Mavic Deemax Belt on review – small pack, big promises

According to Mavic, the Deemax Belt can carry a lot more than most minimalist race belts that fit under a jersey. Supposedly, it can take a pump and a spare inner tube at the same time. In practice, however, you should resist the temptation to follow the manufacturer’s suggestions.

**Price:** € 50 | **Weight:** 174 g | **Volume:** n/a

Initially, the Deemax Belt makes a high-quality impression and looks pretty elegant when it sticks out from under the jersey. On the outside, Mavic’s racing belt gives you direct access to a zipped, albeit small, phone compartment and one smaller open pocket each side of it.

An elegant race-pack for under the jersey: the Mavic Deemax Belt.

On the outside, there’s a phone pocket and two smaller compartments each side of it.

On the inside, the Deemax welcomes you with an alluring promise: “pump” and “innertube”, it says…

The interior is accessed via a full-length zipper. While this has two sliders, you’ll have to decide for one or the other if you want to get to your stuff quickly. Once the pack’s open, the first thing that catches your eye is the poor processing of the upper edge. There are five more small mesh pockets at the front and three rubber straps at the rear. That’s exactly where the alluring message invites you to store a pump and an inner tube which made us a bit sceptical.

While there’s theoretically enough room to accommodate both, once they’re in, the pack becomes very uncomfortable and is almost impossible to carry. We recommend you stick to the five mesh compartments. Unfortunately the quality of the finish of the upper part doesn’t reflect the price tag.

Unfortunately, the initial impression proves correct. Neither with a pump, nor with an inner tube – and certainly not with both – can the Deemax Belt provide a half decent wearing comfort. With the chunky inner tube, the thin race belt becomes a bulky lump of a monster, with the horizontal, stiff shape of the pump pressing hard against the back. Not cool! Which is a shame, because the concept of the other two Mavic models works extremely well.

If you don’t overload it, the thin Deemax Belt wraps snug around the waist.

If you only use the mobile phone compartment and strategically place your minitool, CO2 cartridge and other small items around your hips, the Mavic Deemax Belt is comfortable and unobtrusive. With its soft and slender construction and the rubber straps on the left end, the Deemax Belt scores good points and fits snug around the hips. The other end of the belt is way too long, but can be cut to length if needed. In terms of stability, however, Mavic’s compact race pack struggles to keep up with its direct competitors, the Dakine Stealth and EVOC RACE BELT.

Comfort

uncomfortable
unobtrusive

Stability

low
high

Compartment Layout

poor
excellent

Climate

unpleasant
pleasant

Ease of Use

fiddly
straight forward

Price/Performance

poor
very good

Conclusions

The Mavic Deemax Belt is a race pack for minimalists. Because you should never fill it up too much, even if the many compartments tempt you to do so. Because if you use it as suggested, the Deemax Belt offers minimal comfort. Carrying an inner tube or even a pump as advertised is not an option. If you’re using the hip belt just for your mobile phone, minitool and CO2 cartridge, this is a slim, unobtrusive, albeit pricey, option.

Tops

Variety of compartments
Comfortable and unobtrusive when loaded lightly

Flops

Overloads quickly and becomes uncomfortable
Less stable than the competition
Bad workmanship in places
Expensive

For more information head to mavic.com

The test field

Click here for an overview of the best MTB hip pack in test

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Words: Photos: Andreas Maschke, Christoph Bayer