Hill & Ellis Rusty Bike Bag

The Hill & Ellis Rusty Charcoal and Copper Canvas Cycling Bag looks like a stylish and casual tote bag for around town and leisure use, but it's also a rugged and well-made pannier with plenty of well-considered design features for regular bike use.

Intended to be a practical but stylish bike bag, this is spot on for anyone wanting a useful way of carrying stuff about on or off the bike without looking purely like a sporty or functional cyclist.

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The bag is available in a variety of colours, and is made from heavy-duty, fully-lined, water-resistant cotton canvas. A sturdy zip opening with a long glove-friendly tag at the top keeps everything secure and protected from the weather, a generous zipped pocket inside is ideal for keys and the like, the bottom of the bag is reinforced and padded, and there's an optional adjustable cotton webbing shoulder strap.

The rear side of the bag is slightly padded, more so at the top where the pannier attachment clips are hidden away behind a zipped panel, making them virtually invisible, and – possibly more importantly – not intrusive when carrying it as a shoulder bag.

The rugged build and the lightly padded back make the bag effective at protecting a laptop (it's designed to carry up to a 15in laptop) although I'd definitely still have it in a protective sleeve.

The bag is claimed to have a volume of 16 litres, and there's certainly plenty of space for laptop, shoes and compact change of clothes for commuting, or for shopping or bits and bobs for about town use. It's a very practically sized bag rather than an 'emergencies only' option.

It's sturdy and made from high quality materials. The rugged water resistant canvas outer keeps out the worst of the weather but I'd not want to be out for hours in a monsoon. With this particular pattern, road dirt and water splashes are virtually invisible, though they brush off very easily once dry anyway. It's also available in plain colours, navy and black.

The high-quality Rixen Kaul clip attachments are designed to work with the majority of rack dimensions, from 6-18mm, and attached smoothly and easily to my rack.

The attachment was pretty secure anyway, but a clip adds extra security and is easily moved over to prevent the pannier coming off the rack.

There's no lower clip, which some panniers feature, but the weight of the bag, even when empty, meant there was no bouncing or movement.

At £98 it's far from being a cheap bag, but it's not designed to simply be just a practical pannier; it is effectively a designer tote bag. When compared with other independent label, small designer tote bags, it's comparably priced. When compared with other bike bags and panniers, such as the Chrome Industries Urban Ex Pannier, it again compares reasonably well. Yes, the Chrome is fully waterproof, but the Hill & Ellis is more versatile. The Ortlieb City-Biker QL3 serves a similar purpose, at a similar price, but is far less stylish and not as well designed for its job.

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So, price-wise, it's definitely not looking over-expensive, particularly taking into account the fact that Hill & Ellis is a small, independent, British company focusing on high quality and sustainability.

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Overall, the Hill & Ellis Canvas Cycling Bag is pleasingly well made and practical, looks good and should deliver years of faithful on and off-bike service.

Verdict

High quality, stylish and versatile bag with a British pedigree that works well on and off the bike