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pOcpac

April 2013

pOcpac is a cool idea designed to keep your most valuable possessions safe and dry when you are going for it out on the road. We say its cool as over the years we have used all sorts of bags to act as sweat-proof-carry-all’s on our training rides – plastic sandwich bags, leather glasses cases, an old inner tube, etc. They are all good solutions but having something purpose built for the job makes sense.

There are 3 different sizes of pOcpac: the iPac is designed to hold an iPhone; the Road Pac is a little larger and allows you to carry essentials; and the Off-Road Pac is the largest and again is designed to accommodate a few more bits. They all feature a see through plastic front and a tough rear, with a sturdy looking zipper allowing access to the case’s interior.

The iPac is the smallest of the range and is described as a waterproof phone case. You can squeeze your iPhone into it with a couple of bank cards and some cash. Usefully the clear vinyl material allows you to use your phone still and, as there are no graphics on it, you can see the screen clearly. So in theory it keeps your phone dry but ensures that it is usable in wet weather, including allowing you to make calls. We will put this to the test.

The only down side with the iPac is that it doesn’t fit all phones; it fits most phones. So from the team here we managed to fit in an i-Phone as you’d expect, the slightly larger HTC Desire HD fitted OK, and the slightly larger again, Samsung Galaxy S2, squeezed in, but not a Samsung Galaxy S3, which would also suggest that the new HTC One and Samsung S4 will not fit… With the emerging dominance of android phones and their increasing size, plus cyclists love of technology, this may be a sizeable chunk of the market that cannot use this case. However, we’ve given it to the iphone owner to test and will report back soon on how he gets on.

This brings us onto the Road Pac is a bit bigger and allows you to carry a few spares in with your valuables. With the Samsung S3, we had to use this pac but unfortunately the two larger pacs both have graphics which prevents a clear views of the screen. However, the phone is still usable.

pOcpac market the Road Pac as a case for keeping your valuables safe on the road and as such you can pack a bit more into it. pOcpac also say “It ensures that you are not overloaded with any unnecessary items, just those that you need in case of an emergency or road-side repair” which seems to be a bit of an over simplification to us and that the Road Pac is “designed to replace your saddlebag”, which would be good…

A ‘secure metal zip lock system’, a ’round-edge-seal system’, a frosted front panel with ‘silkscreened symbols’ to help you decide what to pack make the Road Pac seem pretty useful. We’ll see. We certainly buy into the theory.

The biggest pOcpac is the Off-road Pac which has yet more room for the stuff you might need out on the trail. Of course the issue when you get into at this end of the range is that each pack requires a pocket that will properly fit it into, which is fine with the iPac but may be an issue with the larger ones. We’ll see if we have a jersey pocket big enough to accommodate the Off-Road Pac…

The Off-Road Pac is is billed as a compact water resistant mountain biking cycling case for carrying items such as cash, keys, bank cards, ID, and so on, but also multi-tools, tyres levers, tubes, etc. We’ll see just how much we can get into it.

The Off-road Pac will go to one of our mountain biking types who will report back in a couple of weeks. Lets hope everything stays secure and very dry.

For more information see the pOcpac website

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