The Camelbak Rogue: The Perfect Pack for Road Cycling

I have been cycling at least one trip of more than two hundred kilometres every month in the UK in order to achieve the 'Randonneur Round the Year Award' offered by Audax and began this in January 2010 with “Dr. Foster’s Winter Warmer.” This is a ride from Cardiff to Gloucester and back, for about 201 kilometres and is very good for the winter since it is relatively flat, with only a couple of hills in the way.

Before setting out, I decided it would be a good idea to get a new hydration pack, something less bulky than my Camelbak H.A.W.G., which is wonderful, but a bit much for cycling. Nevertheless I have become a firm believer in Camelbak, so decided to look into the packs they designed specifically for cycling. Of course cycling is like hiking in the sense that you have to carry quite a bit of extra gear with you, so it was important to get a hydration pack that was small enough to ride more comfortably, but that was also large enough to carry a decent amount of extra gear and supplies.

After looking around at a number of the various options, I settled for the Camelbak Rogue. This hydration pack was specifically designed for cycling, as was evident by the unique cut, which is designed to avoid interfering with your helmet. Though it carries two litres of water (yes, I am old fashioned enough that I still only put water in my hydration pack), it also has room for a bit more than two litres of cargo as well. This is just about perfect for street cycling around the United Kingdom.

The bladder that comes with the Rogue is the same as the one which comes with the H.A.W.G. and other Camelbak two litre packs, with the wide mouth. Obviously for a fairly easy winter ride a lot of ice was not necessary, but I still like the wide-mouthed bladders simply because they are so much easier to clean out as needed. The bite valve and other aspects of the hydration system is also fairly similar to the other Camelbak systems I have used, so there were no surprises or problems.

The storage area is divided in half, with one large zip pocket situated at the top of the pack and another on the bottom half. Further there are a couple mesh pockets, one designed to hold small important items (like my mobile) and the other designed for larger items (my wind jacket, though there was never any need to take it off). There are, as is always the case with Camelbak, a number of other clips and hoops that can serve a number of purposes as well, so the cargo element of the Rogue was practically perfect.

The only thing I was not able to honestly assess was your well the built in ventilation shafts – meant to help prevent getting a sweaty back – worked. This is because I was wearing a wind and rain jacket that would have given me a sweaty back with anything strapped. However, I trust the back ventilation on the Rogue will work at least as well as it does on other, larger, Camelbak hydration packs.