Timbuk2 Catapult Sling

I have both the medium and large sized Timbuk2 Catapult. The medium sized Catapult is good for smaller essential items, like toolkit, two 22oz cycling water bottle. I used the medium sized Catapult in my travels to Singapore and Malaysia. It was perfect for stuffing a rain jacket, camera, and two 16oz water bottles in.I recently picked up the large size Timbuk2 Catapult so that I could use this in my cycling backpack rotation for days which I do not exactly plan to change out of my bike clothes. It is much roomier than the medium Catapult and can comfortably fit my Macbook Pro 13" in the sleeve.Both bags feel reasonably comfortable, but I find that it rides much better when you use the included cross strap. I wear my bags high so that they don't move alot, but it does begin to irritate my neck a little bit when I've been using it for over an hour. If i'm wearing a collared shirt, this does not seem to be a problem. Check out my pictures of the different sizes.

I choose the Catapult because it's smaller and lighter than a Classic Timbuk2 messenger and I only needed to hump my iPad and a few nicknacks around town. Indeed it serves this function well and without a whimper. Wish the padded iPad pocket was a tiny bit larger so I could pack the device inside a protective sleeve, but not a deal breaker. The bag exterior material is of good quality but thinner than the ballistic nylon used on Classic Timbuk2 messenger bags. Makes for a light load but is floppy and formless unless stuffed.If you wear the Catapult as designed, high and tight against your back with the shoulder pad on your right shoulder, the strap length is ample. I'm 5'8" and had to tighten it the maximum amount to get it to fit snug. I'm toned and slender, but not skinny. I imagine the strap would be too long for really shinny or small folk. You'd have to be really beefy to max out this strap.Don't buy the Catapult if you want to wear it low (below the hip) and off one shoulder (non-sling). The strap is too short and attached at the wrong angle. This bag needs to be worn high and tight and is the ticket for racing your bike down the ave or running like a crazy man for the train. The Timbuk2 XS Classic Messenger is a better choice if you're a shoulder low rider but need a small bag.One gotcha is awkward access on the run. Even if you release the cross-strap and rotate the bag to the front of your body, it's too close to your face to comfortably lift items in and out. So you need to also release the cam buckle and drop the bag to belly level.A near perfect bag for fast biking or running with wee cargo!

I already own a full size Timbuk2 messenger that I've had for the past year or two and carry to work on a daily basis. I was quite happy with my first, and this second bag only serves to reinforce that Timbuk2 seems to make quite high quality products. Fabric is of a nice weight, strap is nice and wide, hardware (buckle, etc.) is plastic but nice and "meaty" - substantially constructed, not at all flimsy, and flexible enough to make everything easy to use without being insecure. Very well put together.The strap itself is quite cleverly designed... It has an easy-to-use adjuster that allows you to get a snug fit across your body for security, but a buckle that can be detached to loosen the strap without affecting adjustment when putting on / taking off the bag. The buckle, however, was placed not just in the middle of the strap but is looped back in such a way that when unbuckled the strap is still continuous - meaning that if (not that I see this being likely) the bag were to come unbuckled while on, it would come loose but not let the bag fall off your body. As an added benefit, the unbuckled strap being continuous also means you can easily throw the bag over one shoulder like a single-strap backpack when you don't need it secured as well to your body.Size is, of course, going to depend on your intended purpose. I bought this to use as a kind of "go bag" to carry supplies for our potty training toddler. I'd compare carrying capacity to an average-size woman's purse... I've got it filled with an extra change of toddler clothes (for accidents), toilet seat covers, wipes, Kleenex, hand sanitizer, travel size lotion and generally a couple of small snacks (boxes of raisins, etc.) that are just handy to have around with a toddler. With all that in the main and zipper pockets and the kid's Nexus 7 (which, with its case fits nicely in the padded inner pocket) the bag closes up perfectly just like in the pictures without any bulging or bulkiness - perfect for my needs.My only complaint, and this is really just a personal / opinion thing, is the color. The "confetti" grey fabric is great - casual enough to carry around but wouldn't look conspicuous if you needed to carry the bag while going someplace fancier (important, for my purposes). The teal ("Aloha Blue") is perhaps a little too bright, but more importantly (this is where the opinion comes in) I just hate teal. The real eye-catcher, though (and not in a good way, IMO) is the pink stitching on the logo and tag. The other three color choices were available only in the nylon type material which lacks the... situational versitility(?) of the grey fabric. It would be nice to see the grey offered with possibly something other than the teal and definitely without the pink without having to do a custom order via Timbuk2's site (which adds a considerable amount to the cost). Maybe I'm being picky, but that's the one thing that holds me back from giving 5 stars to what would otherwise be a 5 star product.