REVIEW: MLD Bikepacking Bags

Gear Review

I posted last week about my first bikepacking trip. It was an amazing experience bikepacking the White Rim Trail in Southern Utah. Since I am new to bikepacking I had to source an appropriate bike, bags, and other gear. As you know there are so many choices, and it was difficult to decide on what bags best suit my purposes and requirements.

I settled on the Mountain Laurel Designs (MLD) Bikepacking Bags. I wanted lightweight bags that were both functional and durable. They are definitely lightweight and functional. However, I am now questioning their durability.

Here's a follow up to how the MLD bags held up on my first ever bikepacking trip. Let me preface this with these bags were used once on a 15-mile test ride and then on the WRT (100 miles). I used MLD's recommendations for the Tumbleweed rear rack and Widefoot Cargo Mount for the fork bags.

Fork Bags: Each fork bag stored a 2L water bottle. As you can see one of the bags suffered abrasion and resulted in a good-sized hole. If the trip had been longer the hole would have been the entire edge of the Widefoot Cargo Mount. Again, the Widefoot Cargo Mount is recommended by MLD. This after 115 miles, which from my perspective is not a lot of miles. I expected much more from them, and this wear and hole causes concern about abrasions on the panniers.

Panniers: One was loaded with 1.5L water bottle and Breakefast and Dinner for the trip. The other was loaded with 2x1.5L water bottles and Lunch for the trip. The daisy chain for mounting and support straps held up very well (see NOTE below). The seams also held up very well. However, there are some areas of abrasions where they make contact with the rack, one that appears to be worn through, that are concerning. I wasn't at first concerned until I noticed an abrasion hole on one of the fork bags.

NOTE: The black rack mounting clips on the panniers are my design and 3D printed for easy of rack attachment and removal. MLD provides velcro to cut and use for rack attachment. I found this velcro attachment to be extremely cumbersome.

Rear Dry Bag: Not unexpected there was no wear on this bag. It sat on top of the rack between the two panniers. It stored by EE quilt, Zpacks Duplex Tent, Thermarest pad, Outdoor Vitals Pillow, Cook system, and Cup.

Handlebar Dry Bag: Also, not unexpected, there was no wear on this bag. It was mounted in a Oveja Negra Front End Loader Handlebar Harness and stored my clothes, ditty bag, and tire/flat repair kit.

Final Thoughts: I would definitely recommend MLD's dry bags as they will likely see little wear on a rack or in a handlebar harness. However, I am less enthusiastic to recommend the panniers and fork bags. 115 miles is not a lot of miles to put a hole through a $50 fork bag and create enough abrasion on $215 panniers to cause reasonable concern about durability. I have hopes of attempting a GDMBR and planned to use these on that trip. Now I'm questioning whether or not these are durable enough for that distance.

Your Thoughts: I'd be grateful if you shared your thoughts and experience. While I'm new to bikepacking, I am an ultralight thru-hiker and have cycle-toured the entire coast of California and Washington (used Madden panniers that still look brand new). So, I am familiar with lightweight materials and durability expectations for gear.

FOLLOW UP: MLD has deleted my honest review on their Facebook Page, has banned me, and won't approve my honest product reviews of these two products on their website. Before banning me, I saw a customer post on their FB page about a new tent that leaks. Others quickly posted they were having the same issue. That post was also deleted. I can only assume MLD does not want potential customers to know about product issues or deficiencies and or they don't want to take responsibility for them. Regardless, it's bad business to not let your customers provide feedback about their experiences with your products.

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Fork Bag - Abrasion and hole from using the MLD recommended Widefoot Cargo Mount

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in bikepackingby yeltriky

75%

20d

13d

SpinToWin360

I’m here for the dirt🤠

20d

I’d recommend attaching your water bottles directly to your wide foot cages using voile straps.

It sounds like you had a piece of fabric sandwiched between 2 hard surfaces (the cage and the water bottle). Generally speaking, that is something you’ll want to avoid in the future

algu3632

20d

Agreed, those bags would be great for small stuff but water bottles can go straight on the cage.

As for the panniers, the 3-pack mounts on the rack are a little raised. I was concerned about those rubbing through on my panniers as well. Since I dont see myself using cages on the rack any time soon, I just put a layer of gorilla tape over them. Hopefully that does the trick. I made my own panniers but I rode with them on a modified Joe Safari route last month and they didnt have marks from the bolt holes, so I think its working.

yeltriky

19d

Thank you for the recommendation. Will definitely avoid in the future. I put them in the bags to avoid having them caked in the orange dust of the WRT that you see on the panniers. I totally bought into MLD's marketing of how abrasion resistant the Ultra X material is and thought it wouldn't be an issue. From my 115 miles, I can tell you the Ultra X material is not as abrasion resistant as MLD leads you to believe. They know what I experienced is expected and they have all kinds of recommendations after the fact of what you need to do to hopefully avoid premature wear and holes. Such as sticking duct tape to the panniers and bags where they make contact, adding a metal plate to your Widefoot CargoMounts, using Seam Grip, etc. None of these precautions are mentioned in their product videos or come with the product themselves. Maybe this is common with bikepacking gear, but having cycle toured thousands of miles, I never had to do this with thet packs and bags I used. Lesson learned at least with the MLD bags. Thanks again!

SpinToWin360

I’m here for the dirt🤠

19d

It’s definitely a bummer when performance doesn’t match expectations; I’ve had my share of that. I’ve had good luck with products made of Cordura in terms of durability and products with welded seams vs sewn (ie. Ortlieb, Rockgeist, sea to summit?) for waterproofness as well as decent durability.

For managing dust & dirt with your water bottles, you can keep the bottle you are drinking from in a feedbag on your handlebar & then transfer water from other bottles to that one as needed.

yeltriky

19d

Thanks u/SpinToWin360 for the reply and suggestion. Yes, it will be the last time I put water bottles in those fork bags. Having spent time in and around Canyonlands and Moab, I just had visions of those bottles being caked with that orange silt and seeing it drop into the water when removing the lid. So, I spent $100 to prevent that and it worked, except for the hole in the one bag. Had I known this material is not as durable as MLD would lead you to believe, I would have either work to protect it or not purchased them for this purpose.

Live and learn! Thanks again.

mountainlaureldesign

20d

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My hack for any widefoot type LW fork cage. A thin aluminum disc about a $1 on eBay. Tapped the new hole in the cage foot and used a back up bolt. Thin dense foam glued to the top for cushion. Very LW hack. I really like the lightweight Widefoot cages. Perfect for a 2L soda bottle inside the 2.5L MLD dry bag on the fork. Carry 2L of water securely. Drybag + 2L PET bottle is 3oz vs a 2lb steel bottle

mountainlaureldesign

20d

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yeltriky

18d

Let's see, buy expensive MLD lightweight Fork Bags and Poco Panniers so you have to add the weight of foam, metal disks, duct tape, Seam Grip, etc. to make them durable enough for their intended purpose. Why, in all your posts and videos, are you not demonstrating these 'hacks', and adding the weight of them, to actually achieve the abrasion resistance and durability you claim these products inherently have? Your videos demonstrating the Poco Panniers on the Tumbleweed Mini Rack, which I used, don't mention needing duct tape and Seam Grip. The panniers used in the video don't have duct tape stuck and Seam Grip on them. Be up front about the fact that if you don't take these precautions your MLD bags will suffer, maybe within the first 115 mile as mine did, holes and abrasions that render them no longer waterproof and will need repair.

swiaq

20d

Why are you putting water bottles inside a dry bag? And why are you putting bottles in a pannier? Wouldn’t a soft cnoc bladder be better for this?

A photo of the bike set up would be helpful.

yeltriky

19d

Thank you for the reply and questions. I put the bottles in the fork bags to keep them from being caked in the orange dust of the Southern Utah desert. For this route I needed to start with 12.5L of water. This in addition to my food, camping gear, clothing, etc. Cnoc bladders would have worked as well. Not sure it would have changed the outcome as the abrasions on the panniers were a result of contact with the rack.

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swiaq

19d

Figured the water bottle thing would be that type of reason. In that case maybe look into something a bit more disposable for the ones on the front.

As for the pannier sometimes larger objects that are stiff can create hot spots that creat the excess wear.

Water is abundant where I ride. For such a big water haul you might want to look into the crank tank

https://adventurehydration.com although the price is way high imo but 4l of water is a good start

yeltriky

19d

Thanks for the recommendation. I considered the crank tank, but with the MLD bags I purchased had enough storage space for the water.

Really, my complaint with MLD Poco Panniers and Ultra Fork Dry Bags is MLD knows this material is not as abrasion resistant as they lead their customers to believe and yet do NOT provide adequate warning about the requirement to ADD abrasion protection to the fabric and racks to prevent premature wear and holes such as I experienced within 115 miles of riding loaded. They offered several suggestions to attempt to protect the material from wear and holes after I reached out to them showing the damage on my bags. So, they know this is an issue and wait until a customer has holes before letting them know this is what will happen if you don't stick duct tape to your new bags, add a metal plate and foam to your Widefoot CaargoMount, and do some preventative work to your rack(s) as well. Instead, they heavily tout how abrasion resistant this material is and how it has been "Tested from Alsaka to the Pisgah Forrest to the Chihuahuan Desert. Tough enough for world touring." Well, for me they didn't last 115 miles before getting holes. Now I know and I hope others will stumble on this thread and purchase with eyes open.

threepin-pilot

19d

OP- i believe you said this was your first time bikepacking? As with any type of endeavor there are many things to learn. 1 of those is to develop an eye for what things are likely to be an issue and to mitigate what you can. Something will still go wrong or break but that's a part of the adventure. i just got a set of the same panniers and the ti version of the rack, one of the first things I did was to source some rounded plastic plugs to cover the abrupt edges of the 3 pack mounts, after years of watching things rub i could see that was an issue right away. I would by no means expect a newer BP'er to see that right away. But the next time something like this presents itself you will look for it and find it. I think the poco panniers seem well made but when you have really lightweight products extra care is indicated.

Ron does mention it in his listing for those on his site:

NOTE: If your rack struts have bottle mount points that stick out, you may use one or two layers of a high quality duct tape stuck to the pannier fabric as protection. This is a good practice for any type lightweight panniers that do not use thick top and bottom ridgid hooks that hold the fabric away from contacting the rack struts.

I believe if you clean those well and apply a very thin coat of something like seam grip to those areas you would be as good as new. Ask Ron though

yeltriky

19d

Thanks u/threepin-pilot for the reply. Yes, this was my first bikepacking adventure. New everything from bike to bags. I'm an ultralight backpacker so nothing new from a camping gear standpoint. It has been a great experience in the researching and planning for which gear to purchase and how to pack it all on a bike. Yes, every new form of adventure comes with its own learning curve, and I have traversed many (motocross, rock climbing, mountaineering, thru-hiking, sailing, cycle touring, etc.). It's one of the things I love most about getting involved in a new type of adventure.

As for this "NOTE" you mentioned. That was NOT there when I purchased on March 6th. I am not sure how recently this was added, but web.archive.org which has a cache of MLD's website from March 18th doesn't have this NOTE. I purchased on March 6th. This is not mentioned in their videos and no such NOTE was included with the product. Besides, the hole in my pannier was caused by the biner which MLD instructs to use for the lower rack attachment. I suppose I should have known to put duct tape there too?

In the case of my first bikepacking adventure, all the planning and gear choices seemed to have been flawless. My experience exceeded my expectations. Then when cleaning up my Mountain Laurel Designs (MLD) gear, I noticed the abrasions and holes. My mistake was totally buying into MLD's videos and product descriptions about how abrasion resistant and durable the Ultra X material is. For their Panniers they state:

"Tested from Alsaka to the Pisgah Forrest to the Chihuahuan Desert. Tough enough for world touring. Super Light for Long Distrance Racing."

"World touring" Heck, I was just going 100 miles. They do a great job touting the abrasion resistance and durability of this material and I bought into it 100%. When I sent an email to MLD with photos of the wear and holes, I was told I should have done what they do and stick a high-quality duct tabe to the panniers to prevent wear. They offered other preventative measures I could have or should have done to prevent the premature wear and holes. They obviously know about and have experienced what I did. So, yes, I learned that this material is NOT as abrasion resistant as they portray and they do not provide sufficient caution, warnings and recommendations to prevent premature wear and holes.

I also learned they do not appreciate honest customer feedback as they deleted my review on the MLD Facebook Page. I also learned they believe this kind of wear and holes are just "cosmetic" even though holes void a significant product feature of being waterproof.

To anyone considering purchasing the MLD V2 Ultra X 400 Poco Panniers or the MLD Ultra Fork Dry Bags for their low weight, factor in the weight of sticking duct tape to them, adding an aluminum foot plate with foam to your Widefoot CargoMount, and adding additional protection to your rear or front rack to prevent abrasion and holes within the first 115 miles. MLD doesn't tell you all of this upfront, but they certainly will tell you this after your new bags have holes in them.

But, to your point, I have learned that the Ultra X material is not as abrasion resistant as MLD leads you to believe and needs to be protected by sticking duct tape to every area that comes in contact with anything including the biner, racks need to be addressed and protection added, and if you get holes just think of them as "cosmetic". Ok, that last part might have been a bit snarky, my apologies, but that's how MLD referred to them.

threepin-pilot

19d

i understand your disappointment, at this point try a tiny bit seam grip or urethane on those spots (thin coat not a blob) and go to a good bike shop and get some plastic plugs for M5 holes (got to be sub 1 gram).

I also switched bolts on my tumbleweed rack (where the struts bolt to the slots on the deck) to lower profile more rounded heads to lessen the wear possibility on a dry bag

WRT to the water bottle in the fork bags- i would have direct mounted to the cages and just dealt with the dirt on the bottles- ( the threads and mouth stay clean) any dense hard object like a water bottle definitely presents a worst case for wear and abrasion- I always direct mount those or use a bladder. It's quite possible that even a fairly burly fabric might have wear in such a situation- hard to tell.

The biggest difference in wear from u/L backpacking to Bikepacking is that jostling vibration etc are much much much worse and dirt and grit get flung more places more often to do the grinding.

I'm not trying to defend MLD in any way but you do need to need to look at wear and rubbing everywhere - under straps, cables rubbing on bags or tubes, stuff sacks getting abraded inside other bags (tool bags are subject to that)

that kind of thing

Look at the bright side- you had a beautiful first trip

I hope you have many more

yeltriky

19d

Thanks. Yes, I'll get them repaired and will come up with solutions to prevent further damage as much as possible. Honestly, most of my disappointment is with how MLD presents the durability and how they responded to my experience. Deleting my honest review on MLD's Facebook Page, telling me holes are just "cosmetic", knowing this will happen if precautions aren't taken, yet not being upfront about the required precautions, etc. Just doesn't build a relationship of trust with your customer. Unfortunately, for them, as an ultralight backpacker, I was considering replacing some of my current gear with theirs. Not anymore. But, yes, I had a great bikepacking experience on the WRT and I'm already planning the next one.

threepin-pilot

19d

good deal

come up this way (NW MT) sometime- it doesn't suck

yeltriky

19d

Most definitely! I hope one day to attempt the GDMBR.

threepin-pilot

19d

wave when you go by