Tom Bihn Organic Cotton Truck Review

Here is a review of the Tom Bihn Truck, made, for the first time, in "domestic organic cotton canvas — grown, woven, and dyed right here in the U.S.A."  

I was provided a review copy of this bag for free, in exchange for my feedback.

It is currently offered in Natural (undyed), Santa Cruz (electric purple-blue), and Talus (dark grey/pastel black). I requested the "natural", and somehow thought it would be a grey or olive color, but not at all -- it's a creamy white! It is quite nice: very stiff (ie, holds its shape), and pleasant to touch, without any of the shininess of the ballistic fabric. To be honest, if I'd known it was going to be white, though, I might have requested it in the dark grey, because I have an incredible talent for getting things dirty. However, in its pristine state, I think it is my favorite of the three choices on offer. 

The purple/blue color is already garnering a lot of interest, but I prefer more muted colors.

This is the first Tom Bihn truck I've owned in this size. I do love the idea of the natural fabrics. I don't know if I'd take this one to the grocery store, but will find a use for it indoors. It's nicer than the ballistic versions, so it could be on standby for bringing drinks and treats to a get-together, particularly with that pretty moon label!

A close-up of the fabric to show the texture:

 

A top view. Again, I'm kind of scared of the white, but it's certainly easy to see what's inside! I'm also enjoying the contrast of the black piping.

This version of the Truck seems to have the same stiff base as the ones in Ballistic or Cordura, and the compartments and piping give it structure.

It's funny to see the strong feelings about the labels. Some people seek out black ones (count me in on that, particularly on bags with a black exterior) and someone else managed to cut theirs off and replace it with the traditional red airplane one. I personally don't mind any of them, and the red airplane is great, but not if it clashes (ie, with an orange or blue bag). When I make color choices I'm looking at the totality of inside fabric, outside fabric and label. For this series, I think the moon label goes well with the grey, white or blue/purple.

Final note: This is not meant to be an exhaustive review showing all the functions of the Truck, a product which has been out for a while. Tom Bihn has gathered many great photos on uses and ideas, and there's not much point in my trying to recreate all that. Check out the regular Truck product page, as well as the one for the Organic Cotton Truck.

 

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Patterns

Two virus-worthy stories in this week's news:

Feeling a sense of deja-vu in the rush to cancel flights. We went through this in early 2020 (by the first flight cancellation, SARS-CoV-2 was already spreading by community transmission throughout the US), again for the delta variant, and now B.1.1.529.* It's hard to see a country-specific flight ban having any effect, but it doesn't seem like a bad idea for the moment. I'd rather have a more extensive system for repeated testing of travelers before and after landing, coupled with a quarantine, implemented worldwide. Cheap or free rapid tests pretty much are the way out of this pandemic. If they were available now in the US, thousands of lives could be saved over the holidays.

* It's been named Omicron. It's worth noting that South Africa has an excellent sequencing program, and this may be the reason they noticed this variant prior to other countries.  I'm sure we'll know more in the next few weeks.  Also, some reporting from an unfortunate Times correspondent tweeting from the tarmac of Schiphol, where they are deciding what to do with the passengers from Johannesburg.

 

 

 

Surge of cases in Europe. So far, the U.S. has reliably followed:

“Time and again, we’ve seen how the infection dynamics in Europe are mirrored here several weeks later,” Carissa F. Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, said during a Wednesday briefing. “The future is unfolding before us, and it must be a wake-up call for our region because we are even more vulnerable.”

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A “universal” flu vaccine could bring one of the world’s longest pandemics to an end

 Fascinating New Yorker article about developing a better flu vaccine, by Matthew Hutson:

Some viruses are siloed within a single species. But the flu migrates easily among several species, and this adds to its recombinatory range. “There are hundreds of warm-blooded animals that are routinely infected with flu virus,” Taubenberger, who is the chief of the Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section at NIAID, told me. “It can move from birds to horses to pigs to humans.” If a bird is infected with two strains of the flu at once, those strains may combine to create a new virus; that virus, in turn, may enter another animal. In 1918, H1N1 infected humans, who passed the disease on to pigs; the swine flu that so alarmed epidemiologists in 2009 emerged when two of the pig strains converged, then returned to humans. The existence of so-called animal reservoirs for the flu makes it more likely that, in any given year, virologists will confront a radically altered opponent. It also means that herd immunity is nearly impossible to achieve. “Viruses like smallpox or measles or polio that are specifically adapted to humans . . . if you vaccinate enough people to generate herd immunity, you can actually eliminate the virus,” Taubenberger said. “But flu can never be eliminated, because it’s in hundreds of species of animals, and it’s constantly moving around. So, we need a better strategy.”

 

That quest has not yet borne fruit, but multiple approaches are being tried around the world. Most vaccines (unlike the SARS-CoV-2 ones, which were unusual in many ways), most vaccine development takes time:

In 1996, the F.D.A. approved Copaxone, a drug Arnon developed, for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. It was a huge leap forward in treatment for the disease, and ushered in what felt like an instant transformation for patients all across the world. For Arnon, however, the approval was the culmination of a long and arduous process; developing the drug had taken twenty-nine years. “The first time that you see that you can prevent infection with something that you synthesize by your own hands, there is an excitement that can’t be really explained in words,” she said. Still, “you have to be patient. And you have to live long.”

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Tray Bien Review

A review of the Tray Bien, which was provided to me by Tom Bihn for free in return for my feedback.

It's a tray, covered in fabric. Simple, but useful. 

It was designed "to hold and display Organizer Pouches in our Seattle Factory Showroom — and visitors to the Showroom always asked if they could purchase the tray itself. Now they can: the Tray Bien is at home as a desk or drawer organizer."

The one I requested is in the color Boreal, which is a soothing, low-key green.

I like this in the larger size of the two that were offered. It was immediately put to use as a place to empty out all the items that I carry in my backpack, which I try to do every weekend. 

 

When it's time to pack up for the workweek, anything I might need to throw in my bag -- keys,  pouches, mask, headphones, etc. --  is right there and I don't risk forgetting it.

The company is considering offering a larger size, if this is popular. For me, this "medium" is the best size because it's the appropriate width for most of my pouches. But given the amount of stuff I carry, I could actually use two of these trays!

I wondered if it would pack flat for traveling, but it doesn't, as the product page also notes. This is an item that lives permanently in your home or office.  

 

 

EDIT: I was asked to expand this review, which admittedly was a very quick writeup. 

 

Here's another photo with literally everything in my Paragon backpack emptied out (minus the papers I carried home, and the apple, which I ate), to show the maximum capacity of the medium-sized Tray Bien.

 

The product page shows more usage examples, and I'm sure other reviewers will have ideas too. For me, I don't really need something so upscale to use as drawer organizers, since they aren't highly visible -- I already have a collection of little boxes, and I sometimes even use electronic boxes (such as the white ones from Apple products, which are really well-built).

 

This tray would make a good place to corral electronics, too, though for my particular situation it would need to be much larger to deal gracefully with my monster-sized surge protector, and also leave extra space on the sides. 

(This is a space I'm still working on in terms of containing the visual clutter, while still keeping all my cords and chargers accessible. To be honest, I've never found an electronics organizer that does 100% of what I want, though I recently obtained a shallow wood ex-wine crate, which might do the job when I have time to modify and finish it.)

 

Also, it's worth mentioning that the tray is meant to sit on a solid surface. It does not seem to be strong enough to be used to carry things around, like you would with something designed as a platter for crackers and cheese, or drinks, for instance.

Finally, to go further into why the tray can't be flattened out -- which would make it feasible to stow in a travel bag -- here is the explanation from the product page:

The Tray Bien represents a miniature architectural triumph (well, at least in Tom’s mind.) Since it’s nigh well impossible to sew off the corners of the tray that make it into a rigid, three dimensional object, we use snaps for that final stage of the assembly. Note that, while you can unsnap the corner snaps, doing so does not make it lay entirely flat: the Tray Bien is not intended to be a stowable travel item, but rather a household or office accoutrement.

When I first received this tray, I unsnapped a corner to see what would happen. The overall shape doesn't change; the snap basically provides a way to make it look neat.

 

If I try to flatten out the corner, it is not possible, though it bends a little:

 

If you really start to take apart the tray and poke into the seams, the corrugated polypropylene stiffener will be visible. In normal use, however they are not.

 

But obviously this wasn't intended for travel; it's a nice-looking tray that is meant to sit on a solid surface and corral the little messes that are part of our day-to-day lives. I would recommend that you buy one of these if you have objects in your home or office that could benefit from being "contained" a bit more, and one of the current colors on offer would look good in the spot that it's needed. (For me, the Boreal was perfect for my particular space.)

If you are reading this on the publication date, Happy Thanksgiving! Or, if you are anywhere in the world aside from the U.S., Happy Thursday!

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My Very Long Review of Tom Bihn's Old School Carry-All

I've been a customer of the Tom Bihn company for quite a while, and one of the more fascinating parts of following their product line is seeing the creativity of new designs (or re-imagined vintage ones). In the category of small totes/bags, there have been quite a few fun products, including the OSCA, or Old School Carry-All. I was provided a review copy of this bag for free, in exchange for my feedback.

To read more reviews, check out the forums on the Tom Bihn site, or go to Facebook and search for the Tom Bihn BST & Discussion group. For this item, the forum has more reviews at the time of this writing.

TLDR

1. This bag is on the small side. It's 22 liters, which is about the same capacity as a Pop Tote, and midway between the Mini and Small Yeoman Duffel, for those familiar with these other Tom Bihn products. 
2. The OSCA is highly structured, with three internal compartments. It is similar to the now-discontinued Night Flight Travel Duffel in that respect, though the overall shape and aesthetic is different.
   
3. There is a long, narrow main compartment. It's hard to measure soft-sided luggage, but I'd estimate that it is about the same width as a typical paperback book.

But to go back in time for a sec...

In 2014 Tom Bihn came out with the NIGHT FLIGHT TRAVEL DUFFEL, which was a diminutive rectangular "duffel". In their description:

Though the Night Flight is designed to be your on-board companion for air travel, you may find it tagging along on a rail, bus, or boat trip, and perhaps even to the gym. When fully loaded, its external dimensions are 17" x 10" x 9" / 432 x 254 x 229mm, just meeting the maximum size for United Airlines' "personal item." Don't over-stuff it and you should be fine with Allegiant Air's 16" x 15" x 7" / 406 x 381 x 178mm limit.

I did take a few trips with the NFTD, and while it was a challenge to pack into something so small, it was light and easy to carry.

One drawback of this design was that the sizes of the three separate compartments were constraining, particularly the main section being just a little bit too narrow for certain iPads or even some books. But it built up quite a following! The NFTD was eventually discontinued, I believe in part due to a component that was no longer available. Perhaps I should have held onto mine, but I pared down my collection in 2020.

POP TOTE

The Pop Tote is another 20 liter size bag that falls into the "weekender" category. This is a simple tote bag -- no internal dividers -- with surprisingly strong handles. It is great for EDC, for shopping, or for throwing into the car on a road trip. I've even used it to haul books.

 

The shape of the Pop Tote makes it easy to pack, as it can fit a laptop, iPad, even a folder of papers. I've used mine for short trips -- it's shown here with two cubes originally designed for one of their other products, the Western Flyer.

But the single-carry mode limits its use a little, as there isn't anywhere to attach a shoulder strap (unless it's modified by a tailor).

 

The OLD SCHOOL CARRY-ALL

I liked this immediately when I saw it!

Front view (excuse the unfortunate moire effect):

 

Top view (and clear evidence that the colors rendered by my iPhone are somewhat arbitrary; it's a deeper shade than what appears below):

 

Rear view, with the partially-mesh side pocket:

Its curved shape, though maybe not as efficient for packing as something boxy, will make it easier to carry and more acceptable as an at-seat bag. And... it's just nice-looking. Very classic and classy. The one I requested is made in the company's toughest fabric, the 1050 ballistic. It's in the Coyote color, which seems richer and deeper than the way it appears in most photos.

It has the same side handles that jut out at a diagonal as the smaller Grab Bag. They can be used for hanging the bag, or just as a way to pick it up.

 

The top handles are well-done. Quite sturdy, but not too large to easily grasp with a hand.

Here's a quick shot of the inside of one of the side pockets. Sorry for the graininess from my iPhone camera, but I'm just showing that there is some built-in depth to each one (the area between the seams); they are not flat. The two pockets run along the entire side.  As a result, if the main compartment is not stuffed to the point of bulging, any of the Tom Bihn minibags (such as the Side Kick, Side Effect or Travel Cubelet) will fit nicely in one of the side compartments.

So what fits in the center compartment? If laid flat, a packing cube shoulder bag (PCSB) does, but projects a little bit into the side pockets. I would probably place it upright, like this. Two cubes could fit side-by-side.

 

I have other, smaller cubes that happen to fit perfectly and can lay flat on the base of the OSCA. I'm not pointing out these particular cubes, which are probably discontinued; just that it's worth experimenting. The endpocket A30 cubes -- and most likely the endpocket A45's as well -- also work.

 

Here is another view of the main compartment. It's long and narrow. A paperback book that is 5 3/8 inches wide is shown:

And this view of the bottom of the bag gives an idea of the overall divisions of the compartments (though the folds of the fabric obscure that a bit):

Opposite each shoulder strap attachment point is a loop, called a "webbing lash strap", for attaching items.

 

It does not seem like a good fit for my 13" Macbook, and I'd be more inclined to place that in an item with a protected sleeve. 

[EDIT: I just read another review of this bag by someone who thought their 13" laptop, in a case, fit fine. So opinions may vary. I prefer to keep mine in a dedicated device sleeve or a situation where it's well-padded, because I'll inevitably forget it's there and bang it against something.]

FINAL THOUGHTS

A quick chart comparing some other Tom Bihn products of similar sizes. I don't personally have any of the YD's, but they seemed like a logical thing to compare, as well as the Western Flyer, which I didn't photograph but in some ways it falls into this lineup. If any of my stats below are incorrect, feel free to comment and I will update the chart. (current version last revised 25-Nov-2021):

When I think about how I might use the OSCA:

• Combined with a backpack, there would be plenty of capacity for short trips. I'm thinking particularly of the Paragon, which is also 20 liters.
• Paired with a suitcase that goes into the overhead or gets checked.
  
• As a gym bag. If I were the type of person who went to gyms.
• Road trip bag.
  
• It could serve as one's only piece of luggage, if you were a very light packer.

This might not be for you if:

• You want to carry a laptop, or would like a dedicated device sleeve.
  
• You want a bag that maximizes packing efficiency; in that case, a regular duffel, or something with a squarish shape might be better.
• You're looking for the most economical option.

 

Hoping to pull this into service for upcoming holiday vacations! I may follow up with a packout of this with my Paragon or T30, which is probably how I'd use it on a real-life trip. 

 

 

 

 

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