Chase Harper Bruiser Fanny Rack

CHASE HARPER BRUISER FANNY RACK

CW EVALUATION

Hip-side hauler

OF ALL THE FINE SOLUTIONS TO THE problem of how to haul your wallet, tire-puncture kit and other essentials when you’re aboard a streetbike, one of our favorites involves the fanny pack. We’ve used a bunch of them, and this one, the $80 Bruiser from Chase Harper (224 S. Milpas, Santa Barbara, CA 93103; 805/965-7977) is one of the best we’ve seen.

There are several significant factors that make the Bruiser a success. First, it’s made of a heavyweight leather that gives the pack a feel of quality. Second, it incorporates a compression strap that lets you load the pack, then externally compress the pack onto its contents so that it doesn’t sag or bag. Third, the Bruiser is big enough to hold what we want it to hold without being so large as to be bulky.

We could do without the braided leather pigtail on the zipper, though, and we wish the nylon waist belt included an additional loop to control the slack that protrudes past the plastic buckle.

But those are detail problems, and they don’t get in the way of our conclusion: If you’re a fan of the fanny pack, the Bruiser’s use of high-quality materials and its sound construction make it worthy of your attention. □