Yep, happened to me as well. Painful but nothing broken. Also, "Paddling" in deep sand is a "No No" with hard bags back there! OUCH!

That's funny! I've seen both hard and soft come off the bikes. I've had a few fall off too!

But with me, FIRE was the more serious issue! If softbags are not well set off from hot pipe ... watch out! Various friends have set fire to soft bags as well.

But on the flip side, the hard bag crew constantly have racks cracked and broken. Very common.

Well mounted soft bags with proper off sets are much better today. (as you've noted) The new cinch systems are pretty robust and waterproofness is better too. But still, hard bags are nicer to get into. Soft bags you have to dig around a bit for stuff. Compromises!

Most modern hard bags are 10 second on or off. Not a problem. My various GIVI bags and current Triumph OEM bags ... all good, easy ON/OFF ... just not great for me off road.

By Pro I really mean very experienced riders. Guys at the big BMW rallies is where I learned about bag liners. These guys ride a lot, have learned quite a bit on the road and really are "Pros" regards bike travel. Many work in BMW dealers or are mechanics ... somehow they have time to ride huge miles per year.

Some of the guys I ride with here in San Fran Bay area are on that level too. We call them professionals too ... even though few actually make a living from it. We've got Doctors, Writers, I.T. Wizards, Lawyers, Police, Nuclear scientists and Real Estate and Start Up investors. ALL are great riders, most are as good off road as on and own several bikes. 60 riders in all, but only about 30 active these days.

The best Bag liners are custom made for the hard bag in question. You can improvise but then you can run into the problems you describe. Custom fit bag liners work well, slip right in, no fiddling.
I hate carrying Hard Bags around, especially if your room is 3 flights up.

The "Pro's" bit was very much meant tongue in cheek and I had a good idea what you meant, it was just your shorthand way of using it that amused me. "Stuff the pro's use" is such a hackneyed marketing slogan in my "professional" world (I'm a photographer), trotted out again and again by companies to try and give a serious edge to some piece of kit that children would discard. It was only after I posted that the other interpretation - kit that (moneyed) members of the professional classes would use (I won't put the other half of that in - don't want to upset anybody ) occurred to me.

Maybe I fell on my head as a child or something but for some reason or another "turnkey" luggage systems (hard or soft) always seem to make me turn the other way. It's as though I have to take the road less travelled with bike prep as well as on the map. Bespoke luggage systems have come and gone over the decades and I've very rarely bought any of them. Bikes, yes, tents / camping gear, yes, boots, jackets, yes, but luggage, no. I have made or adapted so many sets of luggage from scratch that I have trouble remembering them. And I mean starting with steel pipes and a welding torch. Doing my own thing with luggage is probably why I've scattered so many of my belongings over the highways and byways of Europe and beyond.

Anyway, my next "expedition", in the planning stage at present, involves taking my wife as a pillion. It'll be her first serious bike trip in quarter of a century and being a "professional person" I'm sure she's not going to put up with any slapdash Poundland based luggage solution. Only the best Honda can offer for her (or at the very least better than what's on the bike her sister and other half use. Nothing like sibling rivalry to loosen the purse strings!). It'll be an interesting experience to ride a bike with luggage that fits.

Uh Oh, the missus on first Bike ride? Maybe something like this?


Or ... if she really gets her way then it'll be this ....

Notice the plate? Oh, the shame! I thought only we 'mericans went of holiday with that set up?

GIVI plastic boxes are so often ignored.

I've used them loads of times on numerous bikes. They're solid, waterproof, probably more secure than aluminium (harder to prise open) and they crash way better than a lot of metal boxes I've used as they just tend to squish.

I'd use them over those big silly metal square cases any day.




However, they don't look 'Adventure' do they ...

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Givi boxes might not look solid when compared to metal ones just because they are made of plastic, but I think they are stronger and look cool. You can also put them on and off the bike in seconds so very convenient if you want to take panniers and top box in your tent or room.

Attached Thumbnails

 

 

 

My GIVI bags also held up well. They hit the ground a couple times on this trip to Copper Canyon. Also used them on my DR650 and bashed them against trees going down narrow trails. And they did NOT break! Very impressive. I sold these off ... probably should have hung onto them. Very tough gear.


2 days lost in the Sierra Tarahumaru. The poor V-Strom took one HELL of a beating ... going down endless silt filled two track, rocky tracks NOT suited for the big Vstrom. The GIVI's never complained ... my buddies GS factory bags were destroyed. One fell off on the way home. Had to bungee it on.



I still have an old set ... forgot numeral designation but are original old style. No racks for them ... so may sell them too. (the racks are expensive!)


Just before setting off on my first major Mexico trip on my new DR650.


I've been back 3 more times since. The GIVI's were good but the added weight (empty boxes, racks, hardware) was 35 lbs. (15 kgs.) They took a few good hits, no problems beyond a few scratches.

Playa "La Gringa", Bahia de Los Angeles

Yes, that's it exactly - or the front half of it anyway Looks nice in red

It's not her first long trip, just her first since the kids were born. I dug out a few old pics of us riding my old Honda CX Turbo through a snowstorm in the Pyrenees many years ago as well as one of us touring a Honda C50 stepthrough in Greece a couple of years earlier to show what a hard bitten biker chick she is (was) but Photofvcket seems to lived up to its name and now doesn't work at all after I uploaded them.

Plan is to live the American dream and go NY-LA (for her) and back (for me as well) via anywhere interesting that catches our eye. We're probably going to buy one on the east coast - I have a friend in NJ who I'm hoping will be able to source something locally + sort the paperwork and, all other things being equal, will be coming with us on his 1976 GoldWing (or his modern Triumph). We'll then sell it once it's back in NJ. We thought about Harley's (too cliched), BMW (too "professional" ) and anything else just looks like hard work.

You don't happen to know whether the boxes on the 1800Wing come off or is it going to be a case of carrying our dirty washing into hotels in bags?

Not mentioned are the Pelican/Storm hard plastic cases and clones. They are practically indestructible and cheaper than aluminum. You can get them with side racks that allow for quick removal. I'm using Storm im2600 on Tusk rack for Gen I KLR650.

That camper van and trailer is well nice love the colour of the wing and trailer too - bloody hell im turning into an "merican" as we speak ya all

Absolutely. Peli cases are probably the best luggage out there.

I've got one as a top box. It's indestructible and half the price of a GIVI.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Peli cases are far better than Alloy in every way. We've had both and soft luggage. Soft luggage is safer off road if you fall but such a pain if you are camping every night. The straps will drive you crazy.

When you ship the bike, the peli's make great checked luggage.
With TT Rapid trap system they come off in seconds but you will need to retro engineer the Rapid trap kit to account for the plastic being thicker than Alloy. Also the Rapid trap locking system is crap - it also needs engineering work to improve it. We got the work done and it all works perfectly on Angie's bike.
I still have the old Zega's after 60,000klm, only fallen off twice in sand and the damn things leak - out of shape. Like Ted says.... Peli top box with a QR plate is hard to beat.
When I get home the Zega's are history....I'll keep them on the garage as storage boxes but it's 1550 Peli's for me off ebay.

Pelican bought Storm. The Storm im2600 works about the same as the Pelican 1550 and is lighter, cheaper and has better latches.

I have come to the opinion that ALL current hard box systems have a major design flaw. This is that they are hard point mounted. Throw overs rest on the seat so when you hit a bump, the seat absorbs most of the shock. So it seems to me that hard cases, or at least the frame or mounting cage should be soft mounted by being rested on the rear seat maybe with additional cushioning.

Interesting idea.
Far as I know, only Triumph are doing something slightly different with their hard box mounting systems. All their new boxes can move about. I thought there was something wrong ... nope ... it's the way they designed it. I think perhaps Triumph had a similar goal in mind ... avoiding stress on hard points.
Not sure their racks move ... but for sure the boxes do.

I've no idea if it's working or not.

65,000km on this trip so far with 11000 of that being off road inc the TAT complete and we have had not one issue with our TT racks or TT mountings for the panniers. Angie battered her old style zegas to death, bent them all shapes but the mounts never gave up. Her racks got bent in a few heavier falls, we just pulled them back into shape - the hoops don't bend. The rear shock should do it's job if a quality unit and set up well. I did upgrade all the bolts that TT supplied though. I don't think hard box systems have that particular design flaw, I think some rear sub frames could be not up to the job though. Being able to pop the seat off easily is an option worth keeping in my opinion.