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- OK, here’s the situation...you’ve spent a lot of time choosing a motorcycle that not only meets your wants and needs, but is also an expression of your personal style. After all, motorcycles are often used as toys as they are used as transportation—for the weekend ride, for the weeknight meet-up, for track days and weeklong tours. You not only revel in the thrill and freedom that only motorcycles can provide, you also get envious glances from the public as you roll through the metropolis. Perfect.
But there is a practical side—you do ride to work and visit grandma with your shiny toy from time to time. Trouble is, today’s sleek missiles lack the storage space for either a laptop or a leftover casserole. So you use a backpack—maybe the one you used to carry your schoolbooks or the one you used to go hiking. Yet something’s not right—the backpack throws the whole style thing off. It’s like wearing Sketchers with a Zegna suit. What to do? Enter Boblbee.
For nearly 10 years now, Boblbee’s been making backpacks specifically at the active, style-conscious techno hipster. The Megalopolis Executive is their über-pack—a futuristic, top-loading, hard-shell design filled with thoughtful features aimed at making the backpack functional and fashionable.
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- The defining feature of the Megalopolis is the injection-molded, ABS-monocoque hard shell forming the backpack’s sides and back. This hard shell not only creates a weatherproof, impact-resistant main compartment for your laptop and casserole, it tapers to a ducktail that transfers some of backpack’s load to your lower back. The hard shell is connected to the soft frame by flexible, expandable, water-resistant 600-denier fabric. The frame and harness consist of a thickly padded back pad with ventilation channels, beefy shoulder straps, a sternum strap and a removable waist belt. A water-resistant lid with two built-in pockets tops off the backpack—one pocket is clearly designed for MP3 players since it includes a rubberized headphone-cord port. The lid is held in place by the bungee-cord system that seals tight and it is tied to the mounting hardware that is attached to the hard shell. A shoulder-strap mounted cell-phone pocket rounds out the external features. The backpack’s materials appear to be made from the highest quality and the backpack’s assembly is top notch. All in all, the Megalopolis appears capable of handling a lot of use and abuse.
Inside, the backpack has a laptop sleeve big enough for a 15-inch MacBook Pro. It will also hold larger Dell laptops, though I’m not sure if the new 17-inch laptops would fit. The laptop is placed close to your back for maximum protection, and the main compartment has a variety of slim pockets for pens, CDs and the like. Overall, you can carry a surprising amount of gear. I’ve had a laptop and a bulky three-inch 3-ring binder stuffed in there at one time, and at other times I’ve shoved more than 20 pounds of office detritus in the backpack. If you need to carry more you should consider another backpack, or more importantly, reconsider the way you carry things on your motorcycle.
So how does all of this high-tech geek style work on a motorcycle? Excellently. This is one of the best work-oriented motorcycle backpacks that I’ve tried. The sleek shape cuts through the wind without buffeting—even in, ahem, “winds” above 100 miles per hour. The harness system holds the pack close to the body and evenly distributes the load. The two top pockets provide quick access to keys, wallets, ID cards, iPods and what not, but not in a way that make them vulnerable to petty thieves, and the main compartment is big and nicely organized, too.
Is it perfect? No. While the weight distribution is good, it’s not great. You don’t get the oneness-with-the-pack fit of a good hiking backpack, but it’s certainly good enough for the more than one-hour scenic route to work. The removable waist strap will help shift the load to your hips, but it’s a bit of a disappointment—it’s hard to adjust it so that more than 60 percent of the load settles on your hips. Removing the waist strap may be for the best. After all, waist straps and Zegna suits simply don’t mix. And the bungee system that secures the top lid is a little fussier than a zipper, but it protects the main compartment from all but the worst elements.
At the end of the day, the Megalopolis is a great motorcycle backpack but it is not for everyone—it draws curious looks and it is sometimes mistaken for a jet pack or vacuum cleaner. But if you are looking for a backpack that will carry your laptop securely and will complement your personal sense of style, look no further than www.Boblee.com. I wouldn’t want to carry a laptop or grandma’s casserole any other way.
Review By John Flores
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