Dakine Helipack Rocks

The Dakine Helipack (a skiing / snowboard rucksack) is an awesome bit of
uni equipment.

After a friends' positive experience with them and discussions on RSU
recommending them I took the plunge and ordered one (I bought from
www.wiggle.co.uk - they had a good pricing offer on them and do free
shipping). It is an awesome piece of kit - it could have been designed
with unicyclists in mind.

The bag offers several carrying modes: diagonal ski carry, vertical
snowboard carry, quick access snow shovel carry. It has luggage straps
galore on the outside (two horizontal straps, one long strap that can
be added on as an extension or separate strap when needed, one short
strap for gripping skis. Each of these fastens shut with a plastic
clip - all except the ski carry strap are interconnectable via
compatible clips!). There's also a webbing loop for gripping the lower
end of the skis.

It's hard to describe just how versatile these straps are; since each
of the main straps comes in two parts (which can be separately adjusted
and interconnected). A number of webbing loops are also available.
There is an *enormous* selection of possible arrangements for carrying
whatever load you need to shift.

The pack has chest and waist straps for extra support and padded
shoulder straps. Two external compartments (plus the shovel carrier)
for easy access to small items, plus a decent sized main compartment.
There is a netting pocket for a hydration pack inside the main
compartment, plus an insulated route for the drinking tube leading from
the main compartment to the left shoulder strap.

The pack itself is compact and can be strapped securely yet comfortably
- should be good for muni / long distance expeditions although I
haven't tested this yet. My main application so far has been for
strapping unihoc equipment to myself before bicycling out to practice.
This has been a shining success: my 20" uni straps securely to the back
of the pack without making it uncomfortable to carry. It is vastly
superior to my previous strategy of looping luggage straps through the
shoulder straps on my old backpack. Whatsmore, there are enough loops
and straps to hold every part of the uni firmly in place - no more
worrying about the frame swinging about. I've recently bought a hockey
stick bag which I can also strap onto the helipack, making it easy to
carry all my unihoc kit on my back.

In my view, the Helipack is just plain awesome, I'm glad I spent the
money. It's well designed, versatile, and could have been designed for
unicyclists - or anything else that requires compactness combined with
easy load carrying.


--
mark williamson

Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat? And no
pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!
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And here are some pics:

The Helipack:
[image:
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery2/m...83a8907f0e3e7]

The Helipack with BC wheel strapped on:
[image:
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery2/m...83a8907f0e3e7]

When carrying unihoc kit, I use the lower of the loops for ski carry to
hold the uni frame and stick so that they can't swing about, but
instead come out to one side out of the way of my bike's rear wheel.
If anyone's interested I can get a pic of this too but having
unstrapped the lot when I got my kit home I'm trying to avoid
restrapping everything until next hockey practice


--
mark williamson

Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat? And no
pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!
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But I heard its great for unis too.
But when I saw it in the local skate shop, it seemed so small

Edit: I see the pics now...Didn't fully load before


--
Triball
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I concure, it looks like the design has changed a fair bit since I
bought mine but the same comments stil apply. Triball, yes it's pretty
small inside, they d the HeliPro modl if you want somehting a little
larger.


--
kington99

Dave

- what a thoroughly post-modern subversion of the cycling genre -
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yeah i agree its a gerat bag, got the same in red

have you got the camelpack for it ? thats awesome too.


--
brendan
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brendan wrote:
yeah i agree its a gerat bag, got the same in red

have you got the camelpack for it ? thats awesome too.



I had a Platypus hydration pack already - haven't used it yet but I
will when I get round to taking the Helipack on a longer ride. I'll be
interested to see if the insulated sleeve stops the water in the
hydration tube from getting really warm and icky in the summer sun!


--
mark williamson

Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat? And no
pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/58728

And here's my final pics: helipack + hockey stick + uni. From this pic,
hopefully it's obvious that the uni can attach securely to the helipack
too!

[image:
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery2/m...83a8907f0e3e7]

[image:
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery2/m...83a8907f0e3e7]

Sorry for some earlier images not working, I got the link addresses
messed up! All fixed now.


--
mark williamson

Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat? And no
pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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mark williamson wrote:
I had a Platypus hydration pack already - haven't used it yet but I will
when I get round to taking the Helipack on a longer ride. I'll be
interested to see if the insulated sleeve stops the water in the
hydration tube from getting really warm and icky in the summer sun!



I use the platypus, the water stays relatively cool as it's stored out
of sunlight. The tube insulation does also work at its intended task,
which is stopping water from freezing inside the tube in sub-zero
conditions. UNfortunately the valve is still prone to this problem.


--
kington99

Dave

- what a thoroughly post-modern subversion of the cycling genre -
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But on those pics the belts look so fragile

I have a very large model Dakine (dont know the name), so every other
else looks small to me


--
Triball
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