Dynamic Subspace

Category: Equipment

GoRuck GR1 26L, an Outstanding Backpack for Travel and Work That Easily Carries a 16″ Laptop

As I’ve documented here, here, and here, I continue searching for the perfect backpack. While there may not be one backpack that checks all of my boxes, I think that the GoRuck GR1 (26L) checks the most.

I purchased the larger 26L version of the GR1 before the fall semester began. It is the most expensive backpack that I’ve ever purchased, but its design, materials, construction, and “Built in the USA” provenance supported the price.

My original intended use for it was to carry my 16″ Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 laptop, charger, water bottle, coffee thermos, and papers to and from the City Tech campus.

Then, after my dad was released from the hospital after a back problem, it became a travel companion for overnight train rides to-and-from NYC (along with a simple barrel duffel bag). It carried my laptop, charger, 8″ Samsung Tab Active3 tablet, its charger, an MRE and snacks, 1 liter of water, overnight clothes, and 1 quart Ziploc bag for toiletries.

So far, it has excelled in both work commuting and long distance train travel. It holds my gear, it’s easy to organize, and it’s constructed tough.

Below are photos of its pockets and their use.

Between the shoulder straps and top hand grab is a pocket that holds my RayBan sunglasses in their case and my reading glasses in a smaller plastic case.

The back of the backpack supports breathing and features a smoother synthetic material than the body of the backpack. It’s advertised as being less aggressive on clothes, which I can confirm.

Flipping the shoulder straps around makes the “bomb proof” laptop sleeve more easily accessible. It is advertised as holding up to a 16″ laptop.

You can see above that the laptop sleeve does indeed hold my 16″ Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 with room to spare on its width (i.e., the height of the pocket in relation to the backpack) and just a hair of extra space for its depth (i.e., the width of the pocket in relation to the backpack).

The front zippered diagonal pocket extends from the zipper to the bottom of the pack. It can hold a lot! I keep an Apple Airtag and pocket knife in there. The top of the pack has a 2″ x 3″ hook-and-loop patch area, which I attached one of my Scouting patches to. I added a 3.5″ x 4.5″ hook-and-loop MOLLE panel to the bottom area of my GR1 where I affixed my “The Dude Abides” patch.

In addition to the MOLLE attachments on the outside of the pack, there is more MOLLE inside for pouches or hook-and-loop panels.

On the back interior of the GR1, there’s an elastic panel that can hold a smaller laptop or tablet. I used it to hold my 8″ Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3 in a hard case with plenty of room to spare.

The front flat interior has two zippered pouches. The top one is smaller but opaque. The bottom one is larger but its contents viewable thanks to the netting.

To help with organizing my gear, I dropped the larger half of the yellow, padded Ape Case Cubeze Duo (ACQB 41) with one divider in the bottom of the pack. This creates four areas in the bottom of the pack to keep things from banging around–a thermos, two water bottles, and charging brick for the Lenovo laptop.

The GR1 doesn’t come with a sternum strap, but I haven’t found that it needs one while walking or climbing stairs. Having one less strap to undo or get caught while dangling is okay with me. It’s also easy to put on and take off. However, depending on my load–specifically with the 16″ Lenovo, I bend over to put on my shoes before donning the pack so that I don’t put too much pressure on the laptop within the pack against my arched back.

I’m very happy with the GR1 and look forward to carrying it in the days ahead.

November 1, 2024
Upgrading from the 5.11 Rush 12 2.0 to the Mystery Ranch 2-Day L/XL Backpack

When I upgraded to a 16″ Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 workstation-class laptop earlier this year, I soon learned that it was too large to fit safely in my 24-liter 5.11 Rush 12 2.0 backpack. While my old 12″ ThinkPad X230 easily fit into the up-to-15″ laptop capable compartment of the 5.11 Rush 12 2.0, the newer ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 dangerously pressed against its corners. Also, I trouble wearing the 5.11 Rush 12 2.0 with a a padded waist belt while carrying a heavy load–I couldn’t get the bag to ride securely against my back when doing that. Nevertheless, the 5.11 Rush 12 2.0 is virtually bulletproof and a very well made backpack. Unfortunately, it just didn’t meet my changing needs.

Looking for a larger backpack with MOLLE, waist belt attachment points, and a tough build like the 5.11 Rush 12 2.0 was easy–there’s a number of great alternate bags that fit those needs. However, finding one that also has a laptop sleeve capable of safely holding a 16″ laptop more challenging, because most manufacturers only support up to 15″ laptops. Thankfully, the Mystery Ranch 2 Day Assault L/XL backpack fit my needs quite well.

Like the 5.11 Rush 12 2.0, the Mystery Ranch 2 Day Assault L/XL backpack is built tough.

Meeting my new requirements in a backpack, it has a larger volume (24 liters vs. 29.7 liters), and its built-in laptop sleeve can accommodate a 16″ laptop (my ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 measures 10″ deep x 14 1/8″ wide x 15/16″ tall). However, I have to load and unload the ThinkPad through the main pocket as it is too wide and deep to easily maneuver through the zippered laptop side-loading pocket).

To help with load carrying, it has an innovative lengthening system that helps the pack ride close against your body. To adjust this system, remove the plastic frame shown in the gallery above, shove it into the velcro area behind the straps to release the hook and loop material holding the straps and pack together, pull up to lengthen, put the frame back in its place, press the pack flat to ensure the hook and loop are reattached, and adjust the straps as needed to have the straps rest tightly against your torso and shoulders and the bottom of the pack against your waist.

This adjustment system works well with the aftermarket padded waist belt that I originally used with the 5.11 Rush, but moved over to the Mystery Ranch 2 Day Assault pack. The Mystery Ranch bag included a two-piece simple nylon belt with plastic buckle. Its intention is to help hold the back against your body but not help with load carrying. I removed it and modified a Condor Battle Belt (it has a padded outer belt with MOLLE and an inner 1 1/2″ nylon belt with aluminum quick-release buckle). I cut off the D-ring equipment carriers and cut expanded holes in the outer padded belt to allow the inner 1 1/2″ belt to thread through the belt attachments on the Mystery Ranch pack. I added extra stitching to the outer padded belt and melted the nylon to prevent unraveling from these modifications.

The strangest thing about Mystery Ranch bags is the three-zipper main pocket opening. It is difficult to open and close these one-handed. However, the zippers are top-quality and waterproof. And, with the main pocket fully open, it can ingest a tremendous amount of gear, but it will likely require the bag to be fully opened to extract that gear if it is larger (e.g., a boxed 12 pack of aluminum cans).

Another modification that I made to the bag was to plug its main pocket drain holes with closed hole rubber grommets (I don’t want anything crawling in and setting up shop) and added some strap clips to keep the shoulder adjustment straps from flying all over the place while putting on the pack or walking with it.

Its two side mounted stuff pouches easily hold water bottles, thermoses, and short collapsible umbrellas. During the summer, I keep a pack of menthol cooling sheets and an electric fan in one so that I can reach back to grab them without having to take off the pack.

When I traveled to see my parents a few months ago, I added some MOLLE pouches to the exterior mounts (first aid, toiletries, cables, chargers, multitool, and snacks), but I took them off to reduce the pack’s weight when I am in the city where I walk further distances with it and would prefer the weight go towards what I am carrying instead of how I’m carrying those things.

The Mystery Ranch 2 Day Assault pack is holding up and meeting my expectations. With the new academic year about to begin, I’ll see how it holds up trekking to and from campus.

July 31, 2024
LEGO Folding Cooling Stand for Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 Laptop

As I wrote about yesterday, my Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 maintains lower temperatures when it has improved air flow under its body where the twin cooling fan intakes are. Without raising the laptop, the laptop’s support feet only give it about 3 mm of space underneath it, which chokes the intake fans. Since getting the laptop late last year, I’ve used a variety of at-hand objects–books and small boxes most often–to prop up the back of the laptop when I was stressing the laptop with a heavy workload.

I wanted a permanent solution, but the portable options available in retail are either bulky adjustable metal or plastic platforms or folding 4-point stands. The former takes up a lot of room and those with fans don’t always translate to lower temps, and the latter might not provide the support needed on the ThinkPad P1’s lengthy support foot at the rear of the laptop. So, I turned to LEGO to create a customized stand that gives the ThinkPad the support it needs while also being compact and easily carried in my backpack.

What I made to solve this problem mostly used LEGO Technic elements with some brick elements (plates to provide support underneath its joints and the bright yellow smooth plates on top to orient the stand and provide a stop against the ThinkPad’s support foot).

The ThinkPad’s support foot fits perfectly in the center of the stand without the studs toward the front or the flat plate in the back touching the laptop’s body.

Essentially, the stand is built like a sandwich: the bread is the Technic bricks with holes on either side, and the filling is the Technic liftarms (straight and L-shaped). I used 3-stud wide pins to hold the sandwich together. The red pins are only used to provide stability to the support legs when they are deployed for use.

On the back of the stand, the red pegs can be partially pulled out and the feet folded.

The LEGO stand completely covers the support foot at the rear of the laptop (seen at the top of the photo above). When folded, it easily slips into the backpack that I use to carry this ThinkPad.

LEGO is a versatile, rapid prototyping medium for building art, expressing ideas, and in this case, creating something practical to solve a specific problem.

If you have some LEGO bricks laying around idle, you might stop and think about what problem they might be able to solve for you!

April 2, 2024
Simple Sewing: Hook-and-Loop Patches for Your Backpack
I outfitted the front MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-Carrying Equipment) webbing surface of my backpack with M-Tac’s Morale Patch Boards (3″ square and 4.5″ x 3.5″ rectangle) so that I could swap and change embroidered patches that I sewed hook backing to along the outer border of the patch.

I enjoy displaying patches that mean something to me. Maybe someone else will see them and get a boost. But for myself, it’s carrying a little morale with me wherever I go.

I cut slightly more hook material than needed, positioned the patch on the opposite side of the hooks, sewed around the border of the patch through the hook material, and finally, trimmed the excess hook material.

Unless you’re planning to tape where you’re sewing patches directly to your bag, using hook-and-loop attachments like this will maintain its waterproof/water-resistance.

Pro Tips:
- Verify what you need to attach to your patches (hook or loop backing) before you sew!
- Use a sharp needle of size 2, 3, or 4 as patches are generally heavier fabric and some have thermal heat backing.
- Absent a thimble to help push the needle through the fabric, use the corner of the table, a LEGO brick, or something else sturdy and not easily damaged by the back of the needle pressing into it.
- A cheap travel sewing kit with a few needles (though they might be smaller gauge needles than ideal), different color thread to match the border of your patches, and a needle threader should get you started. But, you can create your own kit with a spool of black thread, a pack of needles, and a thimble.
September 5, 2023
In Search of a Better Backpack, Review of The North Face Electra

Despite being labeled for “Women,” I recommend The North Face Electra backpack for anyone needing a compact, EDC bag that can accommodate a 10.5″ tablet. This is my new work bag that carries the things that I need daily without incurring too much added weight.

In a previous blog post, I wrote praise for the Magnoli Clothiers’ British Mark VII Gas Mask Bag reproduction, because it is a good everyday bag for carrying an iPad mini, notebook, lunch, and thermos. It is still a good bag, but I sold my iPad Mini after I got Apple’s new 10.5″ iPad Pro, which would not fit in the Mark VII without the removal of the supporting material stitched through the center of the bag. As you can see in the photo above, TNF Electra is slightly larger than the Mark VII. The Mark VII has just shy of 6L capacity whereas the TNF Electra has 12L capacity.

I use the TNF Electra to carry the same, essential things as I used the Mark VII to carry, but the difference between the kits is the iPad upgrade from mini to Pro. Above, you can see the various pockets that differentiate the TNF Electra. It has a padded tablet sleeve in the main zippered compartment, the front flap has a Napoleon-style pocket that I use to hold my cellphone, a small zippered compartment in the lower left for change, keys, or another small item, and a slightly larger zippered compartment at the top of the back beneath the grab handle that holds all of my small, regular use items like hand sanitizer, eye drops, pen, pocket knife, etc.

The TNF Electra weighs the same as a Jansport Superbreak–12 oz. However, the Superbreak has more than double the capacity–25L. The difference between the two packs is that the Electra has a smaller surface area against the back, and it has more substantial padding in the back and around the tablet sleeve. The Superbreak has thin back padding and no laptop/tablet sleeve. The TNF Electra’s zippers are more subtantial YKK brand than what Jansport uses on the current Superbreak packs.

The TNF Electra features “Women-specific back panel and shoulder straps.” These have worked fine for me, too. The pack rides high on my back, which I prefer to a pack that is lower, because it allows my back to breathe more and remain cool on my long walks to-and-from work.

The TNF Electra that I have is black heather and burnt coral metallic (it reminds me of Apple’s Rose Gold). Y liked my bag so much that we got her one in dark eggplant purple dark/amaranth purple.

I like the TNF Electra, because it holds just what I need, is lightweight and compact, and helps me stay cool on my daily long walks.

While its labeling and colors might signify its use by a specific gender, I think its better to focus on one’s needs than on the social signifiers made into a tool–in this case–a useful bag.

July 9, 2017