GEIGERRIG is claim­ing that their lat­est hydra­tion packs don’t suck. It’s not a bold claim. The squeeze ball pres­sur­iza­tion allows you to spray water out of the noz­zle. It’s a game-chang­ing idea, but some ideas are bet­ter in a lab than they are in real life. So fel­low copy­writer Zach Horn and I took a spin on our moun­tain bikes in near­by For­est Park to put two dif­fer­ent GEIGERRIG packs to the test. 

GEIGERRIG Rig Guardian (reviewed by Zach)

Design: The first thing I noticed about the GEIGERRIG Rig Guardian was its looks. It seemed stout, like it could take some major pun­ish­ment. The unique design sand­wich­es an H₂0 blad­der between two ultra-pro­tec­tive plas­tic shells that not only pro­tect your hydra­tion source but can also pro­tect your spine. Slip­ping it on inspired con­fi­dence, like I was wear­ing a suit of futur­is­tic armor.

Fit: The fit was stream­lined, ergonom­ic, and sup­port­ive. Rid­ing, my move­ment was­n’t con­strained in the slight­est and I’d go so far as to say that my pos­ture even improved while in the sad­dle. The abil­i­ty to snug the plas­tic plates togeth­er with a sim­ple web­bing sys­tem real­ly made for a com­pact unit. I felt like I could move fast while wear­ing this pack.

Func­tion­al­i­ty: Let’s talk about Geiger­rig’s patent­ed pres­sur­ized spray sys­tem. It’s got pow­er. With a few pumps of the attached pump ball, I’d get about 15 sec­onds of con­tin­u­al spray, mak­ing it super easy to get an ample amount of water in me. It did­n’t feel like I had to suck my brain through my nose in order to quench my thirst. It was even pow­er­ful enough to blast my face in order to cool off. This was tech­nol­o­gy I did­n’t even know I was miss­ing out on and am not sure if I could live with­out in the future.

GEIGERRIG RIG 1210 (reviewed by Tim)

Design: The RIG is the size of a small day­pack. When I first filled up the H20 blad­der I thought it might com­pro­mise all space with­in the pack, but it didn’t. The pack has three exter­nal pock­ets that expand out­ward instead of in, so no mat­ter how much you inflate the blad­der you still have room for snacks, lay­ers, and a lock.

Best Use: Giv­en its size, dura­bil­i­ty, and func­tion I’d say this pack would best be used moun­tain bik­ing or day hik­ing. It felt great while rid­ing, and the web­bing chest and hip straps ensured that it stayed in place.

Pres­sur­ized Hydra­tion Sys­tem: The pres­sur­ized drink­ing hose is what this pack is all about, and it’s real­ly cool. Pres­sur­iz­ing the blad­der is super easy to do while bik­ing, and it makes a notice­able dif­fer­ence to drink with­out suck­ing. If you get a lit­tle overzeal­ous inflat­ing the blad­der, as I did, and shoot water with sur­pris­ing force against your ton­sils, there’s a pres­sure release valve that solves that prob­lem in an instant. 

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