Oregon Cycling Magazine

by Karl Benedek

Gazing into the massive craw of the new Chrome Metroplis messenger bag, I had one thought: how many record albums could I fit in there? It was Monday night, and I was getting ready for my weekly gig as a country-western DJ at KWVA 88.1 FM in Eugene. Much of my C&W collection is on vinyl, and vinyl can be a hassle to bike around. Records are fragile, sensitive to heat and moisture, and heavy. To find out if the Metropolis could handle it, I needed to get the bag and a few other things home. I placed my old messenger bag, contents and all, into the Metropolis. It looked pathetic. There was a lot of room left over. It so happened that I had to bring a Cuisinart home with me as well. Into the bag. Anything else? There was a pile of CDs I had been meaning to take home for a while. In they went. An extra sweater, my poncho and some gloves followed. I haven’t even looked at my old bag in weeks. It may still be inside the new bag, for all I know.

The Metropolis is the second-largest in Chrome’s family of messenger bags. Like its siblings, the Metropolis has a floating waterproof liner inside a tough Cordura shell. With the wide flap and the U-shaped opening, the bag is almost completely sealed when closed, keeping all 2000 cubic inches of cargo dry and secure. The flap has a generous amount of velcro, ensuring that the bag stays closed even with awkward loads. If the load does get out of hand, Chrome has thoughtfully added enough straps (with reflective piping!) and buckles on the outside to help you keep things under control. Under the flap, there is a panel with additional pockets: one large enough for maps and another, slightly smaller zippered pocket with one of the largest zippers I’ve ever seen—perfect for fumbling open with gloved fingers. On either side of the opening, two deep pockets in the Cordura shell can hold small tube mailers, water bottles or 40-ouncers, depending on your proclivity. A couple of pen pockets and another one for patch kit, tire levers and multitool round out the obvious places to put your stuff. But the folks at Chrome were not satisfied with the obvious when designing their messenger line. Built into each bag is a secret “stash pocket” which they say is big enough for your keys and wallet or any number of small items you wouldn’t want to accidentally fall out of your bag. The secret pocket is so hush-hush that Chrome has decided it’s best for the individual bag owners to find it themselves. I put the challenge to a couple of teenagers, both of whom found it within five minutes. It took me, at twice their age, about twice the time to locate it.

With all the weight you can carry in a Metropolis, the ergonomics of the bag is important, especially if you’re going to be lugging it around all day. The main strap is reinforced at the shoulder and around the chest with padding inside a Cordura sleeve that terminates with the seatbelt buckle. On the other side of the buckle is the handy D-ring mechanism for tightening and loosening the strap. Pull the strap to tighten, tug the D-ring to loosen. A good-sized strip of velcro is also attached to the strap to let you perfectly position your phone or radio. While the seatbelt-style quick-releasing buckle is undeniably cool, it is most useful for unshouldering heavy loads. For normal hefting, the quick-tightening strap is key, but on the second day of use, the D-ring slipped through the buckle when the strap was slack and I had to put some thought into getting it positioned correctly again. Now that I am more familiar with the bag, it hasn’t been a problem.

Chrome has a variety of colors available for the Cordura shell: three kinds of green, a couple of blues, hot red and orange, sunny yellow and earthy khaki, brown, gray and black. Liners are available in black, gray, or high-visibility colors like white, yellow, orange and red. Chrome sent me a digital camouflage patterned bag with a bright orange liner and stripe across the flap. Camouflage may be designed to conceal, but the bag gets a lot of notice from strangers like grocery clerks and librarians; also from military buffs. I have heard more than I need to hear about jungle vs. desert camouflage and intricacies of uniform design. Perhaps it’s the bright orange stripe and liner that draws the attention for some people. Opening up the bag is like opening the Ark of the Covenant, especially when it’s empty. Bright orange is all you can see. From the front, people notice the seatbelt buckle, emblazoned with the Chrome griffin logo in black on red. Not only does it look good, but the satisfying metallic sound it makes when shouldering or unshouldering the bag is a great touch. Chrome really went all-out when they set out to design a useful bag with features people would actually use and appreciate. Oh, and you can fit 50 record albums in the Metropolis. You could probably fit more in the Kremlin, Chrome’s largest messenger bag, but I wouldn’t want to carry it.

Chrome messenger bags are made in Colorado, where the company originated. Chrome’s clothing line is manufactured in San Francisco. In Oregon, Chrome has retailers in Bend, Portland, Eugene, Corvallis and Ashland. The Metropolis bag will set you back $120-$150 but will last a long time. You can find specific locations and view pictures of Chrome’s bags, clothing and accessories at chromebags.com.

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