Developed with gravel racers and refined within the wind tunnel, Apidura now provides 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 using the brand new luggage for a couple of month now on highway & gravel, so learn on to seek 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 Sequence, earlier than fine-tuning smoother aero dynamics with bike-specific luggage created to make Ridley’s gravel race bike quicker. The thought 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, regardless 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 limiting steering
constructed from mixture of translucent Hexagrid and stable Hexalon laminated nylon & TPU materials
hollowed-out inside HDPE plastic stiffeners to take care of their slim form
options welded seams, waterproof zipper, inside strap, and vibrant yellow padded inserts to quiet & defend 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 numerous 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 typically trip medium to massive bikes, however opted for the smaller of the 2 luggage, because it seemed like it could match extra bikes that I trip. The S/M dimension 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 nearly 10cm of headtube. Against this, the L/XL wants ~7+cm behind the headtube, too massive for a lot of medium aero carbon bikes. Fortunately, Apidura has an incredible sizing instrument that helps get the perfect match.
Becoming the light-weight luggage to my bike was easy. But it surely nonetheless looks like there are many straps & buckles to take care of. And it’s almost unattainable to completely disguise them from the wind. The Prime Tube Module has 4 strap factors, and the Body Module 1 fastened 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. But it surely does imply it’s all a bit sticky and takes an additional minute to get it set the way you need.
One word, the skirt panels on the headtube imply these luggage usually are not pleasant to standard 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 cellphone, it took some time to get used to the shallow magnetic closure pack that solely suits snacks or gadgets as much as 5cm tall. But it surely seems that I can stuff lots of snacks in there, and they’re fairly straightforward to get to whereas using.
My solely actual subject with the toptube bag is that I sweat so much, and I really feel like the vast majority of sweat that comes off of me whereas using manages to purpose straight for the ‘mostly-closed’ magnetic opening on the highest of this bag. It isn’t actually an enormous subject. 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 largely air & water tight, so even within the rain, its contents have a tendency to remain largely 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 a daily 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 using, because the decrease fringe of the body bag kinds a pointy 90° angle with a heat-sealed edge that barely scraped my hand every time I might pull a bottle out. Ultimately, 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 resolution like a Fidlock bottle mount to make bottle entry simpler whereas pedaling.
Driving Evaluate
Like every good set of bikepacking luggage, the Apidura Aero System does properly by disappearing beneath you whereas using. The luggage are slim (6cm for the Prime Tube Module, 6-6.5cm large for the Body Module when empty, swelling to ~7.5-8cm large when stuffed full). And I didn’t have any subject with scraping them whereas pedaling.
As soon as on the bike, they stayed largely 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 cloth permits me to see what’s inside.
And who can say no to an additional 5W that I don’t must 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 identical value for both the S/M or L/XL system, each of which share the identical dimension toptube module. Choose a pair up now straight from Apidura or considered one of their associate retailers. The sizing tab on the Aero System product web page features a hyperlink to their match instrument, 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.
Apidura.com
