tfar

Well, not sure if that makes sense. The margin on that bag (travelite) would not be so good. He might "make" 20-30 bucks per piece and could probably take not more than two. Not worth it for the travelite. But for the expensive Rimowas, if you can find people in your city so you don't need to ship, it might make sense as I've calculated elsewhere.

Till

travelsavant

Till, I was ! (although, with runners, you just never know!)

wdwright

The Travelite bag I ordered from Koffer Direkt arrived via DHL about a week after I ordered it. It seems well made and is very lightweight. I examined it for country of origin indications, but could find nothing but a cryptic tag that says Order NO. 100800265, Item NO. 91507 20, Supplier NO. #706179. I ordered the bag in blue and it is a very dark blue, appearing almost black at a glance. It will be easy to find on the cart if it has to be gate checked: the ABS gray backshell and the tan/gray stripe on the front make it easily identifiable.

There are 2 outside zippered pockets on the front panel and two inside mesh zippered pockets on the inside of the panel. There are also 2 13" zippered mesh pockets inside the case, one on each of the long sides. The expandable feature adds about 2" to the bag at its maximum point. A nice touch is that the pull on the expand zipper is a different color (yellow) than the other pulls so you don't grab it by mistake when you go to open the bag.

It is fully lined and the lining has a zipper. If you open that zipper you see that the Velcro point of attachment for the compression straps can be changed by about an inch bigger. Not sure why, unless it has to do with compressing a larger bundle when using the expandable feature.

The 3.5" ball bearing wheel assemblies are each held on with 5 Phillips head screws and could easily be replaced by the user should they be damaged.

In addition to the push button aluminum handle, there are 2 padded cloth handles and an ABS handle/foot so there will always be something to grab when putting it into the overhead bin. I did a sample packing and purposely put the heavy items toward the top. In spite of this, the bag stood solidly on its own and didn't tip over.

The total price charged to my credit card was $195.71. While this isn't cheap, it wasn't a deal breaker for me. I'll get on and off about 120 airplanes this year and having a much lighter bag to haul is pretty appealing. I spent more than this on my Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer TSA friendly bag and that was money very well spent. If you travel frequently, it makes sense to outfit yourself in a way that addresses your needs.

I'll start using my Travelite next week and will post again after I've used it a while as to its usability and durability.

tfar

A big round of applause for wdwright! Thanks so much for testing this out and telling us all about it. ^

I do agree that $195 isn't cheap. But if the bag is as well made as it looks to be, it will serve you well. From the photos alone it looked to be of much better quality, engineering and design than the Sub-0 Roller.

I hope that when I am in Germany in November I find some time to check it out. Maybe I'll even buy one for myself.

One more question: Did you measure it? What are the measures including wheels? It would also be interesting to see what the actual weight is. If you have a precise food scale with gram indication perhaps you can weigh it. With my own scale I usually need to put a bowl on the scale first to elevate the bag and to give a slightly bigger surface for it to sit on. Just as a tip if you wonder how to weigh such a bulky thing on a kitchen scale.

Thanks again,

Till

wdwright

Because it is a cloth bag with the ABS frame on one side only, precise measurement is a bit subjective. With the bag sitting upright on the floor, I get 21" H which includes the wheels, but not the top cloth handle. I measure 14" wide and 9" deep. The expandable feature is triangular, adding nothing to the first 5" from the bottom and then gradually increasing to a maximum of 2.5" at the top.

My scale is in Berkeley and I am not. So in the interest of precision, I just ran the bag over to the all night post office and put it on their scale. It weighs 5 pounds 3.9 ounces.

tfar

Wow, thanks so much! That would be 2377 gram according to the converter widget. This means that it would be quite exactly a full pound heavier than what they say. I have read it is 1900 gr.

It would put it not at the top but at the bottom of the rolling bag list.

Travelite Delite - 1900g (semi-hard) ca. $150 but not available in the US
Landor Hawa Sub0G - 2177g (soft) ca. $100
Heys X-Case-NS - 2182g (hard) ca. $90
Antler Wheeled backpack - 2200g (soft but quite structured) ca. $135

At least the measures make it LHR proof.

The koffer-direkt site shows it as 2.3kg and the Sub-0 as 2.1kg. The site has a very useful function where you can sort the luggage according to weight. I know of no US site with that function.

On the Travelite company website they call it the Starlite and it is spec'ed at 2.1kg.
http://www.travelite.de/en/products.html?pid=58

On the Leder Buchler website it is given as 1.9kg.
http://www.leder-buchler.de/reisegep...60-cm-2-2.html

However, both sites give measures that are also slightly smaller than what you measured. Another lesson that specs can be trusted only as indicators.

Till

manders2280

I travel 50-70% for work (long distances and long duration) in trips with 2 or 3 flights. I carry a pretty full carry-on so I can manage when my checked bag doesn't arrive. I use a duffel bag with separate wheels because it's got lots of room. Lately though the airlines are forcing me to check the wheels and carrying around that heavy duffel from terminal to terminal isn't working. So - I recommend a bag with wheels rather than solving the problem with separate wheels. And I'm in the market for an international trolley carry-on.

I appreciate all the great advice I'm finding here.

Doddles

Really useful thread everyone - many thanks!

I popped down to Travel Zone (a luggage shop chain here in the UK) to have a look at the Sub-0-G. I won't add to what's been said already in this thread about that bag - it's all pretty spot on.

When I was there however, I saw this one:
Travel Zone Trolley Case GM7030T

Specs according to the web site are 2.2 kg, 35 x 23 x 50 cm. I picked this and the Sub-0-G up side by side and couldn't notice a weight difference. The GM7030T is slightly lower and slightly deeper. The extra deepness corresponds to the specs, but its lower height must mean that either the GM7030T is less than 50cm, or the Sub-0-G is more than 50cm. Unfortunately I didn't have a tape measure with me.

The GM7030T certainly felt considerably sturdier, and seemed to have nice space (perhaps a little less usable space in the main compartment due to the more central struts) and a few useful external pockets. For GBP 35.00 it's a real contender. I might well buy it tomorrow.

tfar

Very good tip and a real contender indeed, especially at that price. But make that 2.2kg not 2.2 POUNDS. At 2.2 pounds this would be defying physics.

Cheers,

Till

Doddles

Oops! Fixed now - thanks.

Doddles

Took a tape measure: the GM7030T is 49cm high and 23-24cm deep, though you could get that down to 21cm at a pinch.
The Sub-0-G is 20cm deep but 54cm high including the handle collapsed. The Sub-0-G is marginally lighter. It also has considerably more space inside, mainly because of its very rectangular design and because the handle struts run down the side, whereas in the GM7030T they run close to the middle and eat up more space.

tcl

I finally made my way to the shop, and the Pullman seems to be 2lbs+ and the Deluxe Pullman only a few ounces heavier (closer to 3lbs). Will go back with a working luggage scale next month

These are different from my older model by having metal hardware, full lining and a small interior organizer panel with a zippered pocket, all which add to the overall weight.

And yes, Till, those colours are so ugly! Hopefully, they will come out with a much more pleasant color or maybe just plain black all over in the Winter.

Baertracks

I bought a Sub-0-G two months ago, and have used it so far on three international flights to Europe and Africa. It is holding up quite well, and I'm pleased with the performance and the lighter weight.

One aspect that surprised me was that the case slides across a tiled floor rather well while in a vertical position. It's almost as good as a case with four "spinner" wheels (at least quite adequate). The change of position makes a nice change of pace during long terminal walks.

I did notice, however, that fitting this case into an overhead bin can sometimes be very tight. Trying to stick the case into an overhead been longways (rather than sideways) can be very tight on some planes due to that rather clunky handle.

FRANK

Cat1099

While it's not marketed as a carry-on bag, I've started using the Patagonia lightweight duffel for my trips.

It weighs 14oz, and while it has no structure of its own, it formed a perfectly acceptable (to me) shape when packed with one firm bundle, a floppy cube, and some randomly tossed-in things.

Some advantages:

• Super light
• Looks smaller than it is, thanks to simple lines and compression straps
• Looks professional enough for me (I got the "bitter chocolate" version)
• Easily squashable, so fits in "full" bins

Disadvantages:

• No shoulder strap. I added lightweight D rings and a 7.5-oz shoulder strap.
• It's floppy if not full enough
• Easily squashable, so you need to protect breakables
• I would worry about it if for some reason I had to check it

It has tuckaway backpack straps that are unpadded but seemed comfortable enough during my very short test. I use it as a shoulder bag.

So far, I've brought it on regional jets when other passengers were told to gate check their bags. I also easily put it in an overhead bin when the flight attendants said all bins were full.

I'm minimalist packer, and the bag is a good size for me. I carry my laptop and ebook reader in a separate trim backpack. Both bags together will fit under the seat in front of me.

There are several reviews on Patagonia's site. I have a short review here, plus a photo comparing the duffel with my carryon-sized roll-on.

tfar

Also see the article and comments on practicalhacks.com for more on the Patagonia Lightweight Duffel especially in regards to use for business travel:
http://www.practicalhacks.com/2009/0.../#comment-2407

Till