PODSACS? Any good?

[bainjt]

Hello!

Looking at picking up some bikepacking bags and I've been looking at podsacs saddle bag and wondered if anyone has any experience with them? Whether that be good or bad!

Cheers, Bain.

[ScotRoutes]

Buy off On One / Planet X? I'd rather scoop out my liver with a blunt spoon.

[bainjt]

care to elaborate?

[ton]

I have a podsac seatpack for sale. I have owned a revelate one, a apidura one and various alpkit ones. the podsac one is just as good, but More waterproof.

I have also spent a sub standard load money with On One/Planetx that colin has, or most people have. and I have never had a single problem with them.

[middleagedmadness]

I had one for about a year paid £20 for it and didn’t have any problems till the day before the wrt when the buckles snapped but this may have been down to my heavy handedness

[Boab]

care to elaborate?

Lots of people have different experiences with Planet X / On-One. Either everything is smooth, with no troubles, or it's a complete show of ultra customer service. Plus they, on what can feel like a daily basis, change the prices, mostly upwards just before they then have a sale. So you can end up paying more in the sale, than if you'd bought the same product a few weeks earlier. I try not to give them any of my money, as I was on the receiving end of the entertaining customer service once.

Having said that, I have both the PODSACS Daytripper Lite Waterproof Saddle Bag and PODSACS Voyager Roll Top Handlebar Bag, which I bought to go on my fat bike; I'd spent all my money on the bike and needed something cheap. They are both totally waterproof and do the job well. However, the light loop on the saddle broke on the second ride, and it wasn't like the light was heavy. The velcro straps with the handlebar bag are all the wrong length and it gets in the way of the cables, so takes a bit of fiddling to get it on and still have a working bike.

When I was looking at getting a proper bikepacking setup, I decided to stop buying cheap stuff, that's made in China, and sold by people who (appear to me at least) don't value good customer service, business practices etc. So I bought from Restrap, obviously your mileage may vary on this one, plus your circumstances may dictate what you can actually do etc.

[Scud]

I'm in the Scotroutes camp...

Even when they have decent stuff on there, and the Podsacs stuff probably works ok, i can't bring myself to spend another penny with them..

After a Scandal frame with first brake hose routing mount so close to head tube it couldn't be used, a singlespeed road frame where the paint fell of when you looked at it, and a Fatty Trail frame where the seat tube was so big, i had to use a shim made from Coke can to hold seatpost up, i kinda thought it was funny that their quality control was laughable...

But then i had a Reverb seapost that went back, they basically told me i was lying and had never sent it back, this went on for a month, them stating that they had never received it, until i approached Royal Mail and they finally told me exactly who had signed for it and when, they'd received the day after i'd posted it... then sent me wrong second hand one back in return!

But the final straw, i had happened to mention all of the above on a FB page, only to then get a string of abusive messages from a drunk member of staff on a saturday night, when i sent them this, they just laughed it off and tried to say he was on sick leave.

Company run by idiots, you only have to look at their pricing and daft sales all the time, if they just posted a decent price and had half decent customer service, they'd probably do a lot better, the sales just seem to come from whatever mood Dodgy Dave is in..

[ScotRoutes]

After a Scandal frame with first brake hose routing mount so close to head tube it couldn't be used,

LOL - I had one of those too, after a 7 month delay between ordering it and receiving it and the string of inconsistent lies I got regarding the reasons for the delay. One was that "none of the ones that size and colour have arrived yet" - the day after someone on STW posted a photo of theirs . Then there was the "we've changed ordering system and your order went missing", the "it'll be arriving next week/month" one that went on many times. of course, there were also teh usual "I'll look into it and call you right back" responses. AFAIK OO/PX seem to have no phones capable of making outgoing calls because not once did anyone call me. When it did arrive, not only was the hose routing unusable, they'd neglected to fit the rack mounts that had been one of my main reasons for ordering it. According to Dodgy Dave, the reason I got such s h i t service was that I wasn't rude enough to the poor CS reps on the phone

[pistonbroke]

Slagging off Planet X is normally the fare of that other UK based forum, very much a Marmite company that, in my opinion, reflects the erratic personality of it's founder. I worked there for 2 1/2 years as a bike builder and service centre mechanic, a roller coaster ride doesn't begin to cover it.
One instance is burned into my mind but I've literally dozens more, some funny others less so.
I was quietly getting on with work one morning when I began to feel dizzy and distinctly unwell. Luckily one of the guys there had had some first aid training and had the presence of mind to run next door which was an ambulance service training centre. A medic arrived with a diagnostic kit and after plugging me in, advised that a trip to Rotherham hospital by ambulance was advisable as he thought I'd had a stroke. I spent the afternoon undergoing tests and was sent home and told not to drive for a couple of days so going back to work was out.
All the mechanics and warehouse staff were hourly paid on a monthly basis, imagine my warm fuzzy feeling on checking my pay slip that month that my pay had stopped the minute I'd left the premises on the way to hospital.
Lovely firm to work for.

[bainjt]

Ok thanks all for the responses. But I am more interested in the PODSCACS gear itself: Is it sturdy? Is it waterproof? Any typical issues to look out for with the gear? More specifically the saddlebag.

Cheers.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Yes it's sturdy and yes, It's waterproof. Attachment will be fairly basic but that's not always a bad thing and in line with lots of other stuff. Obviously, don't expect the quality / longevity of some other makes but saying that, one of the worst packs I ever tried was also one of the most expensive available.

[Boab]

Ok thanks all for the responses. But I am more interested in the PODSCACS gear itself: Is it sturdy? Is it waterproof? Any typical issues to look out for with the gear? More specifically the saddlebag.

The two bits I've bought have both been sturdy and totally waterproof. Just expect all the straps to be the wrong length, with the velcro to be in the wrong place, and don't trust the light loop. You can also find the exact same stuff on AliExpress without the PODSACS logo on the side, or from other retailers with a different logo on the side, if you're so inclined...

[bainjt]

Thanks bud!