Board bags on an airport trolley. Not a good combination. Bags tend to fall off. Often the bag will fall one way and the nose of the trolley is going in the opposite way. A good chance you hit two other passengers. And then there is the heel issue; the bags is blocking your view of the nose of the trolley. Avoiding to hit the persons in front of you isn’t easy. Will Forty1kiteboarding Easy Roller Travel Bag with four wheels be the solution?. This winter we used it to get our testing gear to Tarifa.
Travel
Back breaking dragging or using an airport trolley?
Each winter, we go for our bi-annual test week in Tarifa. One down side is dragging all the gear to and from the airports. As most kite travel bags have two wheels at the back they require a lot of strength to lift and handle. Of course a horizontal rolling bag will never be the complete solution. You still need to carry it out of your car, lift it up while walking going up stairs and getting it on the odd-size baggage belt et cetera. But pulling the bag over the (smooth) airport floor is certainly quite a relief compared to pulling a traditional one.
Downsides
It is not just praises for the Easy Roller bag; It will only roll on a perfectly flat surface like most airport floors. Anything else and it will not roll possibly damaging the bottom. Same goes for the WOO 3.0 mount. Since the board needs to be facing down (to create a upward bending on the bottom of the bag). And than there is the noise from the wheels. Especially on concrete the sound is terrible and loud.
As most of our travel bags last only about 6 trips this one will probably be no different. Usually zippers and the handles are the weak points. For the zippers the Easy Roller comes with a lubricant ‘Tizip’ for the zipper.
But the first sign of wear already occurred on our test model. (See also the Reaction from James owner of Forty1kitesurfing below the review)
List price
Forty1kitesurfing Easy Roller Travel bag 145cm £130,- (150,- Euro)
Dimensions: 5kg, 145cm long, 45 cm wide and 35cm tall.
Reaction from Forty1kitesurfing on the review.
I have taken my bag on numerous kiteboarding and snowboarding trips. The handles have been tested up to 48kg, unexpected failure on the handle in the last picture and I’d just replace that free of charge.
James Crook.