USWE F4 Pro Hydration Pack

Having cut their teeth in the motocross industry Swedish brand USWE may not be a household name to most mountain bikers, however some of their sponsored athletes certainly are; if you haven’t heard of Steve Peat, Greg Minaar, Josh Bryceland and Anneke Beerten you’ve been hiding in a very dark cave indeed. The F4 is their most popular and versatile pack, with a three litre bladder and enough storage for a very long day in the saddle without being so big you can’t take it out for a quick pedal after work.

It’s relatively lightweight (795g claimed), the red and black colour scheme is guaranteed to make you faster*, and the asking price of $150 is on par with similar sized offerings from other major brands. But relative newcomers they’ve got to stand out from the crowd, and the design of the F4 is definitely a departure from the norm, both in name and form.

Whilst it may sound like a random collection of words, No Dancing Monkey is actually the slightly tongue-in-cheek name given to the unique USWE harness system. Anyone who’s worn an ill fitting or poorly designed pack on rougher trails will be all too familiar with the way they can slide, jump and bounce around on your back; the four-point harness used on the F4 (and all other UWSE packs) aims to eliminate this.

Most packs have two shoulder straps with a hip belt and sternum strap arrangement taken from the hiking industry. The four-point harness has two upper straps that wrap over your shoulders and then come together at the base of your sternum, where they meet the two lower straps that wrap around the bottom of your ribcage. As such the pack sits higher up your back than a more conventional design, although USWE claim it won’t interfere with a neck brace should you happen to use one.

No Monkey Business

The last pack we reviewed which had a superficially similar harness was the Shimano Unzen 10; we didn’t find it to be particularly stable on rough terrain, but USWE’s F4 is an entirely different animal. No matter how hard we tried we just couldn’t shake it loose; its limpet-like grip on your body is as good as or better than any other pack we’ve tried, and we’ve tried a lot. Of course if you only ride smooth trails you’ll probably find any reasonable pack to be sufficiently stable, but if you’ve struggled in the past with a pack that swings all over the place, including bashing into the back of your helmet, you should definitely try the F4; no dancing monkey indeed!

There’s plenty of length adjustment in the straps to work with a variety of body shapes and sizes, so getting the F4 to snuggle into your back should be relatively easy unless you’re well off the ends of the bell curve. Fit comfort is always a personal thing, and across a variety of testers we had different results. One found it incredibly comfortable; our female tester didn’t like the way the straps fit over the breasts; I found it generally very comfortable but was sometimes aware of the plastic size adjusters pressing into my side ribs. All in all it seems to be at the more comfortable end of the spectrum for most guys.

Given that Scandinavian designers have a reputation for fastidious attention to detail, it was a little surprising to find that the zips and buckles are all unbranded and have a less premium look and feel. We haven’t had any failures and everything so far has worked smoothly, but then we haven’t had the F4 long enough to properly test its durability. It’s also strange that the fabrics have a PVC inner waterproof coating rather than the PU used almost exclusively on mid and upper end brands. This makes the fabric feel quite stiff and inflexible, and most manufacturers moved away from PVC due to its tendency to delaminate after a few years; maybe it’s a newer type of PVC that we haven’t yet come across.

In terms of the pack design and layout, it’s one of the best out there. There’s a dedicated outer tool pocket for quick access to the things you need most, a water resistant pocket for your electronics, and a large main pocket which also houses the bladder (sourced from Hydrapack) in its own dedicated sleeve. The external helmet carrier is also a great place to stash a jacket, vest, or lightweight pads without needing to open the rest of the pack. The ‘Airstrips’ back panel allows the F4 to sit a little away from your body for better ventilation. There’s also a stiffener in the back panel to ensure the pack retains its comfortable fit even when stuffed to the hilt; no rounded balloon pressing in to your back here—a design element some other manufacturers would do well to learn from.

Overall, USWE’s F4 is a very good pack, and a welcome and well-considered alternative to the traditional hydration packs peddled by most other brands. We have to chip it a few points for the slightly cheaper feel of the buckles, zips and fabric, but if these were addressed it’d be up there with the very best available. For most people it seems to be very comfortable, the pocket layout is excellent, but most importantly it’s stable and secure fit leaves other designs flailing in its wake. If you’re sick of having a monkey on your back whenever your trails get bumpy, the F4 is the pack for you.

*Colour may or may not make you faster

Steve Cramer Products (03) 9587 1466 / www.stevecramerproducts.com.au