Breakdowns

Everyone agrees that the original BOB was well designed and was thought to be bombproof and that the redesigned current model is better yet and tough as nails. But even nails can bend. The small tire on the trailer can go flat or wear out, as can the hub and axle. There is also the chance of bending one's rear dropouts where the trailer attaches to the axle.

On the plus side, removing a ton of touring weight from the rear wheel (which otherwise supports two panniers, a tent, sleeping bag, and ground pad) gives your spokes a whole new lease on life. Chances are good that without this weight you'll never have to deal with the nightmare of replacing a freewheel/freehub-side broken spoke. And your rear tire isn't going to wear nearly as fast. Also on the plus side are reports of the sensitive and prompt handling of trouble calls by the BOB company, and the next-day shipments of parts to any address near stranded bikers.

Getting to Your Gear

The pluses and minuses here are obvious once you see that the new BOB bag is made waterproof by its omission of zippers and its inclusion of the usual "dry bag" closure method — rolling the top, then snapping it into place at either end and at two places across the middle.

Packing a single bag is simpler than stuffing things into four multi-pocketed panniers and means you have only one bag to haul inside a tent or motel. Yes, there's a trick to learn about hooking and unhooking a loaded BOB from a bike (it's far easier to attach unloaded and then add the bag), but it's still less time-consuming than hanging four individual packs and lashing your tent and sleeping bag and ground pad to the rear rack.

But what happens when you want something from that single bag? After a few days of touring with panniers we learn the best place for everything and can reach it in seconds. When you need something from your carry-all BOB bag, you have to undo the straps and unfurl the top, then hunt through all your stuff to find it. Some tourers respond to this problem — and to the fact that one's camping gear of tent et cetera, plus the contents of four large panniers (if you decide that you need to haul that much stuff), can't fit inside a single BOB bag — by lashing some things on top their trailers. Alas, this makes getting into the single bag all that much harder.

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