When motorcycle luggage goes bad - or losing your top (box)

I've just discovered the most sickening feeling you can have on a bike.

Picture the scene. You need to be somewhere early morning, and you need to take some things with you. The wife's got the car, so it's either public transport or the motorcycle. Normally, it's a no brainer, but it is 1C out and snowing a little bit. For me, it's still a no-brainer. It's the bike every time. Heated kit and a powered topbox on the Tiger 1200 with it's giant alternator means I'm often too hot.

It's also earlier than I need to be up, too, so I figure I've got a half hour to get out and enjoy some seat time before I'm where I need to be. Nothing flash, you understand - I literally mean just some time in the seat. Due to injuries, work and the weather, it's the longest I've not ridden in years and I want back in.

Opening the garage door, I'm met with an icy blast. No matter. I put my stuff in the Tiger and lock the top box. I've had bike luggage for a while now, but I still don't entirely trust it, especially after my last Tiger split the lock on highway 40 coming into Montreal. Only the elastics kept my laptop in that day, and losses were limited to just my Alpinestars GP gauntlets. Because of this, I check my luggage every time I leave. A good rattle and lift tell me it's firmly in place before I set out.

The ride itself is uneventful. Literally. I see a few cop cars, but it's cold and I'm out of practice and while I may be accelerating firmly from a standstill, I'm barely grazing the speed limits. Today, I am a model rider.

And so, I come to that worst feeling in the world. I finally arrive at my destination and I'm all smiles. My second ride of the year and I'm in one piece as the snow settles on my dash. I love this bike.

And then I swing my leg off, and as I look back I notice something is horribly wrong. My top box has gone. As in not there. Vanished. Missing. Completely fucking disappeared.

I think back. I felt no bumps other than Toronto's myriad and world-class collection of potholes. I also didn't stop the bike at any point during the ride so it actively fell off while I was riding.

I text my contact "I'm running late - Mechanical issues" and retrace my steps. I'm thinking it probably fell off close to home, or maybe that one time I pulled off the lights quickly at Lakeshore. I'm also thinking, "what if it hit a car? or a pedestrian?". Is my biking career over?

But as I work my way back along the route, my heart is racing. There's no sign of anyone injured. No topboxes jutting from car panels or windshields. In fact, there's no sign of anything. Not a thing.

And then I arrive back at my destination for a second time and as I swing my leg over the seat, I relive that feeling.

To be fair, I didn't lose a lot that I can't replace. My favourite backpack was in there, along with my lunch. It also contained my laptop and my kindle, both of which are backed up and replaceable. It also contained my business cards, so I'm still hoping someone may open it and call me, but I'm not that hopeful.

No, to me, the greatest loss is the top box itself. I know it was secure and it's loss represents both a betrayal of it's function and the loss of future utility. I'll also probably never trust bike luggage again. I may just go back to dry bags and bungie cords, which is a shame as the top box was so much simpler to use.

For the rest of the day, I'm constantly thinking about it. The first step is to report it to the police. After the guy on the phone stops laughing (in a nice way), he confesses he has no idea how to report it. I didn't crash or hurt anyone, so it's bascially not a road traffic incident. The best he can offer me is to report it as lost property, which I dutifully do.

It's the Toronto bike show this weekend, so I take time to talk with Jeremy from GP Bikes (who sold me the Tiger) about it. It was, after all, in there for a service just a couple of days ago. Maybe they did something?

I'm not sure what I expected but the answer is an emphatic "no", but they are prepared to help me go to Triumph with it even though they've never heard of this type of problem before. Unfortunately, that means waiting until next Tuesday when they're all back in the office.

After a packed (and frankly exhausting) show, it's Monday morning all of a sudden. Just as I'm sitting down to plough through my cards and contacts, the phone rings. It's traffic services and they found my stuff. They prepare me for the worst by telling me "it might have been run over", but I don't care. For me, it's closure.

Upon arrival, I see what they mean. They've only found the backpack, and it's clearly been outside until this time. Inside, it's wet and looking at the contents it's not good. Everything is there (except for the sandwiches) but it's all the worse for wear. The laptop clearly took the brunt of it with a warped chassis and cracked screen. The various pens /etc are all done, too, and all the paper is saturated. However through some miracle my kindle is completely intact. There's also no sign at all of the top box.

I ask Larry, the guy who called me, if there was anything else that came in, and proceed to describe what happened. He's no recollection of anything, but says there was other debris and he very kindly takes me out to the yard so I can look for myself. As Larry rakes through the twisted fender sections and pieces of tailight, there's definitely no sign of it, but he promises to call again if it's on another truck. Shame, as I would have loved to have seen the bottom retainers...

The really weird thing is where it happened - Gardner and Sherbourne, which means it happened after I'd been driving at least 30km and some of that under some reasonably spirited acceleration. I'm now more sure than ever it's a fault in the reatiner system on the topbox itself. After all, if it was loose when I started, wouldn't it have fallen off sooner? And it definitely wasn't loose when I started...

I guess my call with GP (and maybe Triupmh) tomorrow just got a whole lot more interesting.