Alpkit Koala v Wildcat Tiger – real world experiences

All

I have products from both companies and like both manufacturers.

Anyone got any comparisons between their respective seats bags?

R

Sorry, can’t compare the two, but I have a Koala. I think it’s very well constructed,capacious and the attachment points are well thought out. The one problem I have with it is that even if I cinch up the straps really tight, they always seem to creep while riding. It’s never fallen off, but always ends up just loose enough to swing a bit, instead of staying strapped tight under the saddle.

Got both. The tiger pisses all over the koala for stability,

How ever the alpkit barharness is far better than wildcats.

I’d also be interested in opinions on the relative merits of the restrap saddle bag.

Wildcat stuff is brilliant.

Cheers Trail_rat, that was my thinking when I compare the other products I’ve got. Just need to decide whether the extra storage space of the Koala over the Tiger would be missed.

I’ve got the Revelate Terrapin, which looks a bit like the Restrap one above, only less Gimp Masky…
Spotty dog IMHO.
Sits where it should, and doesn’t move around.
Great bit of (expandable) kit.

I prefer the Alpkit and its made in the UK.

Can’t comment on the wildcat as I don’t have one but the koala is frankly rubbish. The straps on the post do nothing for stability and begin to fray after a while, capacity wise it is well down on the Revelate Viscacha and Bikepack.eu equivalent. The straps are the narrowest webbing you could conceivably use, too short to get any purchase on and if you have any weight in the bag it wags like a playful puppy and goes loose on an hourly basis. The only time it’s been ok was when I had it filled with down clothing, ie no weight.

The Revelate and bikepack bags have bigger buckles and webbing, vastly superior post straps and extra features like rubber where it touches the post, etc. The Revelate is admittedly pricey but the bikepack.eu is a similar price.

Surprised someone up there likes the Kanga, I didn’t think that was much either unless you don’t need lights or have a massive headache or stem rise!

Wildcat and alpkit are both made in the UK.

How ever the alpkit barharness is far better than wildcats.

I’d have said the opposit after owning both. The alpkit was super stable but just to restrictive to how high it sits on the bar. After budging various things for a year to fit lights, ponies etc I’ve switched to the wildcat and never looked back.

Back to the OP…
I’ve had both and have been happy with both. I never had the wobble that some complain of with the alpkit, was always super stable. I prefer the wildcat though. The ability to use different dry bags and just take the dry bag away to campsite instead of trying to balance your bike or empty it whilst laid on the floor.
The big bonus I like though is being able to reverse the dry bag so the roll top goes into the harness. That way in truly miserable and muddy conditions you bag opening is nice and clean so your not getting your stuff dirty whilst putting it in or out.

Disappointed in the Koala and I am generally an Alpkit fanboi. It swings about and is very fiddly to attach . I ended up wrapping a bungee strap round it to keep it stable.

Only the bespoke Wildcat is made in the UK

Quite the opposite johnystorm.

I have a short headtube and short /low stem, short rigid forks and a 29er wheel – because ragley td-1.

The fibreglass rods put the drybag up away from wheel. My wildcat only leaves a bawhair between tire and wheel and the marks on he tongue suggests contact does occur.

Light mounts on a crown bracket below the bag when i need my big light. Mostly i just use mk10joystick and piggyback.

I put a hitch in the webbing of the Alpkit straps after cinching up tight, not ideal but stops them loosening. Apart from that it’s been a good bag and I like it.

Nipper99 – Member
Only the bespoke Wildcat is made in the UK

I’m pretty sure everything wildcat do is made in the UK.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/alpkit-v-apidura
After asking about Alpkit v Apidura, I came away thinking Wildcat!

I’ve been using my Wildcat seat pack the last few days, and it’s brilliant. It’s simple, stable, it’s made in the UK by some proper mountain bikers, it’s great. I like that I can put my own dry bags in it, so I know my stuff will stay dry, and can replace them if the dry bag wears out. I like being able to keep the harness on the bike and just bring the dry bag in. It’s ace balls.

Nipper99 – Member
Only the bespoke Wildcat is made in the UK

Really? http://www.wildcatgear.co.uk/info/wildcat-gear/

Just to add this to the mix, I’ve been using the alpkit tapered airlok for the last few bikepacking trips I’ve done and its been spot on. I’ve used my own straps to fasten to the the seat and as long as its packed tight, it doesn’t shift at all. I pack my cookset in the bottom end which really gives it a lot of structure when tightening the straps up.

£15 for a waterproof, rock solid seat pack is pretty hard to beat.

I don’t see how people are moving their weight round the bike properly when they’ve got a huge lump sticking out above/in back of the saddle. Stability aside, I suspect there might be better ways of doing this, especially if you run a hardtail with a lot of seatpost.

You aren’t going round trail centres doing jumps et al. with this setup so you don’t need to move around as much so it’s not really a problem. The packs are quite narrow so you can still get your weight back but definitely won’t be sitting on the back wheel. Typically you only have clothes in the seat pack so maybe a couple of kilograms in weight.

Some people do run a seat post mounted rack, I think Topeak do one, but they add more weight for little extra capacity or stability. The Wildcat Tiger weighs 195g whereas the Topeak RX Quick Release Beam Rack weighs 680g and then you need to add a bag of some sort.

When I’m bikepacking I want to be able to ride pretty much everything I could ride on an unloaded bike – that’s the point for me, freeing me from the limits imposed by pannier set-ups and the like. Up until now that’s meant a small drybag strapped to a rear rack or no rear luggage, but I intend playing around with some alternative options in the next few weeks.

Well I can ride pretty well everything I’d ride unloaded but since I avoid trail centres the level of technicality probably isn’t that high, at a guess I’d be able to ride any trail centre red with a loaded bike. I rode most of the Devil’s Staircase descent to Kinlochleven for example (this was after a rider in full downhill kit said it was 95% rideable).

Looking at that segment on Strava https://www.strava.com/segments/1305410 there’s a few bikepacking rigs (they were doing the HT550) in the top twenty so the above rig doesn’t seem to hold folk back.

It’s more about gradient than technicality (I wouldn’t consider the Devil’s Staircase a benchmark in either respect). It’s clear you can ride with these bags sticking up behind your arse, I just think there might be better solutions that haven’t evolved out of a US tradition of slogging along low-angle fire road plods. Just saying, like.

Get your solution to market, you’ll sell loads! 🙂

I’ll post it up here if it works. In fact, I’ll post it up it doesn’t, too.

If your talking about a hard tail, you could just stick a rear pannier on your bike and lash a drybag to the top of it. It would be heavier than just a seatpack but it would allow you drop the seat post.

I don’t want to drop my post. I don’t want to spend hundreds of pounds on a heavier seatpost that introduces more chance of mechanical failure. That’s kinda the point.

^ I’m kind of with you on the bags point there, and avoiding droppers for multi-day rides. I spent some time riding over the summer with a simple mini-rack and a bag strapped to it and appreciated the room behind the saddle. With a better bag design specific to the rack (a bit like a Moots Trailgator) it’d be my preferred set up for more techy rides. tbh the std seat bag set up didn’t cause any bother when I rode the GR5 and there was enough steep and techy stuff on that ride.
I use a Wildcat Tiger mainly and it’s great – the best out there ime. I don’t tend to need the capacity of the bigger bags anyway, or like having a bag that bulky out back.

looks like im gonna have to save up for a Wildcat bag 8)

Have a Revelate Pika to try out for a 4 day Cairngorm’s trip in the Spring (we will be staying in B&B’s), but would prefer an option that didn’t require removal of reverb and use of a conventional post. I’m sure I could get everything into my Evoc FR 20l backpack but it could get pretty heavy.

My current seat bag is a Wildcat Tiger with the Alpkit Tapered Airlock dry bag. I’ll use it with either (commonly) a standard post or occasionally with the Reverb, the only (potential) problem with the latter is that in muddy conditions there’s the possibility of grit getting between the post and bag strap and scoring the post. The Airlock is 13L in size though of course you don’t have to use all that volume, I did use an Exped Dry-bag before but it was slightly awkward to pack in to the tapered nose of the Tiger such that it didn’t work loose.The Airlock is heavier material but fits a lot better. My wife has the same setup but she’s shorter than me and there’s only a couple of centimetres between the bottom of the seat pack and the top of her rear wheel so there’s no way she’d be able to use a dropper anyway. The setup shown in Jam-bo’s photo has the bag sticking quite high and above the level of the saddle, my setup is closer to horizontal so doesn’t get in the way if you shift your bum back a bit.

If you have X litres of kit to carry then you need X litres of storage either on the bike, on your back or a combination. The only way to get round this is to take less kit or less voluminous kit.

The modern three bag (handlebar, frame and seat) setup has the advantage of centring weight on the bike since the heavy stuff usually goes in the frame bag. Most people seem to have their sleeping kit in the handlebar roll with just spare clothes in the seat pack. I don’t think I’ve had more than 2Kg in the seat pack even when it’s been full. I certainly don’t notice it, I’d rather have the kit there than on the handlebars TBH.

In addition to the standard three bags there are also the stem cells (https://www.alpkit.com/products/stem-cell) which sit behind the handlebars to either side of the top tube and the fuel pod (https://www.alpkit.com/products/fuel-pod-medium) type bags which sit on the top of the top tube. There are one or designs which extend the fuel pods to run the full length of the top tube but I’m not too convinced of their stability since the carried weight is above the fixing point. I’ve also seen a bag that fits in front of the down tube but I’ve not tried it though I suppose if your suspension doesn’t let your wheel get too close to the frame then it should work.

So far the wildcat tiger hasnt eaten my ks lev.