RST Race Dept Kit Bag Review: A Good-Value Load Lugger With a Caveat

Whether we like it or not, biking involves a lot of stuff. If you’re doing things properly, you’ll have a helmet, a bulky jacket packed with armour, jeans or textile/leather trousers that are also armoured, and sturdy boots. So, should you want to go somewhere and ride, perhaps to a track day, race event or abroad to go adventuring on hired motorcycles, you might well want a vessel for all of that clobber, like the RST Race Dept kit bag.

Key features:

• Retractable handle 
• Drawstring interior helmet bag 
• Rubber wheels

Price: £139.99

We’ve had one of these on test for just over six months. In that time it’s been in the luggage hold of eight flights and been chucked in the back of a car numerous times for UK riding events. It’s never left me wanting for room - the 170-litre bag easily fits a helmet, a pair of boots, two different pairs of trousers and a couple of jackets plus all of the casual clothing I might need for a few days away. 

You may want to think twice about putting a helmet in the bag and then checking it into a flight, though. The helmet storage is simply a drawstring compartment attached to the base of the bag’s inside, with no padding to protect it from knocks when it’s hurled into the cargo hold by baggage handlers. 

Also, as the bag is pretty much just one big orifice in which to lob your stuff (there is one externally accessed compartment, but that’s your lot), things can get a bit disorganised in there. 

Moving around with it is a breeze, though. There’s a long handle which easily retracts into one of two positions and a pair of decent-sized rubber wheels which keep the bag stable when on the move. 

Should you buy an RST Race Dept kit bag? 

Whether or not we recommend this bag to you depends on the use case. If you’re going to be taking it on a lot of flights (perhaps you like frequently jetting off to Portimao or wherever on sunny track days), we’d be tempted to spend more on something like the Ogio Rig 9800, which is likely to last longer and also offers a bit more protection for your stuff. 

We say that because already, our RST bag is showing some signs of wear. There’s a roughly 10cm tear on the zipped fabric flap that covers the top of the carry handle when stowed, and nearby on the lower leading edge of the bag, the fabric has frayed significantly, revealing the piping underneath that gives it structure. So if you’re going to use the Race Dept bag as often as I am, it might start to look shabby faster than you might appreciate.

Then again, if it’s more for keeping your one-piece leathers, boot and lid together when driving over to a track day, and/or for the very occasional trip abroad, it’ll do you just fine, and at a substantially lower cost (less than half at RRP). It’s also worth pointing out that at 3.7kg it’s about 2.7kg lighter than the Ogio, which could come in handy when flying on a modest baggage allowance.