Gear of the Year: Travel | Outside Online

You Are Here:

Home >> Gear of the Year

Today's Question
What should you do if you run into a cougar in the backcountry? answer

What is the number one backcountry skill people should learn? answer

Today's Question
What are the five best environmental movies of all time? answer

What are the greenest colleges? answer

What kind of dog will make me look manlier? answer
Is there a sport that safely combines my twin passions for guns and kayaks? answer
How come most of the world's cultures enjoy eating goat, but Americans don't? answer

Online Favorites

Special Issues

Photo Galleries

Outside Online

Buyer's Guide 2004
Gear of the Year
Sport Racks and Luggage


	(Kim Kurian)

Sport Racks

Bauer Vehicle Gear Back Road II Pro $349
WHY IT RULES: Being on top isn't always best. Here's a rugged, functional, and—dare we say it?—elegant rack that totes gear behind your vehicle. » Finally, a hitch-mounted rack that doesn't ask you to correctly sequence a half-dozen knobs when you want to get inside your car. Forget a water bottle in back? Spin a single lock—I did it with my foot—and watch the slightly angled, gas-assisted bar politely swing out of your way. » The two bike arms have soft rubber cradles and locking tabs on either side, making it easy to secure any top tube. They also accommodate funky frame shapes. » Once it's loaded, an anti- wobble arm keeps up to four bikes from clanging around on rough roads. » The Back Road packs in loads of features—like an integrated cable-lock system—and the simple design works incredibly well. HMMM...The bike cradles are a bit narrow; be tender when loading steeds with dangling cables.

Luggage

Red Oxx PR5 Safari-Beano's Bag $175
WHY IT RULES: The Red Oxx guys, former military parachute riggers, are as intolerant of weakness in their duffels as they were with their chutes. To wit, this 2,400-cubic-inch bag is built to extreme specs—the fabric is 1,000-denier Cordura, the titanium of the bag biz. The oversize webbed-nylon handles aren't



	(Nigel Cox)

just double- box-stitched to the bag; they wrap around it. Overkill? Probably. But I'll take it. » The zippers are the industry's biggest, hence strongest. And the swiveling shoulder-strap clips—plus the V-rings they snap into—are stainless-steel sailboat hardware. » The contact section of the shoulder strap is slip-proof injection-molded rubber. » Beano is the nickname of an Oxx owner's neighbor in Billings, Montana, who loves pockets, so this bag has 'em on all four sides of the main hold. HMMM...Though I wouldn't trade it for plastic, that boat hardware is pretty clanky.