Osprey Raptor 10 Pack: Some Final Thoughts

Osprey Raptor 10 Pack: Final Thoughts: by Guitar Ted

Recently Grannygear and I were able to check out the Osprey line of hydration packs. (You can check that post out here.) In this post I wanted to give an extended view of my experiences with the Osprey Raptor 10 pack.

I've used the Raptor 10 exclusively since the pack came in back in early May. I have used it for training rides, mountain bike rides, gravel road excursions, and most recently I have used it on two fully self supported rides.

The self supported rides required me to be able to be ready for any situation I might encounter. Fortunately, the Raptor 10's three liter water capacity helped tremendously in the hydration department. I found the bite valve and the magnetic hangar for the hose to be stellar in actual usage. I especially like that I never had to "track down" the hydration hose when I wanted a sip. it was always available and always in the same place. Nice!

As for storage, I probably could have used the next size up in the Raptor line, but I have a theory regarding storage that goes something like this: "The bigger the purse, the more stuff you will cart around" I don't mean to sound discriminatory towards the females out there, but what I do mean to point out here is something I learned from my female acquaintances over the years. They related that a bigger purse would end up getting filled up with stuff because they thought they might need it. Not that they ever would. I would submit that this is a human trait not discriminatory to gender. Guys are just as guilty here, I feel.

So in regards to packing stuff for my self supported outings, the Raptor 10 did force me to make some hard choices and swap out some bulkier items for more lightweight, less sizeable ones that did the same job.  Did I miss anything? No. I did not, and had I been testing a larger pack, I am sure I would have stuffed it just as full as I did the Raptor 10!

Getting away from gender psychology here, I wanted to point out that I had the Raptor 10 absolutely stuffed to the gills at one event in particular, yet a few things you would have thought to be potential problems were no sweat at all. Here are those things in a list:

• Hydration Bladder Insertion/Removal: Just as Osprey advertises, and just as we have reported, this bladder system, The HydraForm and HydraLock, are seamless, easy to use, and works in the field under rider stress, when you really need it to. I was thoroughly impressed with the way I could simply slip the hydration bladder right back into a pack about ready to split at the seams due to my zealous over stuffing of it!
• Pack Construction: Which leads me to the way the pack held up to my abuses. I was not having issues with zippers or the seams in the fabric at all when I did have, admittedly, too much stuff in there! I wouldn't recommend doing this on a regular basis, but it is nice to know that when the need arises to carry a bit more than you maybe should be in the storage compartments, the pack doesn't blow up on you during use. Kudos to Osprey for making a pack worthy of trust in this regard.
• Wearability/Comfort: This is another fairly high point of the pack for me. During a couple of my rides, both co-inciding with my self supported outings, as a matter of fact, it was brutally hot and humid. The worst sort of conditions, perhaps, for wearing something on your upper body just when you want breathability the most. I will not say that the Raptor 10 was invisible, but it bothered me far, far less than I would have expected it to, or would have guessed it to. Actually, it wasn't all that bad. Everybody is different, so take this with a grain of salt, but I thought the weight distribution was centered more at the bottom, near my waist, while upright, and distributed evenly while in a riding position. Moving around on the bike felt normal. No "pack inertia" that I noticed.

Conclusions: I would buy this pack. It has a hydration bladder and system to hold it that is second to none, as far as I've experienced. The storage compartments and the hip "wing pockets" do need some tweaking, but as for the functionality of the pack as it is, I can live with these shortcomings. The basic premise of hydration is executed here flawlessly, which is the most important part. If Osprey can change a few things that we mentioned in our initial review, this pack will become the premier hydration pack system on the market. As it stands, it is definitely something that should be on your short list of packs to consider.

Editor's Note: This pack was submitted for review/testing at no charge. We are not being bribed or paid for this review. We will strive to give our honest thoughts and opinions throughout.