UKC

I do a variety of distances, usually trail and fell events and am looking in to options for carrying stuff.
My back pack is an Inov-8 race pac 16, and ive got a lowe alpine bumbag which doesnt have water storage but is handy size and fit for shorter fell races where mandatory kit is needed.
I tried a berg outdoor waist bag on a fell race at the weekend but really didnt get on with it, perhaps I just havent got enough hip bone for it, or perhaps I had the wrong style of bag?
Anyway Id like to hear your advice on backpack vs waistpack, and any waist bags for long distances that you use and suggest me to try please

In reply to Pesda potato:

I've got one of the vest style Inov8 Race Ultra things. They're available in a variety of sizes and I far prefer it to a bumbag.

In reply to Pesda potato:

I normally just do mine in a big ziplock bag. Can get two or three good deposits in before you have to really squash it down.

In reply to Pesda potato:

Depends how much stuff you're wanting to carry I guess.

I have an Inov8 Race Elite Vest for anything up to about 15 miles, and I use an Osprey Talon 11 for any distance above that, but I do tend to carry a fair bit with me. The Talon 11 has enough compression to avoid tonnes of noise and bounce

The Ultimate Direction range of vests are good if you want to carry more but keep a low bulk, comfy pack that doesn't bounce around

In reply to Pesda potato:

I just don't get on with bumbags for carrying any sort of weight. I have a very nice Salomon one with 2 water bottles, but just don't like running with it. Can't justify the cost of a race vest at my level of running, so make do with an old camelbak.

In reply to Pesda potato:

decathlon do an own-brand vest with bladder, compression etc. for £25. seemed ok on a 10km test run last week, would love to know how it compares to the inov-8s and salomans of this world?

In reply to Pesda potato:

Have you got a preference for carrying water - bladder, bottles, soft flasks ? That will narrow down which vest/bag to look at.

Pros and cons for each system :
bladder - can carry big volume and easy to drink on the go, but don't know how much is left, and then a pfaff to fill up
bottles - quick to fill up on the go from streams or aid stations, but water sloshes around ( especially annoying if using the chest mounted ones )
soft flasks - no sloshing as the flask collapses as water is drunk, but most have narrow opening so not as easy to fill up as bottles ( although the new UD soft flasks have wider opening )

In reply to Pesda potato:

I've got a few bladders and lots of hard bottles, one small soft bottle, yup I agree with the filing up etc.
I've so far not looked at vests due to price, ill look in to the decathlon one thanks for the suggestion.
Probably won't bother looking in to waist packs then.
The race Pac 16 is pretty good I was just hoping to avoid sweaty back

In reply to Pesda potato:

I've been using OMM 6l waist pouch for years. Served me very well for everything, including longer races like the Lakeland 50.

It's very comfortable, but am now toying with a race vest just to see if that's an even more comfortable ride. Been looking at Ultimate Direction SJ Ultra 2, which has 2 bottles, rather than just the 1 the OMM has.

In reply to Pesda potato:
For long stuff the Saloman race vest is great (Sense 12?), but although it is really confortable and carries the weight very well, I think the vests restrict your chest a bit for faster running. I have a 3l Innov8 race bumbag that I can just fit full kit in and will use that for anything below ultra distance.

In reply to Pesda potato:
Mountain Hardware do a 6l vest.

Do you need something that holds water?

I've found most backpacks now come with some way of feeding a tube out of the top so any pack coupled with a £10 bladder should work.

In reply to Pesda potato:
OMM waist pouch looks good, thanks for the suggestion there, ive ordered the decathlon trail pack (vest thing) and if that doesnt fit right Ill try the OMM.
I know Inov-8 and Salomon do good vests but I dont want to pay that much.

Yes need to carry water for anything over 12 miles really, im happy with the race pac 16 but as I say I was looking for something less restrictive / sweaty hence the appeal of the waist bags.

edit - i remembered I actually had an Inov-8 race elite 3 but found due to the odd angle of the bottle holder it would twist around to the right, i bought it 2nd hand on here and then sold it again for more or less the same.

In reply to Pesda potato:

I've got a Decathlon waist pack that holds 2x75cl bottles, but I find they fly about too much when full so I only fill the half way. I don't use it much, only on hot days if I'm running more than a couple of hours. I use it more often when hiking because I'm not bouncing up and down so much and it stops me getting a sweaty back.

On longer stuff in the past I've used the Decathlon race vest (didn't like it - feels too constricting and tight around the chest, although the later models may have improved), the Salomon S-Lab vest - very comfortable but pricey, and not enough pockets for me for long stuff.

I've just bought the Ultimate Direction AK 3.0 vest which has bags of room and the flexible bottles on the front. It has the benefit of easy refills and monitoring my fluid intake with a proper pack - loads of pockets, bungees, pole storage etc. I really like it except that the top of one of the soft flasks rubs on my chest - after a 6.5 hour mountain race the other day this really left me looking a bit grim. Because its only on one side I probably need to work on the adjustments.

In reply to Pesda potato:

I don't like waist packs for long distance, especially if I need to carry water.

I've a UD jurek vest which is quite nice.

I also have a UD waist pack which has a small pouch and holds a bottle diagonally. Out here I rarely need a jacket and there's rarely equipment liste so I'll use that for up to 20 milers or 2-3 hours out

In reply to Pesda potato:

cheers dudes, i tried the decathlon vest yesterday evening, just a short run around the local paths, 2 front bottles and about 1.5l in the bladder, felt pretty good, although im not likely to need both bottles and bladder, I agree there isnt much easily accessible storage however Ill probably use bladder, 1 soft bottle and the other pouch for snacks. The two side pockets are really hard to reach on the go, but will be useful for toilet paper, and other items I wont need on the fly.
Only other comments are that the main compartment holds quite a lot and is zip expandible and bungeed which is a great feature, the zips are rubberised so dont make a noise, the only other downside is fairly odd access to the main compartment via a velcro tab from the top.

I think if I need to use this with extra storage Ill use a small bumbag / waistbag to carry food or other lightweight stuff.