Developed with gravel racers and refined within the wind tunnel, Apidura now affords a virtually common match Aero System pair of compact bikepacking luggage that promise to make your bike quicker. 5 watts saved “at real-world race speeds”, the partial body bag and low toptube bag easy airflow over the entrance of your bike to scale back drag, whether or not you stuff them filled with snacks and spare garments or not. We’ve been driving the brand new luggage for a couple of month now on highway & gravel, so learn on to search out our first impression execs & cons…
Apidura Aero System aerodynamic gravel racing body luggage
Apidura has been growing aero bikepacking luggage for years, first engaged on their universal-fit Racing Collection, earlier than fine-tuning smoother aero dynamics with bike-specific luggage created to make Ridley’s gravel race bike quicker. The concept merely has been to fill within the open form of your bike with a extra aerodynamic cowl that doubles as a spot to hold the requirements you want anyway.
Now their Aero System combines two small bikepacking ‘module’ luggage that merely strap on to make extra bikes extra aero. They match many bikes by together with prolonged skirts to suit tightly in opposition to your body for cleaner integration and decreased aerodynamic drag, irrespective of your precise body form.
And Apidura assures us that their “aero-optimised design delivers common 5 watt saving at real-world race speeds” of 36 & 44 km/h, backing these claims up with a White Paper detailing their testing protocol and outcomes.
Tech particulars
- light-weight, compact bikepacking luggage designed to easy airflow over most all-road & gravel bikes
- grippy rubberized skirts conform to your headtube, facet panels prolong up with inside stiffeners to hug the toptube, and toptube facet panels prolong ahead to wrap in opposition to the again of your stem whereas not proscribing steering
- constructed from mixture of translucent Hexagrid and stable Hexalon laminated nylon & TPU materials
- hollowed-out inside HDPE plastic stiffeners to keep up their slender form
- options welded seams, waterproof zipper, inside strap, and brilliant yellow padded inserts to quiet & shield contents
- toptube module options full-length ‘fast-entry’ magnetic clamshell closure
- held securely with 3 grippy toptube straps, 1 velcro downtube strap & 2 or 3 stretchy headtube rubber bands
- adjustable strapping factors to suit varied body tube shapes
- 305g claimed for S/M pair (307g precise; 99g for Prime Tube Module & 208g for the Body Module); 335g for L/XL pair
- 2.2L capability for S/M; 3.2L capability for L/XL
First Setup Impressions
The brand new luggage are designed as a pair and are available two completely different sizes, only for the body bag. I usually experience medium to giant bikes, however opted for the smaller of the 2 luggage, because it regarded like it will match extra bikes that I experience. The S/M measurement solely requires about 3-4cm of straight part behind the headtube (which is useful on curvy trendy carbon bikes) and the aero skirts can nonetheless cowl virtually 10cm of headtube. In contrast, the L/XL wants ~7+cm behind the headtube, too large for a lot of medium aero carbon bikes. Fortunately, Apidura has an amazing sizing device that helps get the perfect match.
Becoming the light-weight luggage to my bike was easy. Nevertheless it nonetheless seems like there are many straps & buckles to take care of. And it’s practically unattainable to completely disguise them from the wind. The Prime Tube Module has 4 strap factors, and the Body Module 1 mounted rear level & 3 longer adjustable factors to align with the toptube bag. I settled on a setup that manages to cover not less than the center buckle, with the rear one on high of the toptube. All of the contact factors & straps have printed-on silicone grippers, so every part sits securely in place. Nevertheless it does imply it’s all a bit sticky and takes an additional minute to get it set the way you need.
One observe, the skirt panels on the headtube imply these luggage are usually not pleasant to traditional inside cable routing that enters on the facet of your headtube or downtube.
Prime Tube Module ideas
Getting used to Apidura’s nice Racing Prime Tube Pack the place I can match my telephone, it took some time to get used to the shallow magnetic closure pack that solely suits snacks or gadgets as much as 5cm tall. Nevertheless it seems that I can stuff quite a lot of snacks in there, and they’re fairly straightforward to get to whereas driving.
My solely actual challenge with the toptube bag is that I sweat loads, and I really feel like the vast majority of sweat that comes off of me whereas driving manages to purpose straight for the ‘mostly-closed’ magnetic opening on the highest of this bag. It isn’t actually a giant challenge. Each time I pull a snack out of the slimy bag, I do really feel like it’s being enriched by my recycled sweat. However the magnetic closure is surprisingly principally air & water tight, so even within the rain, its contents have a tendency to remain principally dry.
Body Module ideas
As for the body bag, between the interior construction and the zip being simply 20cm lengthy (for the 30cm bag), it isn’t the simplest to fill or entry every part inside whereas on the bike. However there was loads of room to stash all of the restore equipment out of an everyday saddlebag, plus a compact rain jacket.
The bag does additionally restrict entry to a full-size standard water bottle on the downtube on most bikes I attempted. However even when it did match, I observed that it was fairly uncomfortable to take away the bottle whereas driving, because the decrease fringe of the body bag types a pointy 90° angle with a heat-sealed edge that barely scraped my hand every time I’d pull a bottle out. In the long run, the shut match is unquestionably good for each aerodynamics and environment friendly use of body house, however I might want to swap to a facet load cage or one other answer like a Fidlock bottle mount to make bottle entry simpler whereas pedaling.
Driving Assessment
Like all good set of bikepacking luggage, the Apidura Aero System does properly by disappearing beneath you whereas driving. The baggage are slender (6cm for the Prime Tube Module, 6-6.5cm huge for the Body Module when empty, swelling to ~7.5-8cm huge when stuffed full). And I didn’t have any challenge with scraping them whereas pedaling.
As soon as on the bike, they stayed principally out of the way in which, permitting me to empty my pockets and do away with a saddlebag. It’s a small element, however I actually like how the translucent material permits me to see what’s inside.
And who can say no to an additional 5W that I don’t should crank out with my very own legs!
Apidura Aero System – Pricing, choices & availability
The brand new Apidura Aero System aerodynamic bikepacking luggage promote solely as a 2-piece pair of baggage for £188 / $278 / 218€. It’s the similar worth for both the S/M or L/XL system, each of which share the identical measurement toptube module. Choose a pair up now straight from Apidura or considered one of their companion retailers. The sizing tab on the Aero System product web page features a hyperlink to their match device, the place you may both add a photograph of your bike to their web site or use a smartphone for augmented actuality sizing to find out the perfect match.