Gear Navigator Tailbag

[derf]

Ok, christmas came late for me this year, and it arrived on what is possible the coldest day of this year. If it was warmer I might have spent more time trying to figure out how to attach it to my bike, being freezing cold and dark I just gave up for the night and took it off to go back into the house. But I do have some initial impressions.

It's huge, I can easily carry a weeks worth of clothes, with room to spare, and places to strap other stuff down on top of it. This bag is 52liters, with one large main compartment that is accessible from the top. The top flap has a mesh compartment that is perfect for carying smaller electronics, important documents, stuff like that. I think that I could fit anything that I might need for a very long trip in just the main compartment.

To each side of the main compartment are smaller and slightly less accessible compartments. Each side could easily hold a pair of sneakers or two. They are decent size and shape, and look like they could be perfect to hold enough personal hygene items to satisfy the most demanding woman.

The top of the bag looks like when it's fully packed it would be fairly flat, and there are some straps on top so that you can strap down anything else you can think of. Another bag or a tent, sleeping bag, and air matress come to mind as the firts things to get strapped to it.

The bag also comes with a handy dandy carry handle and a shoulder strap to transport it easily at the end of the day. Bungee chords are all over this thing, and they look like they woul be perfect to use to either hold the bags contents from shifting or to hold something on the bag. There is a small pouch at the front of the bag that holds the rain cover. The rain cover looks like it would fit over the full bag perfectly, but I have my doubts as to how waterproof it would really make the bag, especially since I expect a decent amount of water to splash from the tires into the under side of the bag which faces the bike.

The attachment look very solid if properly done, but...

And to the negatives.

1 - I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to put it on the bike before I got too cold and gave up. The front straps look very easy to attach to the rear foot pegs. There is also a very robust velco strap that goes under the seat. But I couldn't find an easy spot to attach my rear straps. the instructions just say "a secure place" and teh picture shows them wrapped around turn signals. I have flushmounts, and even if I had stalk turn signals I dont think I would use them as an attachment point for a bag. I need to spend more time looking at the back of the bike so that I can figure out a good way of attaching the straps.

2 - The attachment straps use aluminum buckles, which look like they are strong enough to hold me down. The down side is that they are aluminum and can easily scratch or gouge the bodywork, there are nifty little pads that sit under the buckles, but they also look like they might easily slip out from under the buckle letting it rest directly against the plastic.

3 - The straps aren't permanently attached, to take the bag off the bike you would need to remove all four straps plus the seat strap. And it would also be very easy to leave them on the bike and then the strap get cought in a moving parts and torn apart.

Other than those negative the bag looks huge, strong, and ready to go for a long ride with lots of gear. I will update this after I take the bag out for a ride, and after I figure out how to attach it to the tail.

[tommymac]

Looks good fred. I would like to get a tail bag but need something I can mount when the hard bags are on there. even getting bungee cords on there are a pita.

tom

[OneSickPsycho]

Looks solid.

[Mr Lefty]

your rear strap problem is one I had with my cortech saddle bags... what I ended up doing is looping the two parts that are supposed to attach to the bike together... make'n them one... and then clipping the bag to it...

so in a since you have each side secured to the other... it's not gonna hold the bag down... but it'll hold it from flapping in the wind.

this is the best pic I have

[Sixxxxer]

Sounds good...I ordered the same one.

My only concern is I have undertail exhaust so the rear mounting points I might need to figure out how to secure it down...I have my Factory turn signals but I am with you I dont feel comfortable strapping down my luggage to the Turn signal stalks...

We'll see when I get it...

Cant wait for the Rally!!

[derf]

Tommy, From the looks of it you could probably lay this bag down over the back seat and across a set of hard bags, it would probably work well too.

Ebbs, I don't think I can do the same thing, the bag won't sit lower than my tail, and the way the bag sits over the tail, it wouldn't allow me to run the strap down, instead the strap would slide out from under my tail. I do have a plan though, but I am waiting for a warm day to try it out

[Mr Lefty]

ahh ok... yeah it was hard to explain so hope that pic helped

intresting... post up a pic of what you do... when you do it...

[tommymac]

Sixxer I def wouldnt mount the bags or secure them to the signal stalks.

Fred I guess I would have ot look at your bag and my bike when I have the hard bags on there to see what I can figure out. When the bags are off the tabs that the bags mount to are good for attatching the cords to, but when theyre on its tough finding mounting points.

Tom

[derf]

So I put the bags on the bike and went for a quick ride. I did find some places to mount the rear part of the bags, though I'm not too keen on running the straps under the seat and to the subframe, I have a feeling that the stress on the seat will eventually break it. For now it's begining to look like I will have to fabricate something to strap it to, just a small bar going across the tail, maybe an inch past the body on each side, might even be a good place to mount my plate so it doesn't look too out of place. I have a small design in my mind that would just clip in place when the bag is on and unbolt when I take it off. I will do some work on it when it gets a little warmer out and I have the time.

I also tried to do what ebbs suggested, but the bags dont come down enough to strap each side to eachother without putting alot of extra pressure on the tail bodywork, and I can easily see a few hours of riding cracking the tail to pieces from the stress of that thing on it. Not from moving around, just the small shifting of weight from every bump it would hit.

But teh bag is very secure, and when it is full the metal buckles don't get anywhere near the plastics. The only down side is that if I need to use the bag with a small load I have to watch how I mount them. I was able to easily fit 2 weeks worth of dirty laundry into it, with room to spare, and when I took it out for a ride it didn't move at all.

If there was a grab handle it would solve all the problems.

I have some pictures that I took, I will put them up later tonight, but I'm heading out to dinner in a few.

[derf]

From the right side, Plenty of room for me, and I could adjust it further back if I want to.



In this one you can see where I attached the front strap, the other side is the same. I would prefer to attach it a little further down, but it keeps up and I think it might come loose if i try to strap it anywhere but as tight as I can.



In this exquisite photo you can see how it sits on top of my seat, and the cigs are there for size comparrison. The bag is packed with a few days worth of dirty laundry. Plus there is room left. Also if you look closely you can see where the buckles just miss going under the seat, and where I have the rear straps routed.



You can see in this photo how far off the buckles are away from my body work, my early fears of the buckles rubbing were not founded.



The picture under the seat. I tried to hook to the small hooks under the seat, I eventually decided that they are good for small trips holding down a light load, this is just too big and requires a sturdy tie down. This one also shows the large velcro strap that goes under the seat.



This last picture is where I wound up attaching the straps to, a cross brace between the two sides of the subframe. I dont know how strong the metal is that it is wrapped around, that bracket holds the rear lock in place, and I dont want that thing moving around which means that I wont be able to open the seat, like when I first bought the bike.