The Gregory Drift 14 backpack is marketed to mountain bikers, but I highly recommend it for a wide variety of uses. Here is a review of my experience with the pack so far!
Purchase
I picked up the previous version of Gregory's Drift 14 for $45.38 from REI's Outlet in May 2019 - a huge discount (almost 60%) off its list price of $109.95! The new version appears to be almost identical - I will comment on any features that look different.
Use
So far I have used the pack on day-long hikes, my bike commute, a 2 day bike tour from Boston to Provincetown, and on a four day trip around Texas. The pack has held up well - no rips, snags, or other visible damage. I hope to use it as my only luggage for an upcoming four-month trip in South America.
What I Love
Water Bladder: The included 3 liter hydration bladder/reservoir ($35 if
bought separately) is fantastic! The cap's Gregory logo tells me if it is tightened properly - if the logo is not perfectly right-side up or up-side down, it will leak. The pack includes 2 standard hose storage methods - a plastic clip on the right shoulder and a magnet on the sternum strap. I had trouble for the first month getting the magnet on the hose and the magnet on the sternum strap to fit properly together - I tried twisting the hose where it connects with the bladder and where it leaves the zippered shoulder strap with no success before realizing that I could twist the mouth piece to align both magnets perfectly. Once I learned this I immediately loved the magnet feature. My favorite feature is the mouth piece's built in locking mechanism (white tab on mouth piece). My Platypus 2 liter bladder is lighter weight, but does not include this wonderful feature. No more puddles on the floor from accidentally setting my pack down on the bite valve! The bladder's quick dry hook and hang notch inside the bladder pocket are neat too.
Pockets: The Drift 14 has five primary pockets that are extremely useful for organization - I have found myself using them all any time I use the pack. The 22/24 liter packs I used for previous international trips had only two or three pockets. All of the Drift's pockets are deceptively deep. The first is an outer pocket of durable stretch mesh that has worked well for wet gear, maps, and snacks. The second is a zippered external pocket with key clip lanyard, 2 inner mesh sleeves, and a zippered "crash pad" pocket. The lanyard has helped me quickly find my house keys after weekend trips without rummaging through my bag, and the crash pad pocket feels gimmicky but just large enough for my phone and gives it a little extra protection. The third, main zippered pocket has two skinny inner mesh sleeves and one wide mesh sleeve that is the perfect size for my kindle. I especially appreciate how the sleeves are sewn in the middle of the pack vertically - this has allowed me to use the bottom of the pack as a headrest on long trips, naps, and the beach without crushing my kindle. Finally, the two hip belt pockets are made with a stretch mesh (left pocket) and the pack's durable fabric (right pocket). I have used these for quick access to snacks, my wallet, keys, and to keep change while walking around town.
Tool Pouch: Gregory included a small (1 liter?) zippered tool pouch that I do not believe is available separately. I love this thing! It has two zippered pockets inside - one made of mesh, and the other of a durable fabric. It is big enough to keep all of my toiletries, chargers, headphones, etc. inside. Sure, I could use a Ziploc or buy pouch for $10, but it's another feature that makes this pack a great buy.
Straps and Buckles: The Drift has two buckles with compression straps that run from right below the shoulder straps to the outer mesh pockets. These are helpful for making the pack smaller, thus bringing the content's weight closer to your back, when it is not full. My favorite use of these has been as external attachment points for sandals and my bike helmet when on the beach and walking around town. Other packs have compression straps sewn in without the buckle, making them less useful for attaching gear. I also like that every strap has a little plastic piece to secure the extra strap length when not in use.
Zippers: I like the zippers on the Drift for two reasons: (1) the 4 zipper pulls are large and can easily lock together as a theft deterrent, and (2) the main compartment zipper goes two-third of the way down the pack allowing me to open it really wide (if you disengage the buckles as explained below). Bonus theft deterrence: If you slide all 4 zipper pulls to one side of the pack and engage the compression strap buckle, someone would need to remove the lock or zipper pull AND unclip the buckle in order to unzip the pack and access your stuff. This would be even more effective if the buckle is threaded through the webbing strap (discussed below) as they would need to pass the zipper pulls under the webbing strap even after disengaging the buckle. Cheers for triple deterrence!
What Could Be Better
Water Bladder: The bladder is, to be expected, hard to get in or out of the pack when the pack is anywhere near full. I usually need to take all items out of the pack which thankfully is only once per day with the three liter water capacity. I also wish the magnet was a little stronger as even once I figured out I could twist the mouth piece to line up both magnets it sometimes pops off when I hit a bump - this won't be a problem for me while traveling, but I imagine it would be even worse for mountain bikers. I also wish the magnet was sewn into the left shoulder strap, instead of on the end of the sternum strap - I typically remove the sternum straps from my packs, which would remove the magnet feature from the pack. With this pack I need to clip the sternum strap to use the magnet feature. Lastly, I like how the bladder's hose can run over either shoulder through the zippered mesh channels, but I expect the channel's zipper will be the first thing to break on this pack. Zippers are often the first thing on gear to break and it would make the whole mesh channel useless, whereas the traditional bladder hose hole is much more durable.
Buckles: The buckles that I love for compression and as external attachment points came threaded through sewn-on strips of webbing. When I unclip the buckle to open up the pack to the fullest extent allowed by the main compartment's zipper, the webbing prevents me from opening the pack all the way and I need to also loosen the straps. This is very annoying, although you can just un-thread the buckle out of the webbing and overcome that annoying feature. Based on online images, Gregory probably realized the webbing was unnecessary/silly and removed it from the 2019 version.
Hip belt: I love travel packs that have a mini-day pack or water bladder included, like my old Gregory Palisade 80 with its brain-turned-lumbar pack or my massive Osprey Crescent 110 with its removable three liter hydration day pack. Gregory is well positioned to offer this feature with the Drift 14 because the hip belt is already moveable as part of the Shift RS suspension system. A removable hip belt could become a fanny pack - all the rage these days. A removable hip belt fanny pack would have been useful for my short bike rides where I want to take only the essentials, or on backpacking trips where I could leave the pack in a hostel locker and keep my wallet and keys in the hip belt pockets hidden under a t-shirt. I could make this modification myself by cutting off one side of the fabric that attaches the hip belt to the pack and replacing it with a strip of velcro or some straps but it would be neat to see Gregory do this for all users.
Overall I highly recommend this pack, and will post an updated review after using it on my upcoming South America trip. I do not expect to use a lot of the features, like the bungee strap to secure sunglasses or the bottom compression straps, but it's nice to know they are available if the opportunity to use them arises.
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