#saddlebags

Updated January 2021:

If you ride motorcycles long enough, inevitably you’re going to want to go on a motorcycle trip. And when you decide to go on a trip, you’re going to need stuff. The challenge becomes finding a place to store all that stuff. Behold – soft luggage. Granted, most of you know the definition of soft luggage, but if not, each bag here has some kind of textile exterior and is not constructed from a hard-shell plastic or metal. Now there are a million and one options when it comes to bags to fit on your motorcycle. Here, we’ve picked a few different ideas to suit a wide-ranging field of motorcycles. All are at least water resistant, and only one is motorcycle-specific.

Guess what month it is at MO? It’s geeaar month, sergeant. The kind of motorcycle gear you wear, that is, that makes life on your bike much more pleasant no matter the climatic conditions. No doubt there will be amazing breakthroughs in the future of which our feeble 21st-century minds can’t even conceive: I’m picturing a shoulder-mounted rocket-propelled drone that deploys in 0.001-second to lift you above and away from an imminent left-turning Buick hovercraft. For now, we celebrate the 10 best pieces of gear the human race has come up with so far. Some you wear, some carries the gear you might want to wear later, some just makes the ride way more enjoyable.

The day of your departure is approaching, so it’s time to stop planning and start packing for your motorcycle tour. Hopefully, your planning has been thorough, and you’ve gathered all of the gear you’re planning on taking on your tour. Now, hopefully, a few days before you’re scheduled to leave, you should take a moment to pack all the gear on your bike. This is the moment that, like all of us who have taken trips via motorcycle, you discover you have too much stuff! Fear not, that’s what this initial packing effort is all about.

Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to read MO’s first ride review of the 2017 Kawasaki Ninja 1000 ABS. If not, you should go take a look at our impression of Kawasaki’s gentleman’s sport-touring motorcycle. From its aggressive good looks to its romping engine, the Ninja 1000 has a lot to offer someone who likes their open-class performance wrapped in a highly streetable package.

MO Tested: Cortech Super 2.0 Saddlebags/Tail Bag Review

When I realized that my days were numbered with my unofficial long-term  Yamaha FJR1300ES, I began to wonder what I would do without it. Over a period of about nine months, I’d become quite accustomed to having hard bags and sporting performance at my disposal on a daily basis. As my thoughts turned to a worthy replacement, I began to consider the  Honda Interceptor I’d ridden at its introduction back in June. The initial high demand for journalist bikes was over. So, perhaps, Honda was willing to keep a 2014 model on the books into 2015 to allow me to park it in my driveway and have some fun riding and modifying it – all for your edification, of course. Really, I was just thinking about you readers.