Hi! Anybody have an REI Cruise UL 60 backpack that they'd like to sell?

I wasn't aware of these packs back when they were being made. As a new member on BPL, I read the BPL review, and it looks as though the pack could be a good fit for an upcoming two week long lightweight (not ultralightweight) mountain backpacking trip that I'm planning. I'm particularly interested in the *internal compression system* (using drawstrings rather than straps) that these packs used, since I will be gobbling up cubic inches as my trip progresses, and I also may want to use the pack in compressed daypack mode for peak bagging.

It is the internal compression system that intrigues me about this pack. I just missed seeing one on ebay earlier this month. It was in good shape, too, and went for a decent price, but apparently they don't show up all that often.

If you've got one for sale, please let me know by email, and/or responding to this post with contact information. My email is at gmail dot com, and my address, what comes before the at symbol, is docbackpacker I'm writing it in this funny round-about way to try to foil spambots. If you know of a better way, I'm teachable.

I just enabled PM for me on my BPL profile. My personal information there is presently minimal, but I'm happy to tell you whatever you need to know. I teach school at Truman State University in northeast Missouri, where we have lots of outdoors, hills, and water, but are way short on mountains.

I know that some people loved the UL 60 pack and some people hated it. I've sewn several MYOG backpacks, all my own designs (using shameless copying, with permission, of the good ideas of others, but also some novel aspects I hadn't seen before), so I think I can likely modify anything that bugs me (except perhaps the alleged squeeking! ouch!) If not, hey, I will still have learned something valuable.

Thanks!

Sincerely,
Ken

My wife has one and likes it . My observations. The internal compression straps work but seem less straight forward in use than the typical outside ones. The one big potential flaw in the pack is the adjustable torso length. Big Velcro setup. I can see how it might fail if you adjusted it too many times or were carrying a big heavy load once in a while. So you might ask your potential sellers about those points , especially on Ebay. Good Luck.

I've kept my REI Cruise UL 60 around "just in case" I needed a pack with suspension but I prefer my Exodus and Burn year round nowadays. If this is what you're looking for, I'd be happy to sell.

John, thank you for the first-hand insights on the particulars of the pack. Those are all helpful things for me to know and look out for.

I have an old industrial sewing machine that can sew through several layers of 1000 denier Cordura(tm), so if the hook-and-loop attachment is dicey, I might consider setting it for my torso, and just sewing the assembly firmly in place with boot thread!

Am glad the pack has worked well for your wife! I'm betting she is likely farther along the road of light packing than I am. Also, on the upcoming trip I'm planning, I expect I will have more weight in food alone at the beginning (for around two weeks without resupply) than most BPL members' typical full pack weights.

So your caution is a relevant one! I can easily think of situations I've been in, even outside of scrambling, where having a shoulder harness assembly let go could have been the last event in my mortal life (well, except for maybe a few bounces on the way down and the big impact at the bottom). The "Cliffs of Insanity"(unofficial name, but apt) on the Na Pali Coast's Kalalau Trail on Kauai come to mind. So again, big thanks. Maybe someone who has the problem, and lacks a solution, will see my post and decide to convert a white elephant into some cash.

Seems as though some folks have found the internal cord compression system elegantly simple, and others somewhat fiddly. I was wondering why it was abandoned. Perhaps that's why. Also, I'm wondering if some of the differences might be related to specific legitimate variation in packing style, e.g., amorphous bundles shoved in a pack liner versus tightly packed horizontally arranged silnylon stuffsacks. Just a hypothesis. If I get one, I can test it. I'm guessing it might be harder with this system to snug the carefully packed load than the more haphazard one, but I wouldn't bet a nickle on my guess at this point. Somehow the alternative system still fascinates me.

Hey ,glad I could help. I'd love to get your take on the internal system . It could very well be that there is a better way . We aren't UL, pack in plenty of food and do like daypacking with our packs compressed for parts of a trip- I use a Mountainsmith Ghost.I'll say one thing about the REI -once adjusted for torso my wife finds it very comfortable. My daughter took it to Europe for 3 weeks too and we fit it to her longer torso then.

Thank you to Evan, Richard, and, Bestbuilder for getting in touch so quickly! I now realize to my chagrin that I forgot to specify the *size* I am looking for, which at this time is the size *Large* (for me). (I'm 6' tall with a relatively long torso.) My apologies for the oversight!

If it works like I'm hoping, then I might be looking also at a medium for my Scout age son. If no larges surface, then my son may be getting a new backpack sooner rather later, and it may be MYOG time again for me!

(I've dreamed up and made several framed and unframed packs, and have recently found a very reasonably priced source for 7075-T651 aluminum in a dimension that would be suitable for a traditional internal frame pack, and I think can be suitably reduced by a local machinist for use in making a lightweight framed load hauler (along the lines of a Mountainsmith Auspex in volume and payload weight, but a bit lighter in pack mass.)

Thanks again for writing so quickly!

Anybody have a size *Large* REI Cruise UL 60 backpack that they'd like to sell?

I'm chagrined that I neglected to specify the size, and several generous people had size mediums to offer, but I need the large or it would clobber my shoulders and back.

Here's a size medium, just posted in the gear swap forum.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=63012