Aeroe QuickLock Urban Backpack

The Aeroe QuickLock Urban Backpack is a feature-rich way to carry work or day-out gear on your Aeroe Spider Rack. Fitted with an integrated QuickLock recess that fits the same mount as Aeroe’s Adventure Pod, it attaches in seconds. The straps can be a fiddle and some might find a bit of discomfort around the shoulder area, but otherwise it’s a great solution.

I’ll start this review with a big caveat: the Urban Backpack only works with Aeroe’s award-winning Spider rack (front or rear), reviewed four years back. The Spider rack is unchanged in the years between – why try to improve on near-perfection? The backpack comes with a QuickLock puck that attaches to your existing rack, if you don’t have a puck already for carrying Adventure Pods. 

The backpack is £149.99 by itself, if you already have a Spider rack, or you can buy the backpack and Spider rack combo for £244.99, if you aren’t already in the Aeroe ecosystem.

If you’re new to Aeroe, know that it’s an incredibly tough system. I can’t think of another – not even the excellent Tailfin setups – that matches Aeroe for brute strength. While not recommended, you can pick up your bike by your Aeroe luggage – so strong is the mounting system.

The other advantage of Aeroe is that by using the seatstays or fork as a mounting point, as opposed to axles, dropouts or seatposts/seat tubes, I’ve yet to find a bike it won’t attach to, quickly and without faff.

As I mentioned in the Spider rack review, once you’ve got the feet aligned for your bike, the act of fitting and removal is a minute or so with a 5mm hex key, even less if you’re using an electric screwdriver. If your commuting bike is also your trail bike come weekends, removing the Spider rack for singletrack fun isn’t a chore.

If you’re using the backpack, chances are you’re locking your bike in an urban setting. Aeroe doesn’t do a set of security bolts, which is a missed opportunity to protect a £95 rack plus pack fitting. If needed, you can find your own M6 x 40mm coarse thread cap screws easily enough for less than a pound each.

Weight a minute

The backpack, Spider rack and puck weigh just a smidge over 2kg all up – which isn’t bad for what you get. I rather liked the Two Wheel Gear Pannier Backpack Convertible 2.0 Lite, at 1,440g (and now £134), and once you add a pannier rack you’re almost certainly weighing the same or more than the Aeroe setup. Plus, most backpack-to-pannier conversions take a fair bit of faffing around with straps and zips – not so the Aeroe product. More on that later.

The QuickLock Urban Backpack’s key feature is the QuickLock mount recessed into the padded back.

Under the side ‘briefcase’ carry handle is a short strap that you pull to release the locking mechanism. You then offer the backpack up to the QuickLock puck, aligning the three blades on the puck with the matching recesses on the mount. Once they are aligned, you then pivot the pack to the desired angle and release the strap, locking it in place.

There’s a small amount of play once fixed, but there’s absolutely no rattling or movement you can feel when riding – Aeroe has struck the perfect balance between ease of fitment and security. Depending on your bike and how the Spider rack attaches to your seatstays, if needed you can pivot the pack to avoid heelstrike when pedalling.

Build & weatherproofing

The QuickLock Urban Backpack is made from welded TPU and is rated IP64 – so dustproof and protected from water spray or splashing from any direction. IP65 would be protection from low-pressure water jets, so no, you can’t jetwash your backpack, but it’s absolutely fine in horrendous rain. While the zip itself is waterproof, the area where the two zips butt up against each other when closed isn’t – so you need to pay attention and close the zips on a downward side to avoid water pooling and seeping between them over time. The zip opens more than halfway down the pack, making internal access and rummaging for stuff pretty easy.

On the front of the backpack is a zippered pocket that can accommodate the straps once removed, plus notebooks, phones or whatever. The zip has a deep garage to keep water out – again, you need to pay attention to the pack’s orientation to ensure you aren’t channelling water inside. The entrance isn’t large enough for A4 size documents, they need to go inside the pack.

There’s a small welded slot for mounting a rearward-facing clip-on bike light, if you’re wearing the backpack while riding.

Handles with care

On the top between the strap mounts is a small carry handle, and on the side is a larger padded handle allowing the pack to be carried like a briefcase. This can be pulled flush with the pack, and there’s a D-ring on the end of the handle you can clip things to if needed.

Looks are always in the eye of the beholder, but what the pack doesn’t scream is ‘COMMUTING CYCLIST’. With the minimal matt black finish and straps off there’s nothing to suggest it’s even a backpack without closer inspection, meaning it can sit in a meeting room or at a café without looking out of place.

Inside, the pack is plain black, with two Velcro strips to match those on the laptop insert. The insert is padded and fleece lined, fitting up to 16-inch laptops with an elastic Velcro’d strap to hold them securely. It’s easily added for work or school, or removed for carrying pretty much anything you like as needed.

There are two deep, open mesh pockets for battery banks, cables and so on, and a shallow zipped pocket for smaller valuables, keys, pens. There’s also a deep A4-sized document pocket that could hold a fair stack of paper, a few books or a tablet.

The load capacity of the pack is 10 litres, which should give you enough for a day about town. It’s clearly not meant as an overnight or carry-on bag for longer trips.

Straps: sorted (mostly)

One key feature of any backpack-pannier is how the straps are managed, as clearly they can’t be left attached to catch in the spokes, gears or brakes. Aeroe has done a good job here, going with magnetic buckles that pretty much attach themselves to the pack and only come off with deliberate two-finger squeezing.

As the buckles can rotate freely, you can set them up as a traditional two-strap backpack, as a single-diagonal-strap messenger bag, or as a tote bag over one shoulder either vertically or horizontally. When not in use the straps disappear inside the front pocket or in the pack.

In standard backpack mode the height-adjustable sternum strap keeps the weight nicely distributed, and again it’s a magnetic catch with a positive press to release. All straps are retained with elastic bands, keeping flapping straps to a minimum.

The only gripe I have with the Aeroe QuickLock Urban Backpack is the top of the straps when worn as a backpack. The way the straps and buckles that attach to the top of the pack work, the top of the straps sit between your shoulders and the buckle and can press into you under certain circumstances. The slacker you have the straps, the more pronounced the feeling is against your shoulder blades.

The inherent compromises of trying to make a pannier that turns into a backpack or vice versa means something is always going to not be perfect, compared with a dedicated backpack or dedicated pannier. So long as you’re not expecting ergonomic perfection, and are wearing the backpack for shortish periods – like walking from bike parking to office or shop and back, this issue shouldn’t deter you from choosing the Aeroe pack. It may be that you don’t notice or aren’t bothered by the feeling of the strap pads. Had Aeroe shortened the pads no doubt some would feel the buckle itself, so the design choice is understandable.

And if you don’t find the fit to your taste, Aeroe offers a 30-day unused returns policy, so don’t let this put you off. The pack comes with a two-year warranty, too, but I can’t see anyone needing it, the materials and build quality are so high.

Load up

I used the backpack for trips into town to procure the in-perennially-short-supply coffee and cheese, including café-surfing for a day with laptop and charger, notebook and so on while the car got serviced. We leave the Spider rack and QuickLock puck attached to the shared family e-mountain bike, and the ability to jump on with the backpack attached in a second or so became second nature. It’s surprising how much food you can get into 10L of space, along with a hefty e-bike-legit D-lock.

Clearly this isn’t dedicated cycle touring luggage – the other bags in Aeroe’s range cater to that multi-day need. You could bring the backpack along mounted front or rear as part of a broader collection of Aeroe bags and use it for off-the-bike excursions, assuming you can leave your bike and other luggage someplace secure. You won’t get a week’s shopping in here, but for for day-to-day use, toting a laptop and work stuff about, a weekend morning about town, a day trip with a picnic or nipping to the shops for comestibles, the Aeroe QuickLock Urban Backpack is a good shout.

> Easy and effective ways to carry stuff on your bike – from bar bags to cargo bikes

The robustness of the setup and high resistance to water ingress means you aren’t defined by choice of route or weather – so by all means take the muddy singletrack to or from work, then a quick wipe or run under a tap will see you back to meeting-room condition.

Value

As I said above, the QuickLock Urban Backpack is £149.99 if you already have a Spider rack, or £245 for the backpack and rack combo. How does that compare with alternatives?

Well, the Ortlieb Vario 20 is a £178 pannier-backpack that will hook onto any standard rear rack (£20-ish), making for a system price of around £200. Perhaps a fairer comparison matching the backpack with easily added or removed racking would be to match the Vario 20 with Ortlieb’s £100 Quick Rack, making for a £278 package. More expensive than the Aeroe package, but ballpark comparable.

Again the Two Wheeled Gear Pannier Backpack is a good shout – I use one on a pretty regular basis, especially with hybrid bikes with built-in racks. If you’re only using a bog standard metal pannier rack, that’s a system for around £160. But if you need something to use on a mountain bike or other bike that lacks rack mounts, you’re going to have to look at pricier mounting options.

If you’re really looking to keep the spend down, Decathlon’s £28 LomoBike Pannier Dry Bag Rucksack DC25 (and breathe) is hard to go past. Add a rack for £20 or so and you’re off. Of course this is not svelte boardroom-presentable luggage and absolutely screams CYCLIST, or at the least possibly meal delivery rider.

But would any of these comparisons survive the sort of thrashing the Aeroe offering can? I very much doubt it.

Check out more options we’ve rated in our guide to the best bike panniers and racks.

Conclusion

So, if you aren’t already an Aeroe user then yes, £245 for a rack and backpack is a pretty sum – but that compares well with other premium combinations, and the functionality and options you get are very well thought out. And you can be assured it will be going strong for many mucky and wet work or play miles and years to come.

Verdict

Super-tough backpack-pannier solution that will fit almost any bike quickly and easily while looking sharp

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