Though my granddaughter Stefanie finds it hard to believe, I was a travel writer before suitcases had wheels on them. We actually would pick up our luggage and carry it from place to place.
Heavy? Yes. Awkward? For sure. But that is the way it used to be.
I don’t know why someone didn’t invent it sooner. Or why I didn’t. With that kind of patent, I would probably be rolling in riches right now.
Anyway, history says that a man named Bernard Sadow introduced the first wheels on luggage in 1970. The story goes that the Massachusetts father was lugging two heavy suitcases through an airport when his family returned from an Aruba vacation.
Waiting at customs, Sadow saw an airport worker rolling a heavy machine easily on a wheeled skid. That gave Sadow an idea. When he got home, Sadow – who happened to be vice president of a company that made luggage – took the casters off a wheeled trunk, mounted them on a suitcase, attached a strap to the front and had rolling luggage.
Of course, many refinements followed.
I had several of those early wheeled suitcases with straps. It seemed so much better to pull a suitcase behind me than to carry it. But those first strappy things had a tendency to turn over at the most inconvenient times. And taking them on an escalator? Forget about it. Those contraptions seemed more like having a rambunctious puppy on a leash, darting off at any whim, pulling me along with it.
So in 1987, airplane pilot Robert Plath invented the Rollaboard. He fastened two wheels and a long handle to suitcases that rolled along upright, rather than being towed like Sadow’s creation. Plath initially sold his Rollaboards to fellow flight crew members but it didn’t take travelers long to notice that this was the way to go when they spied flight crews striding easily through airports with their Rollaboards rolling obediently behind them.
Which brings me to the real point of this story. Around Christmas, I was given a three-piece set of luggage. What a gift! First, I’ve never had matched luggage. I would buy a piece here and a piece there to see how they worked. Everything seemed to have a flaw – too big, too little, too heavy, didn’t roll right, tore up too quickly, couldn’t easily be put it the overhead bin of a plane or under the seat in front of me.
As a travel writer who is on the road as much as possible, I’ve gone through a slew of suitcases and spent a bunch of money just to tote stuff with me. Now I have three new pieces of a brand that National Geographic named as a top pick in its “10 Best of Everything,” also known as “An Ultimate Guide for Travelers.”
RICARDO BEVERLY HILLS LUGGAGE
My new wheels are the Bel Aire Collection from Ricardo Beverly Hills, founded in 1978. The guarantee behind the product is very strong – free replacement should it become damaged and unusable for any reason, including airline damage, during the first three years of ownership.
Wow! Most of my former luggage never made it past the three-year mark. With as much as I travel, this guarantee is really going to be put to the test.
I now have a 16-inch Wheeled Business Brief, a 20-inch EZ Stow Widebody WheelAboard and a 24-inch Expandable Upright. All in black, of course.
The light-weight luggage is made of Cordura ballistic fabric, the same material used in bulletproof vests. The fabric has a super guard protection against stains and outdoor elements. It is said to stay cleaner and look better longer. We shall see.
The wheels are replaceable which is a first for me. They are screwed instead of riveted and are nicely recessed so the bag will fit flatly on the floor when it is not being rolled. Around my house, the wheels seemed to roll quietly and smoothly.
The two-prong pull handle system is made of aluminum with a soft rubber-like material for the hand grip. The handle is sturdy and locks easily into several different heights. It is also ergonomically designed with a comfortable grip to help minimize hand fatigue.
The suitcases have zip-around expandability for increased packing capacity with the pull of a zipper. That will come in handy for all the brochures and press packets that I seem to accumulate when I travel.
The front frame also expands when you zip out the expand option so the suitcase will still be level and not tip over. My old red expandable suitcase had that problem and it was a pain in the neck – unzip the expansion on it and the suitcase would keel over. I was constantly trying to keep it upright with my knee whenever I had to stand in line with it.
The suitcases each have a removable garment carrier to keep outfits wrinkle free. Just take the carrier out of the suitcase and hang it up in a hotel closet. I’ve never used one so we’ll see how it works.
Each suitcase comes with a TSA lock, which is nice. The locks allow airport security officers to open luggage for physical inspection when required without having to cut off or break open locks. I’m a traveler who learned from bad experience to lock my luggage when I leave it in my hotel room.
After all the dives and low-rent places I’ve stayed in over the years, it was at a very expensive, very fancy hotel where a room attendant rummaged through my unlocked suitcase and stole a valuable. Not everything will fit in a room safe so these locks will come in handy. The pull tabs on the suitcases line up easily to slip a lock through them.
The suitcases also have multiple zippered compartments on the outside, which I like. Seems like I’m always grabbing the morning newspaper out of my mailbox when I head for the airport. I can tuck the paper in one of these compartments and have easy access to pull it out for reading while I wait for the plane.
WHEELED BUSINESS BRIEFCASE
The 16-inch wheeled business brief is the new suitcase that interests me most. I always carry my laptop computer, iPhone, two cameras and all the cords and chargers needed to operate them. Those things cannot be checked through at the ticket counter, nor can they be handed over at the plane gate. I don’t let them out of my sight – until they are safely put by my hands in the overhead bin or under the seat in front of me.
That case carries my livelihood. I can’t write without my notes and computer and I can’t sell photos if I don’t have my cameras with the images I took. Clothes and toiletries can be replaced. Those cannot.
So, over the years, I have struggled with finding the best business carry on. For the past year, I have used a decent business briefcase with detachable wheels. The problem with it is that the case is a bit wobbly on the flimsy wheels and I have to remove the wheels so it will fit into the overhead bin. Then I’m always afraid I’ll get off the plane and leave the wheels behind.
To put the wheels back on, I usually have to carry the bag from the plane to the gate and then get out of the way of the departing passengers to slip the wheels through the locking devise on the business case.
My new Richardo Beverly Hills wheeled business brief seems steady and easy to pull with its dual handles or to pick up by the baggage handles. It has zippered sections galore. It opens up and lays flat and has a nifty Quickpass laptop protector so you can go through security without taking the laptop out and putting it in a bin on the security scanner conveyor.
I don’t know how many times I have walked away from security and heard them announce that someone had left behind their laptop at the screening area. Not me, thank goodness. But it still gives you a quick jump in your stomach and a hope that whoever hurried through will remember and go back for the computer.
One of the biggest options I am looking forward to trying is that my business brief case has a zippered compartment on the back so it will very securely slip onto the handle of the bigger suitcases and ride along there. That way, I only pull one suitcase and have the brief case sitting atop that case.
I’ve already tried that out. The bigger case will not tip over with the brief atop it. It is on there to stay – until I slip it off myself.
The suitcases also have an add-a-bag strap but I don’t think I will be using that. I prefer to have the brief case sitting atop the suitcase. I’ve used add-a-straps before. This one might be much better but the others I have used previously meant you had to mess around to distribute the weight of the added bag carefully and make sure that when you set the suitcase down that the bag on the add-a-strap would also rest on the floor. It also seemed as if the added bag would go flopping along and would stick out too much to comfortably fit on an escalator. Seems like other travelers were always running into that add-on bag because they didn't see it.
As you can tell, I am a carry-on type traveler. I seldom take more than a business brief case and a carry-on bag. No waiting at baggage claim when I arrive. No lost luggage. I survived a month in Australia with only that and it seems to work for most trips I take.
So there it is. Of course, I’m going to learn more about the pros and cons of my new luggage as I use it.
After finishing up some writing projects, I’m ready to hit the road and will share what I find in future writings. You’ll recognize me in the airport as the happy traveler with the brand new, matching Ricardo Beverly Hills luggage.
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