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review

Ortlieb Small Sling It bag

8
£75.00

VERDICT:

8
10
Durable, waterproof and comfy shoulder bag; pity it won't take a laptop
Weight: 
70g

At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.

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The Sling It is the second-smallest of Ortlieb's range of shoulder bags, but it's still surprisingly large and comfortable to carry.

In style and shape this is a scaled-down courier bag, with a main strap for your dominant shoulder and a secondary strap across your body for stability. There are two anchor points on the bag so you can swap the secondary strap over if you're left-handed, and a pad on the main strap helps keep it comfy.

The bag's made from Ortlieb's waterproof fabric that's also renowned for resisting most impacts and scrapes short of direct nuclear attack. You know how they say cockroaches will survive World War III? They'll be wearing Ortlieb shoulder bags.

When you fold the top flap, the top couple of inches of the bag fold too, giving a waterproof seal to protect your cargo. Inside there's a zipped pocket for valuables, a large main compartment and a sleeve for a tablet or small laptop.

The main compartment is surprisingly roomy. It just swallowed my SLR, a flashgun and a couple of spare lenses, and it'll easily take a pair of shoes and a change of clothes for the office run.

One thing it won't quite take though, is a 13in laptop, and that's annoying as Ortlieb offer notebook sleeves in 10in and 13in that are supposed to fit. You can slip in a 10in tablet, but try as I might I couldn't get a 13in laptop into the Small Sling-It.

The problem is that the 11in x 11in compartment just isn't big enough. Typical 13in laptops are 12-13in wide. Bottom line: if you want to carry anything bigger than a small netbook, get the Medium or Large Sling-It.

I'm forever rummaging in the bottom of bags and rucksacks for my keys so I really appreciated the Sling-It's key carrier. It attaches to the inside of the bag by a snap-lock buckle so it's easy to find and remove, and it's orange, so you can't really miss it against the bag's light grey interior.

Speaking of features that assist the inveterate rummager, there's an organiser with slots for pens and phones too, and that grey lining prevents black-cat-in-coal-cellar search frustration.

On the bike, it's stable and comfortable to carry, it keeps out the wet and its size means it doesn't look silly off the bike.

At £75 it's in the middle of the price range for decent quality on-bike shoulder bags. Go cheaper and you don't get Ortlieb's water resistance and durability. Go more expensive and you get larger bags with more bells and whistles like the quick-release buckles favoured by real messengers for super-quick access, side entry for pulling out small packages on delivery, reflectives and loops for blinky lights.

They're all nice to have, but unless you're delivering packages hour-in, hour-out, you can live without them. That puts the Sling-It in the Goldilocks zone for features and price.

Verdict

Durable, waterproof and comfy shoulder bag; pity it won't take a laptop.

road.cc test report

Make and model: Ortlieb Small Sling It bag

Size tested: Silver

Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Ortlieb says: ORTLIEB's waterproof all-rounder. From high school and college to business and travel, the Sling-it has it covered. This bag will be your companion for adventure and any activity. The covering flap with Velcro seal offers all-round protection with fast access. The broad and adjustable shoulder strap with pad ensures comfortable transport. All sizes (except XS) feature a removable back strap for wearing the Sling-it on your back when biking. The internal features help you organize and offer plenty of room for laptops.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Features:

_Two zippered internal pockets (size M &  30

_Spacious inner compartment with slots for pens, mobile phone etc.

_Removable internal snap hook for keys

_Optional accessories: Notebook Sleeves in 10" & 13.3' for size S, 15.4' for size M and 17' for size L

 

Notebook sleeve

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
9/10

Tidy seams, and a general feel of having been designed and out together by people who really know what they're doing, in Germany.

Rate the product for performance:
 
8/10

Comfortable and easy to carry with a roomy main compartment, but Ortlieb need to refine their claims about the laptop size it'll swallow.

Rate the product for durability:
 
10/10

Ortlieb durability is legendary. I expect this bag will outlast me.

Rate the product for value:
 
8/10

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

You put it over your shoulder and it carries stuff. Nuff said.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

Key holder, pale grey interior, clever flap design

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Claimed ability to swallow a 13in laptop not delivered.

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes.

Would you consider buying the product? Yes.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes.

Anything further to say about the product in conclusion?

For construction, durability, value and usability this bag would score a 9; it really is very good. It loses a mark for claiming to be able to take a 13in laptop but not actually having enough room to do so.

Overall rating: 8/10

About the tester

Age: 46  Height: 5ft 11in  Weight: 85kg

I usually ride: Scapin Style  My best bike is:

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Most days  I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: commuting, touring, club rides, general fitness riding,

 

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

Add new comment

4 comments

Avatar
kraut | 10 years ago
0 likes

How does it compare to something like
this?

It's waterproof (IME), it has the strap to tighten around your body, fits a 15' laptop, has separate compartments (and numerous little ones), and costs about a third. And it has straps to hook in a fibre flare...

Avatar
The _Kaner | 10 years ago
0 likes

Looks a handy size for a CSC camera and a lens/few bits n bobs...would need a few dividers though...

Avatar
Notsofast | 10 years ago
0 likes

Size M and  30

 21

Avatar
bobbinogs | 10 years ago
0 likes

Looks perfect for delivering pizza...

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