Inverter Pannier Backpack Convertible with integrated cover (20 L)

Two Wheel Gear, Five Star Experience

I was first introduced to Two Wheel Gear (TWG) through watching the "Shifter" channel on YouTube. Given that Tom from the channel seems to be one of the only normal people left on the internet, I decided to give the Inverter Pannier Backpack (IPB) a try. I pre-ordered the IPB and have now used it in my daily bike commute for the past five months. While I am not usually one to leave reviews, I thought the experience I had with TWG was worth a shout. The road to the IPB started out a bit bumpy. The bag I had originally ordered was lost in the mail and never made it to me. After some back and forth with the postal service, it was clear that I was headed nowhere fast. Instead, I decided to pivot and contact the TWG customer service team to see if there was anything they could do. Reid from TWG not only fixed everything in a jiffy (sending a brand new bag at no cost to me), he also made some time for a conversation. Our encounter was wonderfully human in a world where that is all too uncommon. The only thing that was more impressive than the customer service at TWG is the quality of their product. After five months of daily use as my work backpack, the IPB is showing no signs of wear. The clip feature is a breeze, the backpack is extremely comfortable when worn, and the inverter design is genius. After my first few weeks of practice with the bag, I have since been able to flip the bag on and off of my bike with the grace adjacent to those who can unfold a Brompton in one continuous motion (it feels like that anyways). I have just placed a pre-order for the Pannier Backpack Convertible 2.1 to replace my personal backpack. I have no doubts it will live up to the TWG name.

Design change needed

I have to use a bungee cord to attach the shoulder straps to the backpack while it is a pannier. The panel with the shoulder straps and rain cover fall forward when I need access to the pack while it is attached to my bike and the rain cover and straps end up in the mud. I think there needs to be support straps to attach the panel with the shoulder straps, to the bag.

Excellent product, great design

I pre-ordered this almost the instant I discovered such a product existed! I was keen to move away from my Thule Shield pannier due to the shoulder strap not doing good things to my back. This backpack is very well made with clearly a lot of thought put into the design. It’s very spacious, with a large laptop pocket and nice inside and outside pockets for various things. Bottle pockets on both sides is a nice touch too. High quality waterproof zips are great. A few observations to maybe be aware of if you’re considering purchasing (these are probably not unique to this type of bag): * With the back folded around and mounted on your bike, it sticks out perhaps more than most bags might. For me it was more than I expected so be careful going through doorways! * You can’t feel the mounting hardware at all when wearing the backpack which is great. Beware that this hardware isn’t removable, which is probably a good thing as it likely improves the long term reliability. * I think my pannier rack is quite standard, but the bag sits slightly further forward than I would like. On a couple of occasions my foot hit the bag when riding. Beware of this if you have a bottle in the side pocket. * The bag also sits lower than my Thule and rests against my rear derailleur, so I mounted it to the opposite side. Again, this might be fairly typical but was noteworthy to me. * The mounting system is great, much better than my Thule, where I was nervous about them unlatching. No such concerns with this backpack!