Lowe Alpine's new TFX back system looks like combining mobility and reliability.
New from Lowe Alpine and just starting to appear in the
shops is a completely redeveloped pack back system called TFX
which stands for Torso Fit Expedition. We're quite excited
about it because it promises to give extra mobility and flexibility
without compromising robustness or repairability.
To put things in perspective, you can count the number of Lowe
Alpine back systems over its 40-year history on the fingers of one
hand, so this is a pretty major event for the company and a
significant evolution in their pack designs.
It's all the result of a major development programme at Lowe's
impressive Kendal pack-designing HQ which began with extensive blind
testing of pretty much every pack system on the market to give a
sense of perspective.
Three Major Developments
The new Torso Fit adustable back length system is pretty
familiar from APS, but has been tweaked so it now adjusts
incrementally rather than in one-inch steps. It's still simply a
question of folding down the lumbar pad and sliding the harness up
and down, but the fit, say the pack boffins, is now better.
Simple adjustment by folding down lumbar pad and
accessing
buckle and strap - now stepless for greater accuracy
Next on the menus is Torso Motion. A major problem with big
packs is that they tend to splint you in place making it hard to step
up easily or twist your back, both of which are normal movements when
walking.
Previous solutions, like Berghaus's Bioflex, have worked well, but
looked fragile and plasticky. It was hard to see how they could be
fixed if they broke in the middle of nowhere. The Lowe Alpine
solution has two parts.
The hip-belt pivots behind the lumbar pad to allow
hip mobility. The
mechanism is very simple though
The first is a pivoting hip-belt which allows your hips to change
angle easily and allows high steps. The actual mechanism is
incredibly simple, just the ends of the main pack staves pivoting
inside a pocket. There's nothing mechanical to break and the movement
is limited by the clearance between staves and pockets, so the pack
can't pivot too far. It looks simple and repairable.
The second part of the system is that there's also give in the
upper part of the back system to allow shoulder swing when walking.
Again it's a simple mechanism that works through the twin T6
aluminium pack stays simply moving relative to one another. Again,
there's not really a lot to go wrong.
An air-filled lumbar pad allows for
micro-adjustment to suit your back
contours. It's also very tough, apparently.
Finally, on the higher end packs, there's something called
Torso Micro Adjust - above. It's a lumbar pad containing an
inflatable wedge-shaped air pillow. The shape of people's lower backs
varies a lot, so this system allows you to change the profile of the
lower back pad to suit your back shape, which might even change over
the course of a long walk - think slumping....
It's all controlled by a small pump thing on the hip-belt making
it easy to add or subtract air.
How It Feels
We had a very quick try-on with a loaded TXF pack and while we
can't tell you a lot from that, we can say that it adjusts quickly to
fit, feels immediately comfortable and allows easy motion of both
hips and shoulders.
It didn't feel quite as mobile and slick moving as Bioflex, but
stepping up high felt easy and natural. We're looking forward to
trying it for real.
Three Types
TXF comes in three varieties. The top-end all-singing, all-dancing
TXF9 which has all three of the TXF features in men's and
women's versions. Price is around £200 for something like the
TXF Summit - below - a high-end expedition pack.
Then there's TXF7 which has Torso Fit and Torso Motion, but
no air-filled lumbar pad and finally the TX5 range which has
adjustable back length only at an entry level £120 or so like
this TFX Ridge ND.
Lowe Alpine stresses that all its packs have the same high build
quality with triple-stitched and bound seams, relentless quality
control checks, high quality foam with the same grades used
throughout the range and so on.
Awards
The TFX packs scooped some major recognition and awards at last
year's major European trade show and will be in the shops from about
now onwards. They're not featured on the Lowe Alpine web site at
www.lowealpine.com
yet, but should be there in due course.
