Originally Posted by Allentown

I think that can be unpacked (pardon the pun). If you are older or have osteoarthritis the back pack is not an option so for that group I concede. That does not however explain why younger people use rollers. Younger people use rollers for 2 reasons 1) They are off the shelf at local brick and morter stores for cheap. 2) Most people don't understand how to properly travel and pack (look up any Rick Steves, Carryology, Bagworks or other pro traveler site and you will see that virtually none of them use or recommend roller boards...ever.. Well okay not "never" but the use of roller boards for pro travelers is a niche special circumstance case.....so the real issue for all the roller boards is the same reason the average person cant drive a car worth a crap, doesn't know anything about their own health issues, watches american idol instead of the science channel and people think the earth is flat...in short ignorance in the masses. You can hardly blame the manufactuers for keeping on making crap that people keep on buying though.

Problems with rollers
1. they take up too much floor space
2. they take up too much over head space
3. they slow you down when you want to be mobile and have a low travel print
4. they cant go with you certain places well at all....resturants shopping, on a ricksha etc when you arrive to a location early.
5. the average person DOES NOT NEED 80% of the stuff they pack period, and the realization of this means many of your arguments for roller bags simply vanish.
6. they often have to be checked which contributes to traveler stress, time waiting for the bag, lost baggage and fees
7. when they break a wheel you will have a bad day
8. when you need to cover rugged terrain ..or even side walks and cobble pavement, you will have a bad day.

I could go on but you get the point.

Problems with back packs
1) You carry some weight (largely relieved if you select back packs with a solid harness system and or simply know how to pack).
2) Cant do certain things....like long extended trips where you need more than 4 or 5 days worth of suits and no access to dry cleaning facility that you are aware of. So 10 days plus worth of suits..not going to work. But then i wont do a standard 25 inch roller board for that? Why would i when you have things like the Tumi Alpha 3 split duffle which has almost 100liters capacity and still fits under the 60 inch size limit? Of course you need to keep it under 50lbs to avoid weight fees but that still gives you 40lbs of clothes and all the capacity for things like coats and extra day bags you could ever want.