Hill & Ellis Duke Bike Bag

Hill & Ellis's Duke Bike Bag is a beautifully made, high-quality leather pannier. If it suits your needs in terms of volume and size, and fits your rack, there's very little to fault – and a lot to love.

• Pros: Superb quality, gorgeous look that'll only get better, the smell...
• Cons: Heavy, waterproof cover doesn't match the bag for looks, no horizontal adjustability of hooks

The Duke is handmade in leather, in this one cherry red and brown colour only, and the quality of construction really is excellent. The stitching is strong, every bit of metalwork is firmly attached, and though a few scuffs have appeared at the bottom corners, everything looks like it'll last, and in terms of looks the whole bag will probably just get better with age.

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Inside, the bag is lined with Hill & Ellis's 'signature' stripy cotton print. There's a padded compartment big enough for a 13in laptop according to Hill & Ellis, though a 15in will squeeze in, with a leather tab that poppers into place to hold it in.

On the opposite side of the bag, which is also padded, there's a zipped valuables pocket (the zip having a leather surround), and a leather fob so you don't have to fumble about for your keys.

The bag is rigid and holds its shape whether full or empty, standing on five metal feet when not on the bike. With an internal capacity of 15.5 litres there's plenty of room for far more stuff than I tend to carry on my daily commute, and there's no cinching it in to reduce the size if it's not full. It is quite a bulky bag, measuring 47x33.5x13cm, and I'd suggest you check how much you really need to carry regularly on your bike before you buy.

It has leather carry handles, which popper together with a bit of effort – for some reason I always find the popper on our test bag quite reluctant to snap together, and then it suddenly does after a few attempts. The handles are stitched into the perfect shape for carrying and come to the hand very nicely I must say.

There's a detachable shoulder strap too. Again, I find it quite hard to attach the hooks for some reason, then they'll suddenly snap into place and I wonder why I was having a problem. It does suggest they're secure though. It's not the most comfortable strap for carrying a heavy bag – a padded section for your shoulder would be nice here – but again it seems top quality, with faultless stitching and strong buckles. It's adjustable too.

One thing I really like about this bag, on top of the quality, look and smell, is the way the rack hooks can be hidden away under a zipped flap. Zipped up, it looks like an external pocket, and no one in the boardroom would know it's a bicycle pannier...

On the other hand, it also gets a bit mucky from spray when in use, as it sits open over your rack. It's lined with a nylon fabric you can wipe clean, so not exactly a huge problem.

The whole bag can be kept clean by wiping with a damp cloth, and Hill & Ellis recommends using a good quality leather balm once a month to clean and protect the leather.

If conditions dictate, you can also bring out the disappointingly unglamorous waterproof cover – an elasticated, bright yellow, nylon ripstop number that fits a bit loosely around the bag, though it does the job, with reflectives frontish and rearish.

For much of the test period the roads were so grotty that, rather than cycling around with a stylish looking leather case on my bike, I found myself transporting my things in a big yellow flappy thing, all elegance hidden underneath.

It does seems a shame that, with so much thought and craftsmanship having clearly gone into the bag itself, the waterproof cover isn't a slightly more appealing design.

On dry days, with the leather on show, you can make use of the two reversible tabs front and rear: on one side, leather; on the other, reflective. Nice. At one end you'll also find a small zipped pocket, again lined in the stripy fabric.

So far, all so good.

However, although one of the features Hill & Ellis highlights is the patented hooks, which adjust to fit racks with tubing between 6mm and 16mm in diameter, there's no horizontal adjustment. Every pannier I have ever used has hooks you can slide along to fit the spaces on your rack and let you position the pannier where you want it.

My custom-made Paulus Quiros bike has a custom-made rack, and the Duke bag sat too far forward on it, so my heels would catch on it. This could be partly because the frame is quite small; on a larger bike, I'd imagine the bag would sit higher and further away. I tested it out on some off-the-peg racks and on most it was a better fit, but not all. The only way I could get it to fit far enough away from my heel was to position the rearward clip at the very end of my rack, beyond any widthways struts. It stayed in place, but doesn't seem ideal.

Helping it stay on the rack is a clever but very simple little fold-out clip, which stops you – or opportunist thieves – quickly hoicking the Duke off your bike.

This lack of horizontal adjustment was my biggest grievance with the bag. I'm not sure positioning it further forward makes it more secure, but I can't help thinking it shouldn't have to sit so far back. If it fits your rack, though, it's academic.

Its near-2kg weight empty is also something to consider, depending on where you live. If your commute is shortish and flattish it's less of a drawback than if you have a hilly, seven-mile ride home, for example.

The other grievance you might have is the price, but I was rather surprised to find that the £255 Duke sits at the more affordable end of the leather pannier market if Brooks England's selection is anything to go by, where you can be looking at upwards of £300 or £400 for similar-style offerings.

> Buyer's Guide: Racks and panniers – all your luggage possibilities

A leather pannier you can take into a City boardroom isn't going to be for everyone, and for me if I had the cash I'd probably go for a smaller design, in a different colour to match the leather bar tape and saddle of my bike, like the Professor reviewed by Simon last year. But as I said at the start, if the size suits, the weight isn't a problem for your commute, and it fits your rack, it's a beautiful bag you'll be delighted with.

Verdict

A high-quality and elegant pannier that's likely to just get better with age