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eBags TLS Mother Lode Weekender Convertible Junior
Cost: $129.99
Capacity: 41.6 liters
Dimensions: 19.5″x14”x9” (7.7 x 5.4 x 3.5cm)
Style: Clamshell Travel Backpack
Weight: 3.3 lbs. (1.5 kg)
Laptop: 17.5” laptop
Materials: 840 Denier polyester, YKK and eBags brand hardware
Origin: Manufactured in China
The eBags Mother Lode Junior is a popular, inexpensive travel backpack, that’s often on sale for under $100. It has a simple design, carry on size dimensions, with a ton of great features!
Materials, Colors, and Size
The Weekender Junior is made from a combination of 840 denier polyester, with 900 denier accents on the bottom, where the bag gets the most wear. It’s an untreated material, so this bag is not going to be waterproof.
I’ve mentioned before that ounce for ounce, polyester fabric isn’t as strong as nylon. However when you’re talking about a high denier like on this bag, it doesn’t make much of a difference in strength, and actually helps reduce the price of the backpack.
Zippers and Hardware
eBags used an interesting combination of zippers and hardware on the Weekender Junior, that helps maximize the quality, while keeping the price low. They use #8 YKK zippers on all of the main compartments, and eBags brand zips on most of the small accent pockets. This ensures you get a high quality zipper where you need it. While reducing the price by using less expensive zips on some of the smaller pockets.
They provide locking zippers on 3 of the compartments, the main compartment, the front organizational pocket, and this small top pouch. But mysteriously, there is no double locking zipper on the laptop compartment. However they do provide a small metal ring, that you can secure to the zipper using a small carabiner. But this doesn’t really provide as much security as the locking zippers do.
The rest of the materials used in the Weekender Junior is pretty solid. You don’t want to skimp on the hardware, so here they used all high quality YKK plastic buckles and clips.
Size and Dimensions
The Weekender Junior here, is the smaller cousin the full size Weekender, which is a max-sized 22”x14”x9” bag. They have the exact same layout, width and depth dimensions, but the Junior is about 2.5 inches shorter, and about 12 liters smaller in capacity.
They are both designed to be carry on size for a majority of airlines, with the Junior measuring in at 19.5″ x 14″ x 9″ and holding about 41.5 liter capacity.
External Components
Now looking at the external components and organization of the Weekender Junior. The main features are hide away backpack straps, two side carry handles, a stow away water bottle pocket, an expandable zipper, side compression straps. a detachable hip belt, shoulder strap, and a few external access pockets.
External Organization
There is a large pocket on the top here, with a lockable zipper, which is easily big enough for a camera. As well as a small front slash pocket, which is good for non-valuables. This front organizational compartment has several smaller, zippered pockets inside of it. But the main pocket is large enough to store a jacket, or other large bulky items.
Compression Straps / Buckles
There are two compression straps on either side of the bag, with solid, beefy YKK buckles. Which you can use in combination with the expandable zipper, to really squish this bag down to a compact size.
Water Bottle Pocket
The water bottle pocket in a small zippered pocket, on the front of the bag here. Inside is a hidden sleeve, with a top cinch strap. Initially I thought this was a really cool design, allowing you to hide the pocket away when not in use. But in reality, it doesn’t really work very well.
The single attachment point, causes your water bottle to flop around when you’re walking. You can fix this a little, by clipping the pouch to the side compression strap. But the best solution is to use a collapsible bottle like this one, or just put your water bottle in a different pocket.
Carry Options
Backpack straps
The backpack straps are pretty decent, curved, good amount of padding, with a mesh backing. They are detachable from the bottom, and you can stow them away in this top zippered pocket. They attach to the bottom of the bag using YKK plastic swivel buckles.
The backpack straps do come with a sternum strap, but it’s flimsily attached, and fell off during its first use. So I wouldn’t count on this feature working for you. The back panel padding is also kind of weak and lacks air ventilation. There is some padding between the laptop compartment, and the back of the bag, but the material pressing against your back is just the polyester fabric.
The hip belt also leaves much to be desired. It’s just a simple nylon strap and buckle, with no additional padding or support. This isn’t a huge backpack, so the thin strap does offer a little bit of support. But it’s not really very comfortable, a small amount of padding here, could have made a big difference.
Overall, the Fit and comfort of the Weekender Junior is ok. The actual backpack straps are decently padded and comfortable, but the sternum strap doesn’t work and falls off. The hip belt is thin and uncomfortable, and the back padding leaves much to be desired.
Shoulder strap
The shoulder strap is a nice carry option. It’s a padded strap attached to a 2” strap that attaches with plastic buckles to two clips on the bag. It definitely works, but with this style of travel bag I usually just carry it with the backpack straps. I don’t find myself using the shoulder strap very often.
Top and Side Handles
The weekender Junior has several additional carry options. There is a top and a side carry handle, which are well padded and comfortable. As well as this large handle on the bottom front of the bag.
It’s not so much designed as a carry handle, as it is a PULL HANDLE, to pull the bag out of airline overhead compartments. It works fine, but it probably doesn’t need to be this large.
Interior Components and Design
Now looking at the Interior components and packing style of the eBags Weekender Junior. The main zipper opens up from the side, into a large suitcase-style main compartment
Interior Organization
The left side has a thin pocket with a mesh zippered cover for storing small items. While the right side, is a large compartment for holding the majority of your clothes. Packing cubes work well in this compartment, with use this removable separator, which is designed to keep two smaller cubes from sliding around. Additionally there are two internal compression straps, with little clips to help keep them out of the way.
Laptop Compartment
The laptop compartment on the back of the backpack is gigantic, and will hold up to 17.5” laptop. It however, does not have a false bottom, to keep a larger laptop off the bottom of the bag. But there is this laptop sling thing in here, which will secure a smaller laptop, or tablet up to about 12” wide, and keep it off the bottom of the bag.
Packing The Bags
Now I’ll show you how much this bag can hold, and how I pack it. We had a hard time finding packing cubes from eBags that would fit this bag well. Most of them were either too big, too small, or you had to buy them a big set. We ended up buying a set of cubes from Hynes Eagle that fit this bag pretty well, and were only about $17 for the set of 3.
Summary
Best Features
- Price, this is a solidly made bag, with some really thought out features, it’s a great value for the price.
- Sturdy fabric, and great hardware, it’s very well made with high-quality materials
- It has great organization, and holds a lot more than you would think
Worst Features
- The sternum strap doesn’t work, it’s flimsily attached and falls off
- The back need more padding and air ventilation
- The hip belt is only a thin nylon strap, it needs to be much thicker
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