Ortlieb City-Biker QL3

Ortlieb's panniers are pretty much the benchmark for serious touring use, being dependably waterproof and rugged enough to last for years. The City-Biker is aimed at urban riders who don't need to carry a huge volume but want a stylish and comfortable bag once they've hopped off their bike. It's as well made as you'd expect, but I think that use on the bike is too compromised in the name of comfortable carrying when on foot.

The City-Biker is available with a couple of different mounting systems, the QL2 and QL3. We saw the same systems on the Single Back-Roller Urban Pannier and Commuter Bag respectively. For this type of application, where the bag is designed for use on and off the bike, I personally favour the QL3 system as it means there are no pointy bits to stick into your side when you carry the bag on your shoulder. For the uninitiated, QL3 means that there is a separate bracket which attaches to your bike's rack, with three little plastic spigots to secure the bag. The back surface of the bag is pretty much flat as a consequence.

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I was really impressed with this system on the Commuter bag, although one or two commenters said they found that the fixing to the rack struggled to hold weight compared with conventional fixings. The City-Biker is a smaller bag with only 10 litre capacity, and so on the face of it should be well-suited to the QL3 system. The trouble is, the bag only attaches to the top two mounting points on the QL3 bracket, so the bottom of the bag just sits against the side of the rack rather than being held there. This is odd, as the bag is amply tall enough that a third mounting point could have been incorporated, and the failure to do so is the main flaw of this bag.

In normal conditions, when you're sat on the saddle, the City-Biker stays in place. In a bend, the cornering forces mean the bag still remains held against the rack. However, if you stand up to ride up a hill then it swings out and back against the rack. The more weight you have in the bag, the more disconcerting this is, but even with just a light payload I found it pretty annoying.

The problem is worsened because of the way the QL3 system is attached. When the bag swings out and back, it puts a bending load through the mounting system in a way that you wouldn't have with conventional pannier hooks. Over time, I found that the QL3 bracket would get twisted out of position as a consequence, needing adjustment to get it back in the right place to allow easy attachment of the bag.

In fairness, you might argue that this bag is aimed at users who like to ride sedately in a relatively flat city, without ever needing to stand up and pedal, in which case this would be less of a problem. The strange thing is that it would be such an easy problem to fix – incorporating a third mounting point to secure the bottom of the bag is all it would take.

The City-Biker is made of a tough waterproof fabric that Ortlieb calls PS33. It is reinforced at the bottom, on the back and on the top corners. There are four colours available, with black, purple and blue being the other options. Given that it's an urban sort of product, the total lack of reflectives is a mite surprising, not least as other urban bags in Ortlieb's range do well in this respect.

The bag is rated as IP53 for the ingress of dust and water – in short, you shouldn't get much dust in there and splashes of water at up to 60 degrees from vertical should be kept out. I had no problems with water getting in during testing. There is no roll-top system, just a well-designed flap held in place with Velcro, so getting stuff out in a hurry is simplicity itself.

Under the flap is a small strap designed to secure the shoulder strap when fitted to a bike. I like this – if you're going to design a bag that's at home on the bike or on the shoulder, you shouldn't have to remove straps to stop them catching in your back wheel.

The 10L capacity of the City-Biker is smaller than most panniers but I found that there was room enough for lunch and a spare T-shirt. I had to take my 13in laptop home one evening and that fitted in too, albeit not with the lunch – and with this extra weight the mounting issues were particularly bothersome.

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On the inside is a zipped pocket that would take something like a phone, and a lanyard with a plastic clip to secure your keys. If you plan on taking a tablet or laptop in the bag regularly, you'll want to consider Ortlieb's optional padded sleeve, which isn't included as standard.

In conclusion, if you don't have lots to carry and you live somewhere flat, the Ortlieb City-Biker is a pretty decent option, albeit at a premium price. The QL3 system makes it a pleasure to carry on your shoulder, but the absence of a lower mounting point really limits its appeal if you live somewhere hilly or you like to cycle quickly.

Verdict

Well-made bag but the QL3 implementation is poorly executed and that will limit its appeal to many