- Post 1: While We Were #4, You Know Who Was #1? US! I Mean, USA. America. The United States of America. Not “Us”, the English Pronoun Oddly Capitalized, But “US”, the Abbr.2 for ‘MURICA
- Post 2 (⇠You Are Here): It’s Lightweight Like a Lotus, But Markets Like a GTO
- Post 3: Ketchup… Catsup… Ketchup… Catsup… Star Course… RWC…
- Post 4: “The Specifics of the Event Can Be a Surprise, But the Fact That There IS An Event Shouldn’t Be…”
So, I’m not planning on adding a bunch of pictures here eh fuckit there’ll be some pictures, because this AAR has taken way too long to finish already, because the Speed Rucker doesn’t seem to be available anymore, and because I’ve already got several in-depth ruck posts in the queue. That out of the way –
Since the RWC required a GORUCK rucksack, it was nice that it was included with registration, at least initially. I think a better option would have been to have an “intro” package that would have also included the required weight plate, a hydration bladder, etc. – i.e., if you’ve never done a GORUCK event before, click this button and you’ll get everything you need for the event added to the cart alongside your event.
Otherwise, you’re left to sort out weight plates and hydration stuff and all the rest on your own, at which point you might as well just get a separate ruck, unless the Speed Rucker offers something neat and special? But there’s the Rucker X.0, and while they didn’t really “cut corners” with the Speed Rucker, it’s clearly not built to the same level as other GORUCK packs, so… It’s in a weird place.
It might be nice if they offered a “competitive” gear package as well, but anybody who’d go for that would likely have most of the parts already.
Bottom line is, the Speed Rucker was advertised as the “competitive ruck”, but it’s really not in that tier, and as far as “intro package” offerings, it wasn’t packaged with what it would’ve needed to be to be good in that role.
The Yeh:
The built-in reflective stripe is a nice touch – it saves having to add on additional reflective bands or PT belts on the outside MOLLE which, speaking of the lack of which, the Speed Rucker doesn’t have. With a built-in waist belt, there’s not technically much of a need for any external MOLLE – I don’t recall / didn’t notice anyone with anything meaningful (beyond maybe a waist belt or reflectiveness) hooked to their MOLLE, so it’s not really needed.
A similar argument, I think, can be made for the lack of an outside zippered pocket. Outside of the niche case of your teammate grabbing something from your pack, anytime you’d be grabbing something off of the MOLLE, you’d be taking the pack off to reach it anyways, at which point you might as well just work out of the inside of the pack, and keep it simple.
(Speaking of access, Team Sloth holds that the “optimal” setup for a Star Course / rucking competition is, basically, a Ruck Plate Carrier with a running vest, like a Salomon, Nathan, Ultimate Direction, etc., worn over the top of it. Hold the weight as high and tight as possible, allow for maximal access to inventory on the go, and if you do have to take it off to grab something, allow you to do so without taking the weight with it.)
The Eh/Meh:
There’s a nice D-ring inside, above the plate pocket, for a hydration bladder. I mildly prefer the Bullet Ruck’s button-and-loop method, because a slight majority of the hydration bladders I’ve seen don’t have a built-in hook or clip, but that’s no biggie. Similarly, it’s a bit awkward to have to shift it out of the way or remove it to show off the plate, but we’ve never had to show off the actual plate outside of check-in, so that’s likewise not really an issue.
Standard feed-through for the hydration tube – it would’ve been nice to have an elastic band on the shoulder straps to feed the tube through, and I prefer magnetic keepers to the sometimes-finicky (especially when you’ve got the straps way cinched) elastic pull-acrosses, but I could’ve easily had those if I’d wanted to spend a fraction of the time I spent sewing on clips to attach a sloth skin, so…
The Bleh:
So, on the not-so-good side, the strap length is on the long side. You want the weight high & tight on the back, but even cinching the straps as tight as they can go while wearing the ruck leaves it a bit low for where I’d prefer.
Added to that, the straps attach to the padded back several inches below the weight pocket, so once you’ve gotten them cinched down they cause the ruck to start to fold up into your back. Not great, and a big reason we wore the battle belts – to have a stable piece of padding between our backs and the resultant ridge in the Speed Rucker.
The hip belt isn’t really integrated to the rest of the ruck in any meaningfully load-bearing capacity, either – just an inch-and-a-half piece of regular nylon webbing – so it stabilizes the ruck from bouncing (but see above about wearing it high&tight), but not much more.
Overall, the fabric on the Speed Rucker feels much lighter than my other rucks – not a huge issue, and I haven’t had any durability issues in the few years I’ve had it, but it does contribute to those issues with the ruck folding up / losing its shape when cinched tight. I can appreciate the shaving of weight to save ounces (but not dollars; sacrificing quality for cost isn’t really my thing [not paying extra for quality I don’t need is a separate thing; I’m talking more about Never Skimp on Luxury]), but since your baseline weight inside the ruck is gonna be 20-30#, adding a few more ounces – even a pound! – to significantly improve structure and thereby ergonomics is a hella good deal.
But, y’know, I was gonna – and did – register for RWC anyways, so as a random “free” rucksack, I’m not gonna drag it too hard or anything.
Don Norum 