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What happened to the belt clip on the Back Door Bag?

I got my Back Door Bag 12+ years ago and recently discovered that the "lifetime warranty" is 5 years.

What's happened is that one of the belt clips broke (they're made of plastic, and so are bound to break eventually) and the stitching on one of the backpack straps weakened and tore off the bag. I had to jimmy the strap at the airport by tying it to another part of the base of the bag.

In any event, I was looking at the current line of Back Door Bags and see that Rick's Original BDB "is back!" (I didn't know it was gone). However, I don't see the belt clip, which means all the weight of the bag is now on your shoulders, instead of being distributed to your hips. Am I misunderstanding something here? Is there a model with belt clips that I'm not seeing?

Thanks

Posted by
61 posts

There are two versions of the bag available. The Classic Back Door Bag for $79 has no expansion or waist belt. The Convertible Carry-on for $99 is a similar bag but can expand and has the waist belt.

Posted by
32363 posts

levbarg,

With the RS Backpacks, the weight of the pack is likely going to be on your shoulders anyway, regardless of whether it has a waist belt or not. The RS packs have no provision for torso range adjustment, so there's no way to adjust them to balance the load between hips and shoulders. They may work for some people, but likely not many.

If you want to use a backpack, I'd suggest broadening your search and having a look at Eagle Creek or Osprey Packs, which do offer torso adjustment. If you don't mind having the weight on your shoulders for short periods of time, you could also have a look at the Tom Bihn Aeronaut or Tri-Star models.

Posted by
5837 posts

I have the minimalist Classic RS backpack carry-on bag. Shoulder straps, no sternum strap or waist strap, but light in weight and not rigid (I can compress the stuffed bag into the airline sizing frame/box and aircraft overhead storage.

For carry-on bags meeting airline length limits waist straps only add stability and don't carry much load unless you have a short torso. The hip strap needs to bear on the iliac crest of your pelvis to be any good with load and would need some kind is frame or suspension system.

If the strap is around your waist above the pelvis it only helps with lateral stability not load. Most/all the load would go through the shoulder straps, which shouldn't be a problem if you pack light.