One year ago today I purchased the eBags Mother Lode TLS Mini 21″ Wheeled Duffel carry-on bag. Since then it’s been my primary travel bag and has traveled close to 100,000 miles with me. The bag still looks sharp and has held up well during this time. I chose the blue version of the bag to easily identify the bag when plane-side checking on a regional jet.
I paid $142 for this bag last year and looking on the ebag website now, it’s still available for the same basic price (~$160). This bag is much cheaper than many other “premium” bags. With the number of coupon codes online, you can sometimes buy this bag for less. The price isn’t that much more than a the bag I bought at a warehouse club (which then proceeded to fall apart in under a year).
This is a 21″ bag so it fits easily in the overheads. The interior is bright orange making it easy to find your contents. The main compartment has a movable divider and there are two flat pockets on the lid.
I place my laptop in the outside pocket (which is also accessible from the inside of the bag). This eliminates the need to carry a second bag for my laptop. The only time I carry a back pack is when I bring all my camera gear including lenses.
The handle extends to three positions. This may seem like a minor point, but compared with other (even more expensive) bags having this third length keeps the bag far enough behind you that you never kick it while allowing you the flexibility of the other two stops when in tight quarters.
The bag is sturdy, but this comes with a trade off in weight. This bag is slightly heavy to begin with (at eight pounds) but the strength shows in the durability.
The wheels are rugged and stand up well to being dragged over New York curbs repeatedly. They do make a louder than usual thud noise when going over a tiled floor, but the strength of these make up for the sound issue.
The zippers are relatively large for a bag of its size and the over-sized pull hooks are easy to manipulate and don’t break.
Overall this is a solid bag. Based on my experience with this bag, I’d never spend more than $150 on a roll aboard bag. For this price point this bag meets my needs of size and durability well.