Category: Gear

One of the things I really enjoy about owning a motorcycle is the modifications and farkles you can add on to it and one of the more functional things you can add to the bike is storage. Why would I want storage on the bike? Well, I like to carry some basic tools and spare parts, including inner tubes. It would also be nice to carry the warm gloves (and balaclava/neck scarf), an extra light jacket that I can wear under my riding jacket, and the alternate face-shield in case I am riding when it is getting dark.

For a dual-sport, there are a few popular options including tankbags, top boxes, and saddlebags. The pinnacle seems to be a set of aluminum panniers. These have the advantage of being lockable and waterproof. (They also make nice places to slap stickers onto!) The problem with these panniers is their initial cost. Not only do you need to buy the boxes, but you’ll need a rack to mount them on. I’d say that a decent set would cost $500 at the bottom end, and the sky’s the limit at the top end. For now, there’s no money in the budget for a set of hard panniers. In the meantime, I am going to go the way of upgrading my makeshift Quiksilver backpack that is mounted to the pillion/rack with a larger duffel.

In all honesty, I don’t see myself going on a long moto-camping trip anytime soon where a set of panniers would be key. I do see myself taking a weekend or 3-day trip out somewhere though. When doing some research, it seems like a 50-70 liter duffel would be a good option. This would be way more than enough space to fit what I am stuffing into my backpack-tailbag right now and I could also put in a change of clothes and more camera gear. Plus, in the future I can still use the duffel in addition to any panniers I might get. Since I ride solo, I can run the duffel lengthwise from the pillion seat to the rear rack. There’s about 24 inches of space back there.

The choice of duffel came down to two candidates. First is the Ortleib Duffel. This is a tough, waterproof bag that is hard to beat. It comes in a bright yellow color and has four lash points for securing it to the bike. The second candidate was the popular North Face Base Camp duffel. This one is not 100% waterproof, but has a bunch more lash points to attach other items to the bag itself. It also has straps for using the bag as a backpack, although this would only be useful for short hauls. I decided on the North Face, and chose the 69-liter medium size in yellow. The small size would have probably been ok too, but I saw a video where the traveler recommended getting the bigger size since you can always collapse a soft bag in the case where you don’t completely fill it with gear. The medium is 24 inches long, and 15 inches wide and fits nicely onto the rear seat/tail rack.

We’ll see how the new bag works out over time, but I’m confident that the bag will last for many, many miles!

One of the fun things about owning a bike, and a dual-sport in particular, is adding farkles to it. If I remember correctly, the word “Farkle” is a combination of “Function” and “Sparkle”. I’ve added a few of them (RAM mount, GPS) but the latest and greatest are some newly installed handgrips. I’ve wanted some for my bike for a while now, maybe they were on my wishlist even before I had my BMW! There are a number of brands to choose from and I settled on a pair of Barkbusters with VPS covers. They have a good reputation and I liked that the installation video looked really simple. It was pretty much bolt-on.

The handguards serve two purposes. First and most importantly, they protect the levers from being bent/broken in case the bike goes down. Some handguards are simply plastic covers, but these Barkbusters have a strong metal backbone which is securely connected to the bar-ends and inner handlebar and should offer some really good protection. The second useful feature of the handguards is that they offer wind/rain protection for your hands. Riding in cold weather, my knuckles would get cold really fast because of the constant wind on them. With the handguards, they still get cold, but not nearly as quickly. One final benefit is the “sparkle” part of farkle: the looks. I think they look cool! Barkbusters VPS handguards come in a varietly of colors but I went with the plain black. They were very shiny plastic when I unwrapped them but I prefer a flat-black color so I took some fine sandpaper to them and now they match the flat black of the headlight cowl and mirrors better. The next step is to get some black reflective tape to cover the white logo to complete the stealth look.

I think pretty soon I want to do some more light dirt roads around the Hill Country. Should be pretty fun and I’ll have a little bit more insurance with these handguards. But with my luck, I’ll probably brake the clutch lever when I drop the bike next time!