THE PERFECT SHORT TRIP SOLUTION
I’ve invested a lot of blood, sweat and tears…and quite a few dollars…turning my mid-sized sport touring bike into a capable touring machine. You can read about the many effective modifications that were made in this previous blog post.
As a long distance motorcycle tourer I never thought I’d find myself looking for the best motorcycle tail bags for my bike. But every now and then I just like to strip all of the hard luggage off and go for a spirited ride with the bike in its “Sport” configuration.
Gotta’ Have The Essentials
I’ve got too much saddle time and experience to ever consider leaving home without some essential gear. In a previous blog post we discussed “The Bare Necessities” that serious touring riders should always have on board. If you’re heading out on a substantial road trip, I stand by every recommendation made in that post. But if you’re just going out for a great day ride or overnighter you can cut back substantially on that list of essentials.
No matter how short the ride, or how perfect the weather forecast looks; one should always be carrying a few basics. Experience has (unfortunately) taught me not to leave home without a flat tire repair kit, a portable air compressor and a self-contained battery booster device. Period.
The Search Begins
Google the words “best motorcycle tail bags” and you’ll get nearly 27,000,000 results. Seriously. Go ahead. Do it. I know some of you will. I’ll wait. After spending entirely too much time looking at entirely too many choices I stumbled across a bag that looked like it would meet all of my criteria for size, appearance and ease of installation & removal. The Viking Bags “Medium Black Street/Sportbike Tail Bag”
According to the information on the Viking Bags Website, this leather and Cordura weather-resistant bag checks in at 14” X 13” X 7” in size. It includes all the necessary mounting straps, a waterproof rain cover, built in carry handle and a detachable shoulder strap for ease of transport off the bike. It looked pretty, too! My order was placed.
Universal Mounting?
The first pleasant surprise upon opening the well-packed parcel was finding an interior divider panel that is user-configurable within the interior of the bag. There was no mention of this item on Viking’s website. Bonus!
Four mounting straps are included with the bag which enable one to install the bag on the back of pretty much any type of bike. This “Jack of All Trades” approach, though effective, leaves a bit to be desired in the appearance department. Below you can see the diagram from the enclosed instruction sheet showing the recommended “universal” attachment.
My bike has a great luggage rack built onto it and I already knew that I wouldn’t be using the included mounting straps. I would affix the bag to the luggage rack using ROK Straps. I’ve mentioned this product in an earlier post. If you haven’t discovered ROK Straps yet, get busy. These are the greatest motorcycle load securing straps ever! End of story. Once you’ve used them you’ll never want to even think about bungee cords ever again. You’re welcome.
Ready To Roll
Less than 10 minutes after opening the box the tail bag was installed on my bike and ready for a road test. I packed the bag with the aforementioned air compressor, tire repair kit and battery booster. I’m happy to report that I didn’t need to put any of them to use on this chilly winter day.
The photographs above show the installation on my BMW…with and without the panniers (side cases, saddlebags…whatever you choose to call them) installed. It’s really a great looking product and I’m especially fond of how it looks on my bike. So much more pleasing than with the factory top case.
The image below, from Viking’s website, shows the bag installed on the rear of a Yamaha R3 sport bike. This will give you an idea of how the bag looks on a motorcycle not equipped with a full luggage rack or a back seat. Note that they don’t picture the universal straps securing the bag to the bike.
Road Report
It’s late January in New York as I write this and the temperature has been hovering at or below the freezing mark for a few weeks now. I won’t be taking any long rides anytime soon, but I didn’t acquire this bag with long journeys in mind. In a short 40 mile test ride the bag did fine. I knew it would using the ROK Straps for attachment. We’ll have to wait to hear from some other readers about their experiences with the included universal mounting straps.
Keep in mind that this bag is advertised as being “weather resistant”. If you expect to run into serious weather I would definitely use the included rain cover to protect the bag’s contents. The bag easily gobbled up my essential gear with plenty of room left over for a thermos, water bottles, my pouch of documents, the case for my GPS unit, heavy winter gloves, a hat, etc, etc. In short: it’s a surprisingly substantial, commodious piece of luggage. One could easily use it to carry a change of clothes and sundries for an overnighter or short weekend trip.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Nor Does One Style Of Bike
As mentioned above, the tested bag is Viking’s “Medium Black Street/Sportbike Tail Bag”. Viking also offers the bag in “Small”, “Large” and “Extra Large” sizes.
Riders of cruisers and large touring bikes should not be put off by this review. Viking has a HUGE product line that includes sissy bars and sissy bar bags for cruisers. The sissy bars are model-specific for all of the most popular American and Metric bikes. Visit the Viking website for detailed information.
Viking also offers a complete line of attractively-priced luggage solutions for Harley-Davidson touring bikes. In addition to soft touring bags they offer their own version of a Tour Pack, Hard Saddlebags, Tour Pack Back Rest Pad and Tour Pack luggage racks (in matte black or chrome).
Is It One Of The Best Motorcycle Tail Bags?
In conclusion: this bag fully meets all of my expectations as far as functionality, ease of use and fine appearance are concerned. We would love to hear from other users about their experiences with this bag; especially from those that are employing the included universal mounting straps. Please leave your comments below. If you have any specific questions you would like answered, please feel free to contact us directly via email. Be sure to subscribe to Roadcraft USA. We send out occasional emails announcing new features that hit the blog.
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