The Henty Enduro 2.0 is a hybrid mixture of a comfortable and conformable hip pack with the stabilizing characteristics of a standard pack’s shoulder strap harness and back panel design. The 5-liter (170 fl oz) pack includes a 3-liter hydration reservoir and has enough features, functions, and pockets for almost any adventure in the outdoors. Highlights to the wraparound padded lumbar panel, lightly padded open mesh back yoke, versatile front flap, and functional attachment loops. It’s constructed with tough Cordura 500D nylon and weighs 750 grams. The 3L/100 fl oz HydraPak lumbar reservoir has a quick connect hose, a slider top opening, and a high-flow bite valve with a shutoff lever.
It retails for $129 and comes in Black, Orange, Green, and Blue color schemes, plus a special Camo version for $149.
For more information, refer to henty.cc.
Back Panel
The wraparound lumbar panel utilizes a closed-cell foam and features raised c-shaped pods that improve articulation and offer some subtle ventilation. The upper back section and shoulder straps use a lightly padded open mesh material that is comfortable, breathable, and wickable.
The shoulder harness and upper back panel work in synergy to provide a secure and stable load-carrying system, and the slider sternum strap with an elastic center section offers plenty of adjustment. The front waistband uses a 1.5-inch strap and a simple quick-release buckle. A hidden 10cm rear extension that is integrated into the back panel attachment location means the pack has more flexibility to fit a variety of body shapes, including tall and stocky frames.
Storage
It has quite a few useful pockets and compartments for such a small pack, including the zippered main compartment, two mesh front sleeves, two internal zippered pockets on the front flap, zippered mesh upper back panel pocket, hidden zippered rear pocket, and two zippered hip pockets. It has multiple small loops on the front flap and elastic ones of the inside main body to attach gear, the latter being useful to slide on a tire pump.
The main is where the hydration reservoir resides, but it’s wide enough for my first aid kit, tool organizer roll, camera, small apparel, food, and flatter gear. The front flap’s internal pockets are where I kept my wallet, warmer gloves, and headband. In the lower front sleeves, I placed TP, hand wipes, chain lube, knife, multitool, skull cap, etc. The hip pockets aren’t huge, so they were only useful for keys, gel packets, and other small items.
The mesh pocket on the upper back yoke of the harness was decently large and worked well for flatter items, so I tended to put my iPhone 7 Plus, and SPOT X satellite messenger in there since it offered quick access.
The front flap with its quick-release closure is advantageous as overflow for jackets or apparel when dealing with changeable weather and temperatures. When I was taking knee armor somewhere, I could attach them to the loops on the front of the flap. If wanted, you can attach a Velcro patch to the front loops to make your pack genuinely unique.
Reservoir
The 3L/100 fl oz HydraPak Compact Shape-Loc reservoir comes with a 122cm (48″) long hose and the high-flow Blaster valve with a twist shut-off lever. The hose easily attaches to the bottom of the reservoir utilizing their Plug-N-Play quick tube connector system. The lumbar reservoir features the low profile Shape-Loc center baffle, which helps to keep it from bulging outward when full of water. Their excellent fold-over top with its slider closure system quickly seals things tightly shut, and the wide-mouth opening offers easy filling and cleaning. It’s made from tough BPA and PVC free Polyurethane (TPU) material, and its sealed with RF (Radio Frequency) welded seams.
Impressions
The hybrid design of the Enduro 2.0 pack features a highly comfortable and conformable hip pack with a shoulder strap and back yoke carrying system, which offers improved stabilizing characteristics. The hip pack portion features an extensive wraparound decently padded lumbar panel with the broad hip wings, which provide additional stability and a low center of gravity. The wraparound panel has articulation pods, and the padding has an optimal thickness to provide conformability without a loss of stiffness. The shoulder harness and upper back yoke system feature a lightly padded open mesh material that is comfortable and highly breathable, and they work together to secure and stabilize the hip pack section. Since the shoulder straps and back yoke help support the load, you don’t need to cinch the down the waist belt as much as an average hip pack.
Though I like the simplicity, comfort, and breathability of a hip pack, they can sometimes bounce around on your hips and back, especially on rugged terrain. The Enduro 2.0 hybrid design, locks the hip pack down into your lumbar like glue, yet the open mesh material of the shoulder and back panel offer excellent ventilation and comfort. I never felt as though I was wearing a standard harness system, since the significant portion of the load is down on my hips, though the shoulder/back panel is still providing carrying attributes. I mostly wear standard packs, so I didn’t find the back panel system very sweaty, though, on warm days, the wraparound lumbar foam can feel a bit toasty and under-ventilated.
The front waistband uses a 1.5-inch strap with a QR buckle, and it came with a vast amount of excess length that I didn’t require. It utilized the typical Velcro loop system to hold the excess strap material in place, and I found it always moved around on me and would snag on my jerseys, so I cut the loop holder and the excess length. I also ended up doing the same thing on the shoulder straps. The hip pockets were an odd shape and size to hold most items, and it was tough to open the zippers when the waist belt was being worn, so I tended to keep my truck keys in one pocket and left the other open for gel packs. I did recently start to use one pocket for my point and shoot camera, which I could securely wedge into the pocket, yet I was able to extract it for pictures quickly. It would be nice to have more functionally sized hip pockets that were easier to open.
The back panel pocket was useful for my giant iPhone 7 Plus and SPOT X satellite messenger, and it’s location made for easy access to the contents, though it was mostly functional for flatter items. Most of my gear ended up in the ultra-wide hydration pocket, which could fit a decent amount of stuff, especially when you spread it around the length of the compartment, and out into the hip wings. It worked best to keep the items in front of the hydration reservoir, which offered additional padding and prevented anything from poking you in the back. The rear pocket was mostly useful for socks, caps, and soft items, since anything too bulky or hard made the lumbar panel uncomfortable. The internal front mesh sleeves were helpful for tools, wipes, knife, TP, tubes, chain lube, etc.
The front flap was a highly functional entity, and it’s internal zippered pockets were perfect for warm gloves and hats, and my wallet, while the flap itself could be used to as overflow for jackets or apparel. I do wish the adjustment for the strap for the flap was a bit longer to hold bulkier items since it was difficult to clamp down when it was loaded up with gear. I liked the attachment loops on the front of the flap for carrying my armor when I needed extra protection on gnarlier rides (I used straps or shock cord). Dirt and debris can infiltrate the insides of the pack somewhat since the flap doesn’t fully cover the main section. It wasn’t as bad of an issue for me since I usually carried a rain jacket, which helped cover things up.
The 3L HydraPak lumbar reservoir came with an overly long hose, so for my 5’9″ frame, I cut around 5-6 inches off so that it fits better. The high-flow Blaster valve worked well, and water flows smoothly through it, though I had problems twisting open the lever on the fly. I do wish the bite valve had some sort of clipping system since it was problematic to find a functional location, other than stick it under the sternum strap, which wasn’t an ideal spot. The slider opening system was simple to use, and filling the reservoir while it was still in the pack wasn’t an issue. The hose can be routed on either side of the pack, depending on personal preference.
Although I never used it, there is a 10cm rear extension for the back panel, located at its juncture with the hip pack. It offers fine-tuning for taller and larger body types.
It doesn’t come with a rain fly, so when I got into inclement weather, I draped my jacket over it to keep things dry.
Measured stats:
- Pack 582 grams
- Hydration reservoir/hose/bite valve 158 grams
- Total 740 grams
Bottom Line
The Henty Enduro 2.0 is a highly functional hybrid of a comfortable and conformable hip pack with the stabilizing virtues of a standard pack’s shoulder harness and back panel design. The hip pack features a padded wraparound lumbar panel that offers plenty of comfort and load carrying capabilities. The soft and lightly padded shoulder harness and back yoke system offer improved security and stability to the hip pack, with plenty of breathability and ventilation. It features a useful organizational system of pockets, sleeves, attachment loops, and compartments, and the front flap offers additional apparel and armor storage. It’s not a huge pack, so when carrying more gear, you will need to be more creative with packing.
The Henty Enduro gives you the breathability, comfort, conformability, and low center of gravity of a hip pack while offering the stability and no bounce characteristics of a standard backpack.
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