Our thanks to Rocket Science Sports for sending the Real Joe Triathlon Gear bag for review. We’re really looking forward to putting the Real Joe bag through it’s paces, as it’s a reasonably priced gear bag and we know all you new triathletes need a proper bag to carry all your newly purchased gear.
Rocket Science Sports:
Rocket Science Sports manufactures many different products for the triathlon industry, including gear bags, wetsuits, race suits, swim gear, and accessories. Founded by Marcin Sochacki, RSS is based in Austin, Texas.
Real Joe Bag Details:
The Real Joe/Jane bag is made of 600 Denier (pretty heavy weight) fabric. Basic features include an adjustable helmet holder, a cell phone pocket, a removable wet-dry compartment, reflective strips, padded shoulder straps, mesh pockets inside for small items, mesh side pockets to hold water bottles, and a sunglass holder.
The main compartment, other than a few mesh pouches, is just one large space:
Interior View of Real Joe/Real Jane Bag
Appearance:
Basically, the Real Joe/Real Jane looks like your average backpack, with a few mesh pockets thrown in for good measure. Our sample bag is a rich blue with black webbing and red and white lettering. The back of the bag features padded and adjustable shoulder straps. The Real Joe/Real Jane bag also has a waist strap with hip padding and a chest strap that is adjustable for width and height. Very similar to the CamelBak Lobo Hydration Pack or a nice hiking pack.
Capacity:
The biggest question is “Will it hold all my stuff?” To test this, we put together our standard kit for a sprint or Olympic triathlon. We’re not going to give you a packing list, but if you look below, you’ll see there’s plenty of gear.
Gear for RSS Real Joe/Real Jane Test
Two pairs of shoes, helmet, change of clothes, tri top, bike jersey, warmups, towels, change of clothes, nutrition, visor, socks. Probably a bit more too. Anyway, this is a ton of gear. Did it fit?
Fully Loaded Real Joe/Real Jane Bag
Roger that. Everything fit and there’s still a bit of room left. The cinch top makes for easy and quick packing, but the bag could use a top flap to hold everything in place. We were impressed that the bag had plenty of room for two pairs of size 13 men’s shoes, plus all our gear.
Top View of Loaded Real Jane/Real Joe Bag
Comfort:
The back of the Real Joe/Real Jane bag is padded. Without using calipers to measure the thickness, let’s just say it’s thick enough to offer a bit of comfort but not so thick as to be rigid. In other words, the bag will not sit up by itself if it’s empty. After packing all this gear into the bag, the back feels a bit lumpy, mostly due to our packing job. After rearranging our gear inside the bag a bit, we were able to reduce or eliminate any lumps or discomfort. Be careful and mindful when packing, you’ll be a lot more comfortable if you pack strategically to prevent protrusions towards the back of the bag. A few seconds of thought will save you the discomfort of having your cleats stick in your back.
Once we got the packing settled, we adjusted the shoulder, waist, and chest straps. We were surprised to see all the adjustments on the straps in Rocket Science Sport’s entry level bag, pleasantly surprised.
As mentioned on their website, the bottom of the bag is detachable and can be used as a separate bag for swim gear and for wet and dry clothes.
Real Jane/Real Joe Removable Bottom Bag
The removable bag is well thought out, includes waterproof fabric and an expandable mesh section if you want to let your gear breath. There are tons of zippers in this section of the bag. There is the expandable mesh portion zipper, the closure zipper for the removable bag, and a third zipper to attach the removable bag to the main bag. Not that we can think of a better way to attach everything, just observing that there are plenty of zippers. Overall, your reviewer thinks the removable bag is a great idea. But, when you actually put the bag on, it looks a bit awkward. We think the bag is useful, and maybe even useful as a separate backpack, but we’re going to avoid using it as it’s own pack.
Final Thoughts:
The Real Joe/Real Jane bag is well made, roomy, comfortable, and at $59.99 MSRP, a great value. We’ll use this bag for the next few weeks including in a race or two and report back with some details and final observations.
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Thank you for the review.
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