Gura Gear Bataflae 32L

In 2013, I purchased a Gura Gear Bataflae 32L (via Naturescapes).  I still have it but was looking perhaps to buy one of the smaller versions.

It appears that the only thing with the Gura Gear name is from B&H and they have the Kiboko backpacks which are sorta close but appear to not exactly be the same.

I found one on eBay -- the 26L size.  But mostly I was curious what happened.  And if folks had any suggestions on alternatives.

I really like how the two sides can be accessed separately but if you need to, the entire back will open up.  When you hang it under a tripod, the two side access paths work well for me.

I know Gura Gear bought Tamrac and I guess they thought the Tamrac name was worth something but, to me, Gura Gear had a much better reputation -- and products.  Its just odd to me that now you can't hardly find them.

Gura Gear bags are back:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/ph ... a-comeback

The new bags don't look like they can be fully opened like the older bags.

I don’t know anything about what happened to them, but if you’re looking for one, you might try your local Craigslist. Here’s an example:

https://tucson.craigslist.org/pho/d/tuc ... 08419.html

Joe

Anthony Medici wrote:The new bags don't look like they can be fully opened like the older bags.

Yeah, if they are like the originals the Kibokos only open butterfly style with the center spine locked down.  The Bataflaes worked that way too but optionally could work like a full opening front.  I hated the partially opening style of the originals after a while as it unnecessarily limits capacity or at least versatility which the Bataflaes solved.

BTW I have a Batalae 26L that is essentially unused that I'd be happy to sell somebody.

Personally I much prefer rear opening backpacks these days like the Mindshift Backlights.  It is much faster as you set the bag down open it and grab your gear.  There isn't the wasted step of first having to flip it over before accessing your gear.  Additionally, when you put a cover on a back loader for rain, you still can simply set it down and access the gear without taking the time to first have to remove the rain cover.  Finally, the part that touches your back doesn't end up on the ground keeping it clean and dry and not transferring ground to your back when you put it on.

Hi Greg,

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to go look at the Mindshift Backlights and see what I think. Another feature of my Betaflae is the way the harness (and belt) hides away for plane travel (not that I actually do that much these days but it was still really cool). Do the Mindshift Backlights do that?

pedz wrote:Hi Greg,

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'm going to go look at the Mindshift Backlights and see what I think.  Another feature of my Betaflae is the way the harness (and belt) hides away for plane travel (not that I actually do that much these days but it was still really cool).  Do the Mindshift Backlights do that?

No, since you open them from the back, you can not do that.

BTW, another backloading option is the Fstopper bags which utilize removable "trays" that you can put your gear in.

Lots of innovative options out there, many more user friendly than the Gura Gear stuff IMHO.

It looks like Tamrac still owns Gura Gear and that the only place to get the new gura gear bags is B&H. I still have and use on of the original Kiboko 32L bags.

https://www.tamrac.com/pages/gura-gear

Actually Gura Gear owns Tamrac. Gura Gear bought the assets of Tamrac out of bankruptcy and kept the name.