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On my travels I go with a back pack and travelbag. For back packs for hiking I used a Jack Wolfskin ACS Photopack and a Deuter Futura 32. With a height of about 55cm these are the maximum you can use for cabin luggage on airplanes (but some companies allow only smaller packs, see also further). I use my backpack during travelling for all the stuff that I want to have handy and to keep safe, and when exploring a city to put all the stuff I want/need in it such as drink, 18650 batteries, charger, flashlight, tablet, book, food, drink etc. Mostly these 2 uses are almost the same but for hiking I leave some stuff that I won't need, in the hotel/apartment.
I like the Jack Wolfskin ACS Photopack (the version I had is no longer available, but there is a new version which I may try out), even for nothing to do with photography. In the large padded compartment I could for example put packs of orange juice which I bought in shops during my walks, safely, and fits great :))
The Deuter Futura 32 is similar in size, but feels more flimsy...
For in buses, but also in the airplane, such backpacks of 55 cm height and with a frame that keeps the pack from your back for ventilation, are not easy to stow away. In buses I usually need to keep it on my lap. In airplanes it's just possible to stow under the seat before me, but it's not easy to get it out again then to get something from it. On the last 2 trips I took my daily use back pack (ca. 40cm high) with me too, rolled up in the big travel bag, and used it where appropriate, which was once on the way back to NL as the company I travelled back with had lower limits for size of cabin luggage...
The Futura 32 has, according to specifications, slightly more room. In both I can put enough stuff. The Scrambler 30 is waterproof, doesn't need a cover but you have to make sure that the flap covers the zip of the top pocket. The Futura 32 has lots of compartments, 4 outside on the front/side, 2 on the top (inside+outside), 1 bottom and the main compartment. The Scrambler 30 has just 1 on the top (outside), 1 inside for water (hydration system), and the main compartment. The water compartment can be used for a laptop or as I do, documents, tablet and various stuff to which I don't need immediate access. Fewer compartments is not bad, it means less searching "in which pocket did I stow the sun block cream"...
The Scrambler 30 weighs ca. 900g, the Futura 32 ca. 1.78kg. The Scrambler 30 has no big waist band and no frame, but in practice I feel it is at least as good as the Futura 32 (the waist band is fine for ca. 5-7 kg total, and the frame and waist band on the Futura 32 give problems stowing it away on an aircraft, bus. In the Futura 32, the small pocket on the waist band is a nuisance, my arm slides against it all the time which is not cool because of the rough surface. Don't these people do tests? That was also an issue with the Jack Wolfskin photo pack...
The Scrambler 30 can be made just about the size you want (height less than 45 cm and depth anything) so that it will fit in almost any airline's size limitations for carry-on baggage. The 1kg saved on the backpack itself compared to the Futura 32 means you can take more with you within a given airline's weight limits.
So the Scrambler 30 feels as comfortable as the Futura 32, weighing almost 1kg less surely helps! It has fewer compartments but that's barely a downside. The criticism I read that the side pockets for water bottles are not elastic, is not a downside for me. The compression straps and how/where/what you put in the main compartment fixes them, which is good enough and on the other packs I tried the elastic is not that elastic. And how long will the elastic last?
I walk a lot with my bags, I usually don't take taxis, and even in NL lots of bags, such as the Samsonite S'cure 69, have wheels that are too small (45mm & 57mm) to nicely cope with sidewalks with tiles here, even if the sidewalks are fairly smooth, it's no fun. And in Ukraine, sidewalks are often very bad such that larger wheels (and a reasonable ground clearance) are a necessity but also in NL they are useful, not just in case of bad spots but also to get off of, and onto, curbs. You further need enough ground clearance for the bags itself, to go over stones or tiles that stick out.
I've examined North Face's "Rolling thunder 30" and Osprey's "Sojourner 80"/"Shuttle 110" a while ago. The North face bags are really nice, the handle in particular is nice and not as much play as with the Osprey bags, but they have only a little more than 2cm ground clearance (don't these people use their own stuff? Don't they ever come across less than perfect roads/sidewalks?), and ca. 78mm diameter wheels, whereas the Osprey bags have 90 mm wheels (the Osprey Shuttle 110 actually has 110 mm wheels, which I measured when comparing it with the Ortlieb Duffle RS 110, and the Lowe Alpine Wheelie 120, see further on) and much more ground clearance, but also, the bottom section of these Osprey bags is from solid plastic so will better be able to withstand impacts when riding over small stones.
Another option looks to be "Eagle creek" with apparantly 100mm wheels, but ground clearance is also nowhere near that of the Osprey bags, and they don't have good protection from impacts of stones etc. Otherwise for example the "Activate wheeled duffel 30" or "Gear warrior wheeled duffel 32" could be nice.
Then a bag which I noticed recently is Jack Wolfskin's Railman 80, looks to have good protection of the bottom close to the wheels, and wheel diameter is about 80mm.
I don't like the retractible handle on the Osprey bags which feels flimsy, cheap, unlike North Face's bags, and those from Wolfskin look better too, but because of ground clearance, I still think that for my next trip, I will probably buy the Osprey Shuttle 110.
21-5-2015: I was about to buy the Shuttle 110, but there is another option which seems even better: The Ortlieb Duffle RS, available in 85l, 110l, 140l. This is 1.4 kg lighter, partly from no telescopic arms for pulling and partly because of no stiff ground plate of the bag, ground clearance looks much better than anything else and the bottom is protected with an aluminium plate and it's waterproof... This looks perfect for bad roads/sidewalks under any conditions. I'm going to compare it to the Shuttle 110 soon.
22-5-2015: I found another option, the Lowe Alpine "Wheelie" 120, with 115mm wheels. The Osprey Shuttle 110 has 110mm wheels, the Ortlieb Duffle RS 110 has 90mm wheels but it still has the most ground clearance. The Lowe Alpine has a nice wide handle which can be used to steady the bag when it may topple over when riding over uneven ground, even 2 handed pulling is possible. It's also about 4kg, so the advantage of the Ortlieb is in weight, ground clearance and being water proof, the others have bigger wheels and a stiff base plate which can be useful when not filling the bag completely and when transporting some stuff with sharp edges (must be very careful with the Ortlieb), or when you want to transport something that should not get bent.
16-6-2015: Aha, the Wheelie 120 (94cm x 31cm x 41 cm??) and Duffle RS 110 (86cm x 33 cm x 45cm) do not fit into the size limit set by several airlines that I checked, of width + height + depth ≤ 158 cm (otherwise you are charged an extra charge of €50 in the cases of those airlines...). The Shuttle 110 (82cm x 31 cm x 41cm) does fit into this size, so that's the biggest travel bag with large wheels that I can use. Back to the beginning... Or choose a smaller bag (e.g. Wheelie 90). Btw, 158 cm total means an upper volume limit [ a cube ] of about 140 l...
In the end I bought the Wheelie 90, which I used on my trips in 2016 and 2017. It is a good compromise size if you want to take a lot of stuff (and because of the soft top can be used well in case you don't take much too. The handle is nice and wide which works well, all bags should have that.
What I don't like is that the wheels are quite hard, too hard, which means noise and pulling the bag over bad roads takes too much effort. So I replaced the wheels with soft skeeler wheels. You can easily pop out the bearings sticking a inner hex key or screwdriver in and pulling sideways. There is then no need to use the internal spacer (which is quite crappy), and just push the bearings into the new wheels. You need an external 6mm spacer then, which is easy to make or you can use washers. It works well, the bag rolls over obstacles and bad roads much more easily and with almost no noise. The pictures show the bashing that the original wheel (the orange part of it) got from collision with some rock on the bad sidewalks in Ukraine. This will be less of an issue with the skeeler wheels as the rubber 'tyre' is higher.
The skeeler wheels got tested quite a bit on my trips in 2017 and they are excellent for both good and bad roads/sidewalks, much better than the original wheels!
Pictures to follow
Last modified: 2019-4-11