CiloGear 60 Liter WorkSack Backpack REVIEW

In an effort to make the Manual easier to find, I changed the font size of all mentions of the manual on the website.

A visitor to the website can find a link to the manual on the bottom of virtually every page.

I will make sure that the manual is incredibly obvious and easy to find on the new website.

Brett:

Thanks for your comments, and I will make sure to fix the broken link in the morning when I'm back at the office.

The angle of the straps was changed over a year ago. The pack supplied to BPL was supplied with that information. Check out the 40L pack that I supplied to BPL…

The new website does address some of your concerns about showing clear shots of the shoulder straps and the results of the variability of the compression / load transfer system. I will add some snapshots of the shoulder straps to my blog tomorrow.

Thanks,
Graham

Thank you for the prompt replies; your responsiveness to potential customers is really excellent, so I expect your follow on service would be as well. Glad to hear about the improvements. I just packed my Mountainsmith 45L for an alpine trip, and its too small. Im going to take another look at your 60L; it looks very versatile.

Howdy Greg,

http://www.cilogear.com/oem/ends.shtml but I anticipate that page changing in the next week. I will make sure that it drives you to the new page automatically, which will be http://www.cilogear.com/corp/ethics.shtml

All of the high value inputs are made in the USA, as much as we can determine. We do the sewing in Turkey. We do our prototyping here in New York City and over there in Istanbul. I also do a lot of outreach in Turkey, the only Muslim majority member of NATO and the USA's only democratic Muslim ally.

Our goal is to keep the high value work / patents here, while delivering excellent value for the customer's dollar. Basically, sewing is a dead end in the USA, and pretty much only exists for very small and expensive operations or the military. The textile business in the US is incredibly bizarre, and dominated by the military in terms of production and very powerful lobby groups in terms of tariffs.

Most of the value of the fabric in our packs is represented by the Dimension Polyant stuff. The fabric is a laminate made from five layers. The most valuable layer is Cordura. however, the Cordura is manufacturered in Japan under license of Invista using (most of the time) Shell's nylon 6.6. The work done by the DP workers is definitely the most skilled labor, and I am glad to support my regional economy as much as possible.

I source the vast majority of my fabric from Connecticut and Rhode Island, and virtually all of my buckles and webbing from Long Island, New York.

By way of an example, if the waist band of a pair of pants hasn't been attached, and you attach it in the states, your pants are now made in the USA.
Another example: in conversations with the former CFO and current CEO of Malden Mills, they stated that the only reason they still make stuff in the USA is because the US military demands it. None of the rest of their major customers are interested in buying their US production.

Sorry about the long winded response to your short question.

The review mentioned that the pack carried comfortably up to 35 pounds.
I carry up to 30 pounds in my frameless Golite Gust; compared to the Gust, this pack is a major load hauler, suitable for heavy loads.

I have had a V1 60L for a year and a half, including 2 summers of wilderness guiding, plus carrying rope solo trad gear, and backpacking. It is really a great pack.
I have carried up to about 70 lbs in it. I was guiding a jr high backpacking trip, so went ultralight on my personal gear, but then carried a really heavy meal for 12 plus 2 full 6L water bags for a dry campsite, plus 3.5L of my own water. It was not comfortable – 70 lbs is never ever comfortable – but it was very doable. This August I did a trip into the Winds for 8 days with rock climbing and glacier gear. The pack was heavy, but again, performed well.

In regard to not having waterbottle pockets, it was initially designed for alpine climbing and mountaineering, where outside waterbottle pockets can get in the way while climbing. I use the crampon pocket for a bottle and a hydration pack for drinking on the go. Maybe make a version for backpacking with features like waterbottle pockets and hipbelt pockets but without the crampon pocket and with only a single basic ice axe loop. Anyone with basic sewing skills could do these mods. The fabric could also be lightened up for a non-mountaineering pack.

the dee-clip system is especially useful when carrying big items like snowshoes, since straps can be linked together to go around the snowshoes.