The Osprey Ozone Duplex 65 travel bag will get you to your final destination whether you’re hopping a flight to Maine for a long weekend or toting your ski boots to Japan.
Carry-on luggage is the bane of the traveler’s existence. Planes have seemingly a hundred different-size overhead compartments, and it’s never clear to me if my bag will fit on the plane I’m boarding. Yes, I frequently haul too much gear in my carry-on — items like bike shoes and a helmet that I can’t do without if I arrive and my checked bag doesn’t.
So, I regularly found myself doing the walk of shame after trying to cram my bag overhead. I’d sadly embrace defeat, walk said bag up to the front of the plane, sheepishly ask for a green tag, and hand it off to the baggage handlers. That is, until I got Osprey’s Ozone Duplex 65 ($220).
Ozone Duplex 65 Review
The bag solves the problem of oddly shaped or overstuffed carry-on luggage by splitting into two parts. The back is a traditional daypack, with comfortable, contoured shoulder straps, load-supporting hip belt, and smartly designed pockets.
It clips to an oversized wire-frame packing cube large enough to hold a pair of alpine boots, all the clothing and related sundries for a long weekend of business/pleasure, or a bouldering, biking, fishing, or other foray where arriving without key pieces of gear would be a dealbreaker.
When the overhead space is restricted, you just unclip the two and store one under your seat and one overhead. That way, you have everything you need with you. And it’s available in a men’s 65-liter and women’s 60-liter that aims to accommodate shorter torsos.
A Daypack
The daypack half of the Osprey Ozone has highly functional pockets instead of a lot of small, unusable pockets. In fact, it’s the most functional pocket design I’ve seen in a travel bag.
Inside, a padded computer compartment has a mesh zip pocket on the front. It’s ideal for storing magazines and paperwork you don’t want to crush. The spacious main compartment is big enough to hold a digital SLR and lenses, a bike helmet, snacks, toiletries, several pounds of yellowfin tuna on ice, and more.
A front organizer panel has stuff and zip pockets big enough to hold noise-canceling headphones, computer cords, and other chargers and cords. This pocket is hidden and secure with the cube attached.
A Hiking Pack
If you’re hiking, slide a hydration reservoir behind the mesh back panel, and this pack will help you climb mountains. I bagged peaks in Norway, Colorado, North Carolina, and Utah in this pack.
I left my computer in my hotel room and loaded it with a jacket, lunch, water, and a camera. It was as comfortable as any day hiking pack I’ve worn.
I also used it to haul groceries and run errands while biking in Denver. Right behind the reservoir sleeve is a hidden pocket big enough to hold a passport, a checkbook-sized wallet, or anything else you want to be able to get to but keep secure.
Beyond that, the pack has two external mesh pockets big enough to hold a 1-liter Nalgene as well as a front clip for a bike light.
Clip-On ‘Cube’
The clip-on cube, which attaches to the pack at four points, is equally well-designed. The massive main compartment has a mesh organizer area that’s the full length and width of the pack. Internal compression straps hold clothes, boots, and other gear in place.
And a separate oversized pocket you access from the outside lets you stash toiletries so they’re easy to grab when you’re going through security. Side compression straps cinch down the load.
And if you want to carry the cube separate from your daypack, it comes with a removable shoulder and a haul handle. The wire frame stabilizes the load, so even when the cube was overstuffed, it didn’t flop around when I sprinted through the airport between flights.
Yes, when the two pieces are overstuffed and clipped, the Ozone Duplex 65 can be somewhat awkward and bulbous. But unclip, and you’re good to go with a personal item and a carry-on.
Occasionally, I stuffed both sides so full that it was hard to clip them together. But I eventually muscled the bag into submission. Pack it with appropriate amounts of gear, and you won’t have that problem.
Great, Versatile Carry-On Luggage
I travel for work between one and three weeks per month, and the Ozone Duplex 65 is the carry-on I reach for every time I board a plane. Since January, I’ve carried it to half a dozen countries and just as many U.S. states.
Despite overstuffing, it never failed me. And I never missed a day of action because the gear I needed was in my checked bag.
Check out the Osprey Ozone Duplex 65 now for $220.
