Hi, I joined these forums to specifically ask the question in the title. But perhaps I should introduce myself a little first so you can get to know me a little better first.
I work for the consulting wing of a software company for the last 11+ years which, for the first 9 years or so, required weekly travel. Travelling all the time, I used to know all the tricks, and through several sites, had even learned how to one bag travel.
The first bag I ever bought for one bag travel was a Briggs and Riley Verb. At the time, I was reading about the great one bag solutions from Tom Bihn and Red Oxx, but two distinct features at the time drove me to the B&R. First, it was available in a brick and mortar store I happened to be perusing while away on a trip, and secondly, at the time Northwest (we're talking back in the pre-Delta merger days) used to show a noticeable preference for roll-aboards. Back then, I've seen FAs remove duffels from the overhead to fit roll-aboards, and then make the owner of the duffel check it.
As I got better with my one bag travels though, I eventually downsized that bag for a Swiss Gear backpack found at the local Staples. I had actually had the backpack from back in my just-post collage days, but I found it worked great to alleviate a major problem I was having with the B&R. Basically, that the B&R was just too heavy. That, and it always had to be gate checked so I was constantly pulling out the computer sleeve. The Swiss Gear was almost as large. Actually, I think it had overall more volume, but I would be allowed to carry it on some of the smaller planes where several roll-aboards were not being allowed.
The Swiss Gear though always had it's issues too. It wasn't the bag-in-a-bag solution I wanted. On travel days, I would have a fully packed bag with me at the client sites, and in between it was really just too large for a basic laptop carrier. Also, I never really considered it professional looking. But I had it, and it worked.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago, I managed to start landing a series of local assignments. WooHoo! No travel! As stated above, the Swiss Gear wasn't a decent option for every day carry, so I swapped over to an old leather messenger bag I had. I had gotten it about 9 years ago, before even my B&R, at Aldo Shoes. No idea what brand it is, and there's no labels. It still had it's quirks, particularly that it was a messenger, and I hate the large flap, and I didn't care that it was floppy, but it fit two nice purposes, it was light, and it was just big enough to fit my laptop and power cords, without being overly large.
Fast forward yet again to today. The leather messenger has developed a ripped seam. It gave a good life considering the number of years I owned it, but it's time to put it out to pasture. So, now I'm in the market for a new laptop bag. Remembering all the good things I've heard about Tom Bihn back in the day, I found myself on their site reviewing the options. I've been all over the Cadet, and several other briefcase styles, when suddenly I learned something from these forums, that the Brain Cell had been discontinued!
That got me looking at the Brain Cell again. Back when I was still traveling, it was the option of carrying the Brain Cell as a separate laptop bag once I was on site that had intrigued me the most about Tom Bihn's options. And I had always expected to get one when I ended up having to travel again after these local contracts run out. I think the Brain Cell really has all I really need in a laptop bag. It'll carry my laptop, and it's power cord, my iPhone charger block and my 1M lightning cable. Might be able to also do the wireless mouse, but that was an item I carried more because I had the room than actually needing it. And with them being discontinued, it seems to be a now or never purchase.
Flip-flopping back and forth though, really got me thinking about whether or not ever would actually use it for the bag-in-a-bag solution. When I first thought about them, I was leaning towards the Tri-Star. But having not traveled for the last 2 years, even if I ended up going back to travelling next week, I still would have lost all my status, which means no early boarding, which means no overhead space, which means I need something small enough to fit as a personal item. Hence the Western Flyer.
Size wise, it looks like the Western Flyer should be more than capable of accommodating everything I would normally bring on a Monday to Thursday work travel. I've read though tons of reviews, most from here, but several elsewhere as well that seems to indicate, yes, this would be a good choice when the day comes. But then I really started paying closer attention to those reviews. In almost all of them, people are using the Western Flyer with a Cache. The Cache doesn't really qualify for my "Carry laptop and power cord" desires in a bag-in-a-bag solution. I've read a few were people where using a DLBC, which sounded like a good option, but the DLBC is too small for the Lenovo 14" my company currently has me saddled with. I've also read a few where the topic was whether a Size 1 Brain Cell would fit the Western Flyer, but those pretty much stated the Brain Cell took up the entire back section.
What I would really love to be able to do, once the day comes for travelling again, is to be able to fit a Horizontal 4z (or maybe 6z) and a large packing cube for pants/shirts in the back section, the smaller packing cube for all other clothes in one 1/2 of the front section, and the other half put the snake charmer (with one side non-311 tolietries like toothbrush, electric razor, the other would have the extra cables and chargers I carry for hotel rooms) as well as Tom's 311 bag.
I'm kind of worried though after seeing those shots of the Size 1 in there, that the 4z or 6z I'm looking at would prevent me from comfortably fitting a large packing cube with 1 pair of dress pants and 3 or 4 dress shirts in the same section. If I've got to move those to the forward section, then that kind of gets in the way of the snake charmer and 311 bag. If that's the case, maybe the Brain Cell won't be as good a choice as I was originally hoping. I don't want to buy one now, only to find out that my plans down the road won't work.
So, does anybody have any insights? Should I go with this plan and get the Brain Cell now before they're completely gone, or should I just concentrate on a more traditional laptop bag, like the Founder's Briefcase for meeting my local needs, and deal with travel options when that day comes?
And if I do stick with the option of the Brain Cell, does it make much of difference between the 4z and the 6z? Based on another thread about fitting a Lenovo T460s, since it's the same dimensions as my T450s, I know the 6z will handle it, but sometimes I end up travelling with a client laptop instead of my corporate one. And I never know what that will be. I think the 4z will provide the extra wiggle room to hopefully accommodate whatever I end up with, but if that's going to result in extra thickness that will prevent me from fitting a packing cube in the back section where as the 6z will, then the 6z will be the better option.
If I am going to go Brain Cell, I'd like to be put the purchase through this weekend, in fear that they might not survive Tom's product launch that's expected on Monday. So, please let me know if you have any insights.
Thanks for your help,
I work for the consulting wing of a software company for the last 11+ years which, for the first 9 years or so, required weekly travel. Travelling all the time, I used to know all the tricks, and through several sites, had even learned how to one bag travel.
The first bag I ever bought for one bag travel was a Briggs and Riley Verb. At the time, I was reading about the great one bag solutions from Tom Bihn and Red Oxx, but two distinct features at the time drove me to the B&R. First, it was available in a brick and mortar store I happened to be perusing while away on a trip, and secondly, at the time Northwest (we're talking back in the pre-Delta merger days) used to show a noticeable preference for roll-aboards. Back then, I've seen FAs remove duffels from the overhead to fit roll-aboards, and then make the owner of the duffel check it.
As I got better with my one bag travels though, I eventually downsized that bag for a Swiss Gear backpack found at the local Staples. I had actually had the backpack from back in my just-post collage days, but I found it worked great to alleviate a major problem I was having with the B&R. Basically, that the B&R was just too heavy. That, and it always had to be gate checked so I was constantly pulling out the computer sleeve. The Swiss Gear was almost as large. Actually, I think it had overall more volume, but I would be allowed to carry it on some of the smaller planes where several roll-aboards were not being allowed.
The Swiss Gear though always had it's issues too. It wasn't the bag-in-a-bag solution I wanted. On travel days, I would have a fully packed bag with me at the client sites, and in between it was really just too large for a basic laptop carrier. Also, I never really considered it professional looking. But I had it, and it worked.
Fast forward to a couple of years ago, I managed to start landing a series of local assignments. WooHoo! No travel! As stated above, the Swiss Gear wasn't a decent option for every day carry, so I swapped over to an old leather messenger bag I had. I had gotten it about 9 years ago, before even my B&R, at Aldo Shoes. No idea what brand it is, and there's no labels. It still had it's quirks, particularly that it was a messenger, and I hate the large flap, and I didn't care that it was floppy, but it fit two nice purposes, it was light, and it was just big enough to fit my laptop and power cords, without being overly large.
Fast forward yet again to today. The leather messenger has developed a ripped seam. It gave a good life considering the number of years I owned it, but it's time to put it out to pasture. So, now I'm in the market for a new laptop bag. Remembering all the good things I've heard about Tom Bihn back in the day, I found myself on their site reviewing the options. I've been all over the Cadet, and several other briefcase styles, when suddenly I learned something from these forums, that the Brain Cell had been discontinued!
That got me looking at the Brain Cell again. Back when I was still traveling, it was the option of carrying the Brain Cell as a separate laptop bag once I was on site that had intrigued me the most about Tom Bihn's options. And I had always expected to get one when I ended up having to travel again after these local contracts run out. I think the Brain Cell really has all I really need in a laptop bag. It'll carry my laptop, and it's power cord, my iPhone charger block and my 1M lightning cable. Might be able to also do the wireless mouse, but that was an item I carried more because I had the room than actually needing it. And with them being discontinued, it seems to be a now or never purchase.
Flip-flopping back and forth though, really got me thinking about whether or not ever would actually use it for the bag-in-a-bag solution. When I first thought about them, I was leaning towards the Tri-Star. But having not traveled for the last 2 years, even if I ended up going back to travelling next week, I still would have lost all my status, which means no early boarding, which means no overhead space, which means I need something small enough to fit as a personal item. Hence the Western Flyer.
Size wise, it looks like the Western Flyer should be more than capable of accommodating everything I would normally bring on a Monday to Thursday work travel. I've read though tons of reviews, most from here, but several elsewhere as well that seems to indicate, yes, this would be a good choice when the day comes. But then I really started paying closer attention to those reviews. In almost all of them, people are using the Western Flyer with a Cache. The Cache doesn't really qualify for my "Carry laptop and power cord" desires in a bag-in-a-bag solution. I've read a few were people where using a DLBC, which sounded like a good option, but the DLBC is too small for the Lenovo 14" my company currently has me saddled with. I've also read a few where the topic was whether a Size 1 Brain Cell would fit the Western Flyer, but those pretty much stated the Brain Cell took up the entire back section.
What I would really love to be able to do, once the day comes for travelling again, is to be able to fit a Horizontal 4z (or maybe 6z) and a large packing cube for pants/shirts in the back section, the smaller packing cube for all other clothes in one 1/2 of the front section, and the other half put the snake charmer (with one side non-311 tolietries like toothbrush, electric razor, the other would have the extra cables and chargers I carry for hotel rooms) as well as Tom's 311 bag.
I'm kind of worried though after seeing those shots of the Size 1 in there, that the 4z or 6z I'm looking at would prevent me from comfortably fitting a large packing cube with 1 pair of dress pants and 3 or 4 dress shirts in the same section. If I've got to move those to the forward section, then that kind of gets in the way of the snake charmer and 311 bag. If that's the case, maybe the Brain Cell won't be as good a choice as I was originally hoping. I don't want to buy one now, only to find out that my plans down the road won't work.
So, does anybody have any insights? Should I go with this plan and get the Brain Cell now before they're completely gone, or should I just concentrate on a more traditional laptop bag, like the Founder's Briefcase for meeting my local needs, and deal with travel options when that day comes?
And if I do stick with the option of the Brain Cell, does it make much of difference between the 4z and the 6z? Based on another thread about fitting a Lenovo T460s, since it's the same dimensions as my T450s, I know the 6z will handle it, but sometimes I end up travelling with a client laptop instead of my corporate one. And I never know what that will be. I think the 4z will provide the extra wiggle room to hopefully accommodate whatever I end up with, but if that's going to result in extra thickness that will prevent me from fitting a packing cube in the back section where as the 6z will, then the 6z will be the better option.
If I am going to go Brain Cell, I'd like to be put the purchase through this weekend, in fear that they might not survive Tom's product launch that's expected on Monday. So, please let me know if you have any insights.
Thanks for your help,
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