Givi EA104C motorcycle backpack

The problem with every pack that carries a helmet: most use a mesh panel sewn permanently to the body. On days you have no helmet with you, that mesh still dangles off your back, catching on things and looking untidy. Plenty of owners end up cutting it off.

How this one does it: the maker specifies an extractable helmet holder. Pull it out when you need it, push it back into the body afterwards, and the pack returns to its normal shape. You do not pay a permanent cosmetic price for a feature used a few times a week.

On safety, plainly: carrying a helmet on the outside is for walking around or freeing your hands while you shop, not for riding with a helmet swinging behind you. On the move, the helmet belongs on your head. If you are carrying a second helmet for a pillion, cinch it tight and ride gently, since a helmet hung outside shifts your balance and catches wind.

Benefit: a fixed-size pack forces the choice up front. Buy large and on ordinary days you wear a pack that is hollow at the top, bulging and swaying. Buy small and the day you pick something up there is nowhere to put it.

How this one solves it: a zip runs around the base of the pack. Closed, the pack is seventeen litres, flat and tidy. Opened, the base expands to twenty-two. It takes a few seconds and does not need the pack fully off.

Worth knowing: the extra five litres sit in the base, the lowest point and the furthest from your back. Weight there pulls the pack backwards and down, so it feels heavier than the number suggests. Use the expansion for bulky but light things, a jacket or a box of cakes, and keep heavy items up high against your back.

Why these three go together: a pack that opens to twenty-two litres and can also carry a helmet is a pack whose load varies a lot. All three features below exist to control that load.

The waist strap moves part of the weight from your shoulders onto your hips, which carry it far better. The chest strap pulls the shoulder straps together so they do not slide off your shoulders when you lean forward on the bike. The rigid plastic panel in the back stops the pack sagging into a banana shape when loaded, which is what keeps hard edges inside off your spine.

Tighten in the right order: put the pack on, set the waist strap first so it sits on your hips rather than your stomach, then adjust the shoulder straps, and clip the chest strap last. Do it the other way round and the waist strap becomes decoration.

Said plainly about water: the body is PU-coated 600D polyester, which turns drizzle and road dust. In a downpour the cover has to go on. Including one is the maker's honest admission that the body is not watertight.

The good part is how it is stored: the cover on this model lives in its own pocket on the pack and pulls straight out, rather than being a loose bag you stuff somewhere and forget. When the sky turns, pull over, pull it out, put it on, done. No opening the pack to hunt for it in the rain.

A habit worth having: dry it before pushing it back into its pocket. Stuff a wet cover into a closed pocket and a few days later it smells, and that smell transfers to the pack itself.

The pack materials are developed in accordance with the European REACH rules on chemicals in consumer goods.

Pick the EA104C if your load changes through the day, or if you often end up holding your helmet while you walk into a shop.

If you use a 15-inch laptop or larger this is the wrong pack, since the sleeve stops at 13 inches; the GIVI RBP03 at 15 inches or the GIVI EA129B at 17 inches are the right answers there. If your first priority is dry contents after hours of rain, the sealed tarpaulin GIVI PBP02 is the one, though it has no laptop sleeve and nowhere for a helmet. And if your load is the same every day, a fixed-size pack is tidier and cheaper.