GEAR | Osprey Salida 8 Hydration Backpack – Review

August 9, 2020 Shell Robshaw-Bryan

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What is it?

Osprey Salida 8 Hydration Backpack £90

Our Rating (4.5 / 5)

Stockists

Osprey

Features

Women’s specific fit
Integrated 2.5L Hydraulics Reservoir
Lid-Lock™ bike helmet storage
Comfortable Airscape™ backpanel
Bite-valve and magnetic retainer on the pack’s sternum strap
Large internal pocket plus smaller compartments
Front shove-it pouch

What we thought

The Osprey Salida 8 Hydration Backpack is a lovely looking pack and whilst 8 litres might not seem a lot, in use on bike rides and during half-day countryside and hill walks, I’ve found it large enough for everything I need to carry.

The 2.5 litre water reservoir is brilliant, it’s a really generous size and whilst I keep it down to about half full to save on weight, it’s plenty big enough to see me through the kind of walks I tend to do that are around 3-5 hours long.

The backpack fits really well and doesn’t feel at all bulky, and I also found that you can adjust the straps to really cinch it into the body, something I like to do when bike riding, as I hate the feeling of having a larger or ill-fitting backpack moving around on my back.

Although marketed as a biking hydration pack (and I’ve used it several times for this purpose) It’s also brilliant for walking too. It’s just about big enough to fit your sandwiches or a snack inside, along with things like your keys, a buff and so on.

One of the features I really liked was the bike helmet holder. I usually end up awkwardly attaching my helmet through the chin strap to lock it up with my bike, but of course, simply undoing the helmet chin strap would free it, so as far as security measures go, it’s pretty pointless! Either that or I attach it to one of the straps on my backpack, which usually means it bangs around and bounces when I walk.

I found that the helmet attachment point worked really well, keeping my helmet securely attached to the backpack so I could effectively forget about it.

The verdict

Our Rating

Quality 5/5

Practicality 4/5

Looks 4.5/5

Value 4/5

Overall Rating (4.5 / 5)

The Salida has a really comfortable fit and provides enough storage for all of your essentials whether out on your bike or walking. If you want something a little bigger however, you might want to check out the Osprey Salida 2.

It looks great and has some really clever features like the magnetic retainer on the sternum strap which makes drinking from the integrated reservoir quick and easy, and the bike helmet storage on the front of the pack is super handy too.

The Osprey Salida 8 is a truly versatile backpack ideal for mountain biking and walking and I’ll be using this for snowboarding too next time I’m in the mountains. The versatility, great design features combined with the usual excellent Osprey quality, make this a solid buy for anyone looking for a small hydration backpack.

DISCLOSURE | Thank you to Osprey who supplied the featured product to us to test. We were not paid to write this review.