be a bit tight. The ID Bag shape is such that it won't look bigger if you don't fill it up. Some other differences: the Pilot's water bottle pocket placement in the center front zippered pocket is nice for balance --- on the ID Bag this is on the side -- but if you're carrying camera gear you may need to use that center front pocket for a large lens, depending on your setup. Th ID bag can actually fit the entire Camera IO (now back in stock as of last week) inside its main compartment, if this is something you'd be interested in. (I'd ask customer service to check this again on the current models, just to be sure, but it was true for my older ID bag).

For @tpnl, I'm curious how the connection was made to attach the packing cube shoulder bag to the Pilot via 1.5" gatekeeper clips via 1" triangle clips. This is a bit of an awkward fit if I use triangle clips instead of Double Carabiners, and it looks as though there might be something else clipped to the triangle clip in your picture. Another comment: unless they've recently changed the production of the all Dyneema Pilots, there isn't room to slide the 1.5" single gatekeeper clips into the side webbing loops of those Pilots -- only the Ballistic Nylon pilots. The webbing loops that attach the triangular ends for shoulder straps are sewn shorter/tighter on the 400d Dyneema pilots, unless this has recently changed (since last year). The Gatekeeper clips can be inserted in recent ballistic nylon Pilots (ahem, Aubergine!). Can someone else on the forums who has both, or just a recent all-Dyneema Pilot check this? (The Black 400d/Iberian Dyneema Pilots that sold until may of this year would be a good model to check).


HTH

moriond

[PandaOps]

I'm looking at a cache for my 13" MacBook (non-retina). Will my laptop fit in the retina cache from Tom Bihn? I see other sizes, but don't want my laptop to be swimming in the cache, but not be bursting at the seams.