The Lab: Giant Shadow Gear Bag review

In the “The Lab” we present the latest products and put them through their paces for you. Some undergo long-term tests, while we check others out only briefly. This time we reveal how the Giant Shadow Gear Bag fared.

Car, train or plain. Not everyone is lucky enough to call the Alps their home and have the best trails right on their doorstep; most of us still have to travel to get there! The Giant Shadow Gear Bag is a real alternative to the giant blue plastic bags from Sweden’s favourite furniture store. The well thought-out backpack allows you to organise and safely store everything you need. The shoe compartment has enough room for a pair of shoes and your knee pads. On the opposite side a dedicated and minimally padded compartment allows you to store your helmet. In the large central main compartment you can stuff all sort of clothes. The separator allows you to keep your dirty clothes away from your clean race-kit. How practical!

The side pockets are quick and easy to access and the perfect place to neatly store your pedals, multi tool, mini pump and spare parts. On rainy days you can stuff your soaking clothes into the isolated, waterproof compartment without ending up with all the moisture leaking into the rest of the bag — and finally you can leave the bin bags at home . Since this compartment extends over the entire length of the bag you could also put your back protector in it. Downhill freaks and bikepark rats will still have to carry their helmets in their hands — there is no padded compartment for a full-face helmet and goggles/glasses.

Wearing comfort is spot-on considering that you’re most likely to carry the bag from your front door to the car/cab. On long trips our tester could have done with a hip belt. Even four months of abuse on muddy parking lots and hundreds of careless baggage carriers didn’t scar this robust and well-constructed bag.

Conclusion

A great system for spontaneous weekend bike-trips and a reliable companion for race day. The Giant Shadow Gear Bag convinced our tester Felix with its well thought-out compartment layout, robust workmanship and sufficient space for all Shred-Weekend Essentials.

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Words: Photos: Valentin Rühl