Mileage in product design

I love well thought out, quality designed kit. Equally, I love to do a bit of research to find the best kit matching my requirements.  Through research I found Lezyne and I love ALL their kit.

Case in point is the Lezyne rear light and the seat bag complete with their tools.

I am thinking about riding a few Audax events and I have another 100 mile plus endurance pedal shortly. With some concern about navigation and my ability to carry enough food, drink, etc, I began researching smallish, light weight bar bags with map cases.

I looked at bags from Rixen & Kaul and Ortleib and decided on the latter since it got the best reviews and was in stock at an online retailer.  I chose a white coloured Ultimate 5.

 

As you probably spotted, there is no map case. The retailer incorrectly sent me the plain mapcase and not the Ortleib version with press-studs to attach it to the bag.

 

You may also have spotted the peculiarly mounted Hope light. In photographs of the bag it appeared to sit low enough for a front bar-mounted light to shine above it but sadly that is not the case.

 

The photograph above may also give you an indication of how awkward the bag is to open, especially whilst cycling.

 

Overall I'm not convinced I chose wisely.  The reviews were good, as far as I could see, but I think there is huge potential to design a much better product.  My 14 year old daughter is studying GCSE product design - she could easily do better than Ortleib's 5 (out of 10) effort.