I recently, about two weeks ago, got the Yalta roll-top/traveling backpack from Chrome and have been quite pleased. I picked the Yalta over the larger Brigadier bag because of the carry-on restrictions for airplanes being what it is. The Yalta is just a hair under the size limitations, for U.S. Airways that is. When the bag first came it seemed smaller, deep-wise, than expected but once I actually started filling the bag up I didn't think it small anymore. Luckily, the first day that I received the Yalta in the mail I was in need of going on a beer run. My apartment is 22 blocks from the nearest beer dispensary, not super far but none the less a decent little trip across West Philly. I was hoping that I would be able to fit the 24 pack of Lionshead beers straight into the bag, knowing from the get-go it was a fruitless idea. I went for 24 cans of Modelo instead. Sadly the bag's roll-top is ever-so-slightly too small to slip the case in there. The method which worked was just to slide them in one-by-one. The ride back with the beers was quite comfortable! Even with my hurt shoulder which hurts from carrying around an empty backpack felt great. The inner-lining of the bag also acted like a cooler, keeping the condensation from the cans inside of the lining.
Like I've said, I have used this bag everyday that I have left my apartment since receiving it and I couldn't be more pleased. A couple days of treking into center city proved to be moist ones. The only place that absorbed a tiny bit of rain was in the front pouch, be it very little however. Today I rode my bike (without fenders) through the first snow home and felt completely comfortable transporting my laptop in the Yalta's built-in laptop pouch.
In a little over a week, I will be writing up another review with the reaction of plane travel and how it fares, especially with all the ultra uptight and personally invading security procedures.
