BudgetTravel

We yanked the bags up curbs and small sets of stairs again and again to see how the bags handled the impact. Sometimes we hit the curb dead on; other times we made contact at a slight angle. The Tumi was the smoothest curb hopper, easing its way up and absorbing the steps as well as you could expect. The Eagle Creek, REI, and Tumi quickly settled back on two wheels when hitting the curb at an awkward angle. The Osprey easily jumped up curbs and stairs, but its big wheels caused more of a jolt than the others. Both the Ogio and the Osprey were inclined to flip when we hit the curb at anything other than a 90-degree angle.

Curb hopping

(Morgan & Owens) FEBRUARY 2007 ISSUE • Table of Contents • Secret Hotels of the Riviera Maya • James Turrell: Sky High • Dubai: Just Add Money • Eat Like a Local: Melbourne • Five Hotels: What 99 Pounds Buys in London • Road Trip: Hawaii • 40 Best Vacations

Eagle Creek ****½
Ogio ***
Osprey **½
REI ****½
Tumi *****

Test 5: Stability

When push comes to shove, is the bag prone to falling down on the job?

We stood each bag up and nudged it to see how easily it would topple. The Eagle Creek and Tumi bags performed the best, resettling quickly after each push; only swift shoves knocked them down. The REI was good, but slightly more inclined to tip--perhaps because of the weight of its standard attached day pack. (With the day pack removed, the REI was more stable; then again, without it the REI had less packing space than the other bags.) The Osprey required only a slight nudge to fall over. It also wound up on its back when we attempted to stand it up on ground that wasn't completely flat. The Ogio came in dead last, tipping with little or no nudging at all. The problem is that, when standing up, the Ogio rests on its wheels and a plastic stabilizer handle--which don't line up correctly. The bag has bad posture, never standing up straight. Sometimes it crashed over the moment we let go of the handle.

Stability

Eagle Creek *****
Ogio ½
Osprey *½
REI ****
Tumi *****

The final test: Times Square

Our test lab was all well and good--and the lab coats made it feel very official--but there's no substitute for the real world. Call us masochists, but before naming a winner we rolled the three highest-scoring bags into the heart of Times Square for one final, less theoretical trial. By then, something must have come loose in the Tumi's handle, and it rattled loudly (and annoyingly) along the sidewalks. The bag's wheels also became stuck in subway grates. The lighter, quick-turning REI and Eagle Creek were more deft at zigzagging around tourists and avoiding taxis. While the REI's attached day pack is a nice option, it juts out awkwardly from the main bag and made it less stable than the Eagle Creek. In dense crowds, the day pack sometimes wound up bumping into people, too.

Times Square

Eagle Creek *****
REI ****
Tumi ****

Notes and observations:

REI: The bag (right) has a zippered compartment with backpack straps--and surprisingly, the bag sits very comfortably over the shoulders.

Ogio: The handle often got stuck when we tried to push it back into the bag.

Osprey: On the plus side, the bag has two handles in the precise spots you want for picking the bag up with two hands. But when the bag is standing up, the zippers snag easily, and during tests, the bag frayed and ripped in a few spots.

Tumi: The handle's release button (right) is in a fairly awkward position, requiring two hands to extend the handle.

The winner!

With 29 stars out of a possible total of 30, Eagle Creek's Velocity 25" was our best performer. Not only did the Eagle Creek score tops in our tests, it also has some other cool features we like. The big rounded handle fits especially comfortably in the hand--a relief after a few hours. The model comes with some unexpected extras: a garment bag and a space-saving folder system for packing clothing flat. And at $340, the Eagle Creek retails for $110 less than the Tumi model we tested. And yes, it also comes in black.