ZimmerBuilt

Like the idea above and been thinking of something similar>

One reason I came to BPL was to slowly replace my inventory of store-bought packs with customized versions, so might need to take a look at the above design for a dayhiking pack, plus may be needing a winter pack from him or another US vendor.

Got my first custom pack from Chris over the weekend, an all-dyneema ruck modeled after the "half-dome", and putting it through the paces in the field on a day trip ..

http://www.zimmerbuilt.com/halfdome—hkn.html

(ed: link add for more photographic detail)

Call me an idiot, but I'd never heard of Zimmerbuilt. I just looked at his site and I'm extremely impressed with the packs he's made. I really like the cuben fiber pack he made for Jenny. Hhhhmmmmmm…….I'm not in the market for a pack, but I might have to be.

Chris makes great packs. I had him make me a GG Gorilla clone out of xpac. I love it! I was going to have him make another pack, but turns out the ULA Circuit had everything I was looking for. Can't go wrong with his quality and prices are reasonable.

Thom- nice pack :)

I bought a customized Zimmer pack from gear swap about 6 months ago. The workmanship is exceptional.

A few pictures of my ZimmerBuilt trail running pack, the TrailLite Designs SingleTrack:

Thom,

Saw photos of your pack just last night on the Zimmerbuilt site. Very nice pack. Does it simply just zipper open for a hydration bladder? Or is there another idea going on there? Would be neat to see a picture of it open so we could see what is going on inside. I gotta say I really like Mr. Z's work. He is very talented at what he does.

The pack has an internal water bladder sleeve and hang loop. Volume is sized just large enough to carry my trail running gear;

Patagonia Houdini wind shell
Patagonia Alpine Beanie
Defeet Handskins
Defeet Armskins
headlamp
fuel (bars, gels…)
1st aid (minimal)

Is Chris on here? I see he has a new Dry Bag Hauler called the Dusi. I'm wondering what the difference that and the old one.

The difference between the two is that the Dusi has a bigger front pocket and has an aluminum U-frame, the Dusi also has Dyneema X shoulder straps and hip belt wings.
Other then that they are pretty much the same.

Chris Zimmer just completed the TrailLite Designs H3 (HandHeld Hydration), I will have these available, along with the hydration pack shown above, soon.

Oh man, now those are simple and slick looking! Great work Zimmermaniac, awesome design Thom.

One suggestion for future models if/when you revise or expand upon these Thom:

Stretch mesh pocket- for quick storage of spent gel wrappers, additional gels, electrolytes, headlamp, etc.

Simple dynamic compression cord w/ toggle for attaching windshell or liner gloves

Let me know how they work Thom, specifically how they keep the bottle situated in the holder on longer runs. I've found that the neoprene sleeve that wraps around my bottle on the Fastdraw Plus keeps the bottle from slipping out, I occasionally have to pull the bottle down and back into the holster after a while with those holsters that don't have a sleeve around the bottle…..if that makes any sense.

With the Ultimate Direction Fastdraw Plus handheld I can strap my windshell, wrap my XP2 headlamp around the top of the bottle, and store about 5 gels and my car key- fully loaded. The Ultraspire Isometric Pocket is a new bottle from a new upstart company, it gets pretty dang close to what I'm looking for.

I am definitely ordering an H3 when they become available. Nice stuff.

Thom- have you had a chance to use the single track running? thoughts? improvements?

thanks

Mike

I'm currently using the 2nd prototype of the SingleTrack and I'm pleased with the packs design and function. My recent effort has been to complete a tenkara specific pack and with this project now complete I can/will focus on completing the SingleTrack trail running pack and have the first run built and available.

thanks Thom :)