Originally Posted by
greenstork
I just wouldn't attempt to lug all of the stuff you're suggesting with any back mounted bag. I'm not some rack and panniers evangelist either, I love my Chrome Metropolis, but what you're suggesting carrying every day would be too bulky and heavy for me to carry. When I take a full change of clothes and shoes in my Chrome, I can feel it at the end of my 7 mile ride.
Same here. I hesitate to put so much stuff into my Metropolis but weirdly enough putting the same load (and more sometimes) into my Kremlin is actually quite comfortable though the bag is so big that I tend to bump into things a lot more things. Also neither bag is really built for wearing off the shoulder. You have to wear it bandolier style. The only thing with backpacks is that you have to pack things vertically (stacking one thing on top of another) and I hate having to pull the top items out to get to the bottom stuff. I guess a side-access zipper or bottom-access zipper would be good but it'd probably compromise waterproofness.
Still, the Crumpler looks promising.