Product Review – Cocoon Solutions ATV Bags

Those of us who are married often have reminiscent stories about events that occurred during the first meeting of our future spouse. I am undoubtedly no exception. As the smile appeared on my wife-to-be’s face when our eyes made initial contact, I was certain that she was overjoyed by her fortune in meeting such a handsome specimen. Only later did I found out, her smile was the result of my apparent lack of fashion sense. After years of correction through marriage, I now know that it is not appropriate to wear a plaid shirt with plaid shorts. The fundamental lesson: essential necessities can also make you look good or bad, too!

Cocoon Solutions, an up and coming leader in outdoor innovation, understands the requisite functionality and style demanded by savvy ATV enthusiasts through the introduction of their ATVisible Line of Cargo Bags. Recently, I had the opportunity to put a few of their products to the test. Among them: the ATVisible Appalachian Rear Rack Cargo Bag w/Cooler, ATVisible Sawtooth Front Rack Bag, and ATVisible Smoky Mountain Fender Bag.

ATVisible Sawtooth front rack bag

Once removing the bags from the neatly packaged shipping boxes, my wife and I were immediately impressed with the quality of the black 600-denier waterproof fabric and reflective material. My wife exclaimed, “Wow, these are really nice!” I recall that this is a much better response than my own first impressions with her. So, as far as I’m concerned, the bags have already passed the #1 style criteria.

Simply put, the bags look great, but what about functionality? First of all, for all of you tech-heads out there–denier is a mass to length ratio expressing the thickness of a thread or yard. In other words, the 600-denier bag rating (that’s 600 grams of weight in a 5.5 mile strand) does not imply that the material is stout enough to stop a bullet, but it is made to withstand the harshest of weather elements.

Double stitching allow items to keep dry by not allowing moisture to penetrate.

The corners of the bag, where stitching would typically allow moisture to penetrate, are additionally durable with doubly reinforced material. This is quite a nice feature that lends itself to keeping inside items dry while tough enough to handle repeat thrashings.

Not only are ATVisible Bags similar to each other in their high quality construction, but the various bag styles come with the exact same water bottle and fastening techniques. What does that mean? Well, if you happen to lose one; or would prefer placing it in a different spot, you can simply swap one from the other bags and move it to your favorite location! Also, we really liked the ability to remove the water bottle holders. This made it much easier to clean, especially with the mesh bottom that allows liquids to freely drain.

Here are some of our specific thoughts for each bag:

Removable Cooler bag

ATVisible Appalachian Rear Rack Cargo Bag w/Cooler
This bag comes with a removable cooler that fits neatly into the back bag compartment. If you don’t need it or require the space for something else, remove it. It’s that simple. Although the cooler may be a little small for longer trips with multiple people, it is easily sufficient to handle most day trip needs. Just tell your buddy to get his own bag!

Similar to the front bag, a lightweight plastic walled liner can be inserted into or removed from the rear cargo bag to help keep the bag shapely and increase durability. If your needs do not require the bag to maintain its shape, simply remove the liner.

Removable divider insert allows flexible compartmentalization.

ATVisible Sawtooth Front Rack Bag
Some nice features of the front rack bag are the cargo insert dividers. The dividers can be placed in any position within the bag allowing flexible compartmentalization to accommodate any storage need. Attachment is achieved via a Velcro strip, so repositioning is accomplished effortlessly.

If you have ever owned a cargo bag, you will certainly appreciate Cocoon Solution’s integration of zipper less bags. Often times on the trail, it is nice to quickly grab the map or throw something into your bag. With these, there’s no need to fuss with one of the two removable compartments. Items inside will be protected from the elements by the “lunch bag” roll style closures.

Although the bag has ample storage, along with the foldout gun sheath, we found the bag to sit quite high on the front rack – limiting front view visibility. However, this may actually be an inherent problem with all front rack bags. Given the nature of traveling that will be done with a fully loaded front cargo bag, this may not be as intrusive as we might expect. For my wife and I, we are planning to use the Sawtooth as an alternate rear bag on one of our other quads, for which it is undoubtedly capable of the cross-task.

ATVisible Smokey Mountain fender bag.

ATVisible Smoky Mountain Fender Bag
The Smoky Mountain Fender Bag incorporates all of the great quality features of the other bags: waterproof fabric, elastic hold-downs, zipper less compartments, reinforced corners, and a 20 oz. removable water bottle holder. In addition, the bag compartment is lined with ½-inch of foam padding for placement and protection of valuable items.

While the bag is made with the same impeccable quality as the other bags, we had some biases towards its functionality. Once installed alongside the fender, we found the bag to be invasive to our common leg position. Again, this may be an inherent problem with all fender bags, but we did find it to be awkwardly positioned while riding.

Also, depending on the terrain or type of riding that you typically perform (through streams or mud bogs), we would not advise actually placing valuables into this bag. The bag does hang below the gas tank, and I am sure that I am not the only one who has seen mud or water at least to this level. These bags are waterproof, but are not scuba gear!

Concluding Remarks
Overall, we were very impressed by Cocoon Solutions ATV Bags. If first impressions say anything about a product, we think the ATV Cocoon Bags got it right with their eye-catching yet functional bag designs. The variety of bag offerings should suit the various individual needs of all riders. In particular, the craftsmanship quality of these bags is superb and meant to stand the test of time, even in the harshest of environments. Riders can also feel assured with the extra visibility gained by ATVisible’s reflective material stripes on the bags. More information about Cocoon Solutions’ ATVisble bag offerings can be found at www.atvcocoon.com.