Ordered a Synik 22; it doesn't fit my frame. Recommendations?

[bouncing]

Here's my dilemma. I ordered a Synik 22 and it arrived today. Unfortunately, on my frame: I'm six feet tall, but with a longer than average torso. The bottom stabilizer strap is far too high around my belly and it looks like I'm wearing a children's backpack.

I have an Aeronaut 30 that I use as a weekend-type duffel, but it would be far too big to use as a daily carry bag, so I figured a 22 liter Synik would be ideal for daily carry. If I return the 22 and upgrade to a 30, would a Synik 30 be as unwieldy for daily carry as an Aeronaut 30?

Overall, I feel like the Synik 22 is spot-on, but it just needs to be a few inches longer vertically to fit my torso.

Cheers for any recommendation.

[bartleby]

Hi @bouncing , sorry to hear that the Synik 22 doesn't fit your frame! I am also six feet. I don't have a Synik 22 but I do use a Synik 30 for daily carry and I think it works great for that (especially if you need to carry a laptop)! Although I don't have an Aeronaut 30 (only an A45) I think the Synik 30 is far better suited for daily carry than the Aeronaut which is a travel bag in the first place. If you underpack the Synik 30 it will be much more unobtrusive than the Aeronaut and the carrying comfort is certainly way better as is the organization with all the smaller pockets for your EDC stuff.

[moriond]

This is just a quick thought, and I won't have time to experiment with this any time really soon -- and also I'm on the wrong end of the height spectrum to do this test at just under 5'4" or 161 cm. But the hip belt options for the Brain Bag, Guide's Pack, and Shadow Guides have a variety of options for possibly dropping the position of the waist strap. The one that occurs to me is to use the hip belt for the old model Guide's Pack (before 2018) or the the version 1 Shadow Guide (for black instead of Coyote). They're designed with two levels of double gatekeeper clips over the hip belt portion. You might be able to connect the top pair of 1" Gatekeeper clips to the Synik 22 side attachment points and then the waist strap would ride lower.

Here's a picture of the belt -- the Guide's Pack Hip Belt page has the easiest to see version, so this is Coyote, but there was a similar version in black for the original Shadow Guide:



Notice that with the wider hip attachment padding and the curvature, the waist belt is placed vertically between the position of the two 1" Gatekeeper clips, and would sit lower than where just the straight waist strap connection would sit. The idea is that you might connect the top pair of 1" Gatekeeper clips to the Synik 22 webbing loops. The extra hip padding of the belt would help keep this in place.

Just an idea. Maybe somebody else can test this? The Brain Bag uses 1.5" Gatekeeper clips, so that attaching to that waist strap might give you a little extra give, but my guess is that it won't be as stable. I have the 1.5" waist strap (in Coyote) from the Citizen Canine accessories -- they're still up for sale.

Someone else might have additional ideas.

HTH

moriond

[oncojeans]

Hello. I too bought a Synik 22 thinking it would be an ideal daily carry. I already have a Synik 30 which is close to perfect. The Synik 22 is too small on my 6'0 frame, and it made me realise that the Synik 30 is close to perfection. Its certainly not too big for a daily carry

[Surrealle]

Have you considered the Brain Bag? At 18" tall it's right smack in the middle between the height of the S30 and S22. And while I know it's actually bigger volume-wise than the S30, thanks to the compression straps you never have too much space. (And on a side note, if you need more support/structure, the S25 frame sheet works very well in it).

Anyways, I know the aesthetics can be a sticking point for some, but in the darker colors I actually think it looks pretty good, especially the black or deep blue. I'm not sure what other boxes you have to check for your EDC, but I think it's worth a look if you haven't already I love the BB so much I have two, just in case TB ever discontinues it, lol.