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Motorcycle Luggage

I've mainly owned sport-tourers, and they all have massive hard side-cases and I have almost never used them...

I don't think any of the side cases in any of these pictures have ever been used (by me). The ones that came with the blue Triumph (not shown) were used once or twice.

I like splitting too much to have extra width, except in my fat ass. They all just take up space in my garage...

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The widest part of my ST was the mirrors. If my mirrors would fit through a gap, my bags would also fit.
 
senpai71 said:
I've mainly owned sport-tourers, and they all have massive hard side-cases and I have almost never used them...

I don't think any of the side cases in any of these pictures have ever been used (by me). The ones that came with the blue Triumph (not shown) were used once or twice.

I like splitting too much to have extra width, except in my fat ass. They all just take up space in my garage...

View attachment 594053View attachment 594054View attachment 594055
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All of those cases look gorgeous on the bikes, and is part of the reason I was so set on trying that out. But KTM's execution for my bike left a lot to be desired. There were some positives to the hard cases, but mine were so bulky and clearly an afterthought I wasn't happy with them. I also prefer being able to cinch down soft luggage with compression straps and keeping everything close to the bike.
 
Cornfish said:
All of those cases look gorgeous on the bikes, and is part of the reason I was so set on trying that out. But KTM's execution for my bike left a lot to be desired. There were some positives to the hard cases, but mine were so bulky and clearly an afterthought I wasn't happy with them. I also prefer being able to cinch down soft luggage with compression straps and keeping everything close to the bike.
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TBH, even if I do a 5-day trip (the longest I've taken in recent years), I just use a topcase - fresh underwear and socks each day, and that's pretty much it. I have the same small duffel bag in there I've used for almost 30 years...
 
Cornfish said:
All of those cases look gorgeous on the bikes, and is part of the reason I was so set on trying that out. But KTM's execution for my bike left a lot to be desired. There were some positives to the hard cases, but mine were so bulky and clearly an afterthought I wasn't happy with them. I also prefer being able to cinch down soft luggage with compression straps and keeping everything close to the bike.
Click to expand...
Soft luggage is also quieter. That’s a big part of the appeal for me.
 
Are you telling me I am wrong? I had a different experience with Happy Trails Panniers, among others. The contents rattle around and the boxes themselves make a bit of noise when empty. I stand by that after riding thousands of miles with those sets on my Stroms #2, #3 and #4.
 
Contents rattling around are just due to how you put stuff in them.

And the boxes themselves making noise is due to faulty design of the bags and their mounting system.
 
Most of my travels consisted of a tank bag and Stuff (book bag filled with things, tent, sleeping bag, etc.) bungeed to the back.

Outside of one time when I had a stack of books badly bungeed to the back of my scooter (which proceeded to explode and scatter all over the street), I never really had a problem. But I've never traveled in driving rain either.
 
Cornfish - How do those side bags work with your exhaust on your KTM? My exhaust is rather high on the bike & some pictures of your bike I see online show the exhaust to be similarly high. There's a stock exhaust guard on my bike but I wonder how soft bags sitting on the guard for hundreds of miles will actually fare.
 
mackdaddy said:
Cornfish - How do those side bags work with your exhaust on your KTM? My exhaust is rather high on the bike & some pictures of your bike I see online show the exhaust to be similarly high. There's a stock exhaust guard on my bike but I wonder how soft bags sitting on the guard for hundreds of miles will actually fare.
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I run a slightly different set up luggage wise on my 790 but they've been fine for about 47,000 miles now.
 
mackdaddy said:
Cornfish - How do those side bags work with your exhaust on your KTM? My exhaust is rather high on the bike & some pictures of your bike I see online show the exhaust to be similarly high. There's a stock exhaust guard on my bike but I wonder how soft bags sitting on the guard for hundreds of miles will actually fare.
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I showed a picture of the drive side standoff, but the exhaust side has the same Nomad ADV plate. I’ll post a picture in a bit, but there is plenty of room with the Nomad ADV “rack.” Mosko provides an exhaust heat shield you can attach with a hose clamp, but I don’t need it and didn’t use it.
 
mackdaddy said:
Cornfish - How do those side bags work with your exhaust on your KTM? My exhaust is rather high on the bike & some pictures of your bike I see online show the exhaust to be similarly high. There's a stock exhaust guard on my bike but I wonder how soft bags sitting on the guard for hundreds of miles will actually fare.
Click to expand...

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senpai71 said:
I've mainly owned sport-tourers, and they all have massive hard side-cases and I have almost never used them...

I don't think any of the side cases in any of these pictures have ever been used (by me). The ones that came with the blue Triumph (not shown) were used once or twice.

I like splitting too much to have extra width, except in my fat ass. They all just take up space in my garage.
Click to expand...

So you never carry kits for repairing flats? Or for plugging them? Nothing for inflating flat tires? No spare gloves or clothing in case you lost one or ran into cold weather? No spare bulbs or fuses? Etc?
 
And you may find that your mirrors are as wide or wider than your bags. That was the case on my ST1100. Measure both. Generally if your mirrors will fit, your bags will fit.
 
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