Luggage systems

When you travel you need to take some stuff with you, such as clean underwear and a toothbrush. But when you make it a bit more adventurous a sleeping bag and a tent would also come in handy, even when you go for a luxurious adventure and sleep in hotels because on an adventure you can expect some surprises and might not make it to a hotel.
This is my experience.
In the past on the chopper and the sport tourers i used a speedbag, a 70L rollbag and a few trips i had saddle bags but went back to the speedbag.
When i bought the CT it was fitted with a set of 30L Aluminium Hepco & Becker Explorer panniers and a 45L topcase and i thought it was perfect.

But when i started to take him offroad the first time i fell and my foot got under the pannier which i felt for about 4 months (Yes, maybe i should have gone to a doctor).
I already read about it and now i experienced it the time had come to switch to soft luggage.
At that moment i still had a relationship and we where saving up for a renovation of the complete downstairs of our house so i had a small budget and bought a set of Lomo dry bag panniers and a set crashbar bags from the same brand.
It was OK for the price but with the relationship ended, my first big trip ahead and money on which i could decide the budget myself OK was not good enough.

After looking around for the options and possibility’s i decided it had to be Mosko Moto gear.
Now i just had to figure out what would work for me. Back then i only had the CT and it’s a big bike and i went for the Backcounty 35L V2.0 panniers plus the Scout 60L duffle.
I still had the Lomo crashbar bags but at the offroad training i crashed and the Lomo set was not crashproof and the straps tore off where the Mosko Moto only had some sand stain that could easily be wiped off.
I had to get some Mosko Moto crashbar bags but sadly that was missing in their nice collection.
In the pannier kit was one bracket faulty and after a mail they send off a new one right away, excellent service ans also great support i have to say, they really stand for the products and appreciate you as a customer so i contacted them again.
They gave me some background about the bags i thought might be an option end ended up ordering 2 Aux pox 5L which actually are meant to screw on the panniers.
The panniers come standard with 1 aux pox per side but they are prepared to be fitted with 2 per pannier when desired.
I bought some straps and made my Own crashbar bags and shared the idea and the photo’s how i did it.
In the end this was my set up for my first big trip.

The weight distribution was perfect like this, you can see it yourself by watching the video’s in the bucketlist blogs. There you can see the bike handles perfect.
In the duffle is everything for camping like the tent, mattress, sleepingbag, jetboil, pots and pans, a folding chair, pillow and coffee with some snacks.
In the panniers i have the clothes, toilet bag etc. All divided over different packingcubes to be able to organise things for easy finding and access.

Than the XTZ came and my first plan was to put some racks on and buy the mounting wedges to be able to hang the panniers on both bikes.
That however would be stupid. I bought the XTZ for real offroad and i want to do TET tracks where it is best to have the bike as light and slim as possible and the panniers are light weighing as a set just a little more than 1 aluminium pannier but they are big for long trips and with the necessary rack the slim bike would end up very wide.
I was very pleased with the set on the CT and the after sales so it had to be Mosko Moto again and a Rackless system would be ideal for this bike.
They have a Rackless 80L, 40L and 10L. The 10 is nice for day-trips but not very useful for long weekend/10 day trips.
The 80 would be ideal but i wanted to keep him slim and nimble so i choose the Rackless 40L V2.0.

This set comes with the Stinger 8L tailbag but the Stinger 22L which is standard for the Rackless 80L also fits under the beavertail of the R40 so i ordered that one also, and Roel (the international Sales Manager) made me a nice offer… thanks Roel!
With my collection i can make a combination for any trip and for whatever i want to take.
Big trips i can do with the CT with the setup like in the second photo, weekend offroad trips with the XT and the standard R40 set, midweeks with the S22 instead of the S8 and for longer offroad trips i always can choose to leave the stingers at home and strap the Scout 60L on the back.
The fuel bottles and certain tools i can easily switch between bikes but both bikes have their own main toolset.

I made a walk around video of the CT set but i was not happy with it and i didn’t found the time at the right moment to make a new one.
Now i’m almost settled in my new home and having the XTZ almost complete i will have some time but i’ll wait until spring to make a new and now i can also make it complete with both bikes and show you the different combinations.
Until than i still have some footage from the trip for 1 or 2 episodes and i have to find a set up for the camera on the XTZ plus some different angles for both bikes.