There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
The idea of a double pad sounds great, but I'm quite happy with my existing NeoAir Xlite pads, which were already quite an investment, and so I didn't plan to buy any more pads. I have toyed around with different ways of mating the pads and found that while straps were the cheapest and lightest, they also allowed too many gaps. So I made a sil-nylon sleeve for the two pads and that worked well enough. Even with the sleeve, there was always the space between two pads, and my knee or elbow or shoulder would find and get cold throughout the night.
The Massdrop Double would appear to be 7 ounces heavier than my two NeoAir pads. However, once you include the sil sleeve, the weight different is more like 3-4 ounces. That's close enough to make a case for the Massdrop pad being well worth an extra 2 ounces per person, as it is noticeably thicker, quieter and more comfortable. The Double eliminates that cold air gap and the insulation is something like 25% warmer. I was usually warm enough on my old pad, but my gf can tell the difference and she sleeps better. I can't stress that part enough - warmer pad equals better sleep. So, for us, it's an easy decision to use this over the NeoAir.
I think the V chambers plus the polka dotted seams (for lack of better words) in the middle successfully isolate movement from your partner, unlike the standard straight vertical or horizontal chambers. My guess is that the air gets routed around so many directions that it dilutes the movement. This could be the best application of the V chamber yet.
I didn't have the non-slip treatment on my sample, but I know a lot of people add the silnet drops on the bottom of their pad to have the same affect. Not having to futz with that is a nice touch.
Overall, pretty impressed. Given that I'm seeing more and more UL couples, or even families, yet not a lot of new gear for them, this could be a new area of products for Massdrop.