Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This bag looks great and the reviews are consistently good; which, after much research and consideration led me to purchase it. However, my first impression upon receiving this bag was that the design is lacking in several main areas. As a mechanical engineer I am very picky when it comes to design and build quality. One of the main reasons I purchased this bag was because of the robust looking, external telescopic handle and skateboard wheels. Awesome concept but the design and build quality really let me down. This was apparent upon my first time using this bag. The release mechanism inside the tubes is not supported well and therefore rattles around when you're rolling on anything rougher than a polished airport floor. The rattling is amplified by the tubes and it is utterly annoying especially for a bag that you just dropped $200+ on. I tried to contact Timbuk2 on their customer support line but after three failed attempts just gave up. Fast forward 10 months later while on a trip to Europe rattling down the streets of Dubrovnik the telescopic tube assembly fails completely; pulling apart at one of the joints. The release mechanism was giving some problems in the previous weeks randomly jamming open.. which didn't surprise me given how loose the internals seem to be. When the thing finally broke I had to resort to tying a scarf around the handle and pulling it around.. for two weeks more!! The other main complaint I have about this bag is that the corners are not sufficiently protected. It would have been easy to mount some plastic corner plates on the bottom half but they didn't do it and trust me, it will get frayed and scuffed on your first trip outside of a car trunk.