I received an AngleTech Areotrunk last week. Here's my opinion of it after several days of riding
with it mounted on my RANS Tailwind.
- First off, it's very big, 2850 cubic inches (that's the primary reason I bought it). My old 1250
cubic inch bag just wasn't large enough for my winter commuting. I often carry extra warm clothes
in addition to carrying my work clothes/laundry, lunch box, repair kits, etc back and forth
to/from work-and sometimes I had to use a bungy cord to strap some of my clothes on the outside
of the bag. With the AngleTech Aerotrunk, it all fits inside nicely.
- Second, it does seem to make my Tailwind a little faster. In truth, I really haven't ridden with
it long enough to know if it is just a placebo effect, or if it really does make a difference.
AngleTech's advertisement states their riders were 2 - 3 mph faster with the Aerotrunk. My speed
increase hasn't been that dramatic, about 1-mph (but hey, that's still a step in the right
direction). However, I'll have to ride a bit further before I can conclude that the Aerotrunk is
truly the cause of it.
- Finally, it does look nice on the Tailwind (I bought a red one that matches the paint on my
Tailwind quite well).
- On the negative side, the bag is supposedly designed to hold its aerodynamic shape. There is a
semi-rigid plastic liner material that serves as the framework. Unfortunately, my bag showed up
with a relatively large dent in the plastic, causing a rather ugly dent visible on the side of the
Aerotrunk. I'm not sure what cause the dent: I suspect a shipping accident, rather than poor
craftsmanship. I contemplated sending it back, but ended up fixing the problem by taping a
cardboard strut across the inside of the bag to push the dent back to its proper shape so the bag
looks nice and is in the proper aerodynamic shape.
Brian