Thoughts on Luggage Part 1

At some point, unless you just use your ride to go for Timmies, you've got to run into a storage problem. Even driving your bike to work presents the issue of how to secure your lunch to the bike.

The first answer people come up with is usually a backpack. This works for a lot of things, but it has a couple of major shortcomings. First is that it can move around on you while you are riding, both spooky and potentially dangerous. Second, if you are going any serious distance it is going to get heavy on your shoulders and hot on your back. Third, it will seriously cut into your ability to carry anyone else.

For any kind of distance you'll want to be able to a fix the luggage to the bike and not the rider. This is true if you are riding a Hayabusa or a VStrom or a Sportster.

So what are the possibilities? By mounting point, generally speaking there are Tank bags, Panniers/saddlebags, Top Boxes, Tail bags and pack bags. Each of them have their advantages and disadvantages.

Before selecting any of the above, there are a number of things to consider:

• do you want your bags "permanently" affixed to the bike (this will make them harder to steal, but may detracted from the look of your ride)?
• how much to you want to spend? (hard luggage is going to more expensive, but also more durable and waterproof.)
• is this you permanent ride or just a short term thing?
• do you want the luggage to be waterproof?
• do you want hard luggage or soft luggage?
• what kinds of limitations does your bike impose? - do you have a medal tank?
• what is your riding position?
• do you need to carry a passenger?
• how much to you want or need to tote about?

Your basic choices are going to come down to

• what to mount?
• whether hard or soft luggage?
• and then a consideration of what purpose you need addressed by each piece?

It is my intention over the next while to try and write a review of each of the various luggage options, and try to help draw some conclusions on their use.