Passes & Canyons Blog

It occurred to me on this latest OFMC trip that I was road-testing various articles of gear for the first time. That is to say, the first extended test, as opposed to going for a two-hour ride. So what’s the scoop?

Riding Pants
I had tried out my new riding pants on day rides but this was a quantum leap. I brought only one pair of jeans and the rest were lightweight, comfortable pants for in the evening. I planned to ride each day with the riding pants and only underwear underneath.

When I tried them on at home before the trip, though, it was the first time in warmer weather and thus the first time I didn’t at least have long underwear on. I found the armor in the knees rubbed uncomfortably on my knees. So I took an old pair of socks I was throwing away and cut off the toes. Then I pulled them up over my knees, with the heels covering my knees and then tried the pants on. The socks worked great.

This system got more of a test on the trip because a couple days I forgot to put the “knee socks” on. And the armor rubbed uncomfortably. So I’m sold on the socks. Plus, I’m sold on the pants. For one or two days on the trip I decided to wear the jeans instead. You know, I never noticed before how tight and constricting jeans are, at least compared to these looser fitting, very comfortable riding pants. I’m sold.

I will say, though, that at times when we were standing around and it was hot, these riding pants were definitely hotter than jeans would have been. Kind of like keeping your jacket on.

Riding Jacket
Oh yes, the jacket. That was new as well.

I like this jacket. It’s mesh with a zip-in liner. On the hot days it was so nice to have that cooling air movement passing over me. On cooler days, with the liner in it still needed assistance, such as a sweat shirt, to be warm enough but that was not hard to address. And pockets? I mentioned pockets previously and there are so many I didn’t even use all of them.

The jacket is definitely comfortable all day. With the armor it doesn’t compress as compactly as I might like so it wasn’t always possible to stuff it into the top bag at stops but I can live with that. I’d certainly rather have the armor in case it is needed.

Tank Bag
My newest acquisition was a Wolfman tank bag for the V-Strom. Though not as large as the tank bag I’ve had on the Concours for many years, this little baby proved itself to be extremely useful.

There are always a variety of smaller things you want to keep handy on a bike and up till now I had been keeping them stashed in the top bag on the back. But that was never ideal because in order to get in there I need to dismount, take the key out of the ignition, and open the thing. Then do the reverse to get ready to ride again. With the tank bag, I just unzip, do what I need to do, and rezip.

I kept granola bars, my camera, sunscreen, a cap–all sorts of stuff in that bag. Plus, at stops, I would stash my gloves in it. This tank bag is a big winner.

Top Bag
Speaking of the top bag, I’ve definitely road-tested it well over a period of years but this time out I ran into an issue. The bag is mounted on two rails on the bottom, with four bolts. In the six years I’ve had the bag the bike has been dropped at least four times that I can recall. Apparently, that impact has caused those bolts to rip through the rather cheap rails and/or the even cheaper plastic connection points on the bottom of the bag.

As I was packing to go I noticed that it wobbled a bit on its mounts and an inspection showed that it was only attached by two bolts, not the four as originally. It has probably been this way for awhile so I didn’t see any immediate issue but I figure the next time the bike gets dropped that bag is likely to come completely off, with no good way to put it back on. Still, just for insurance, I decided to stabilize it a bit using a bungee cord.

The problem there was that I kept undoing the bungee when I needed to get in the bag and then forgetting to reconnect it after. So I would be cruising down the road and realize that the cord was hanging loose. Now, if it was hanging loose over the side that could be a real hazard but I found that it was always just sitting there on the seat behind me. Still, there was always the danger so I finally figured out to hook the loose end to my handlebars so there was no way I could ride away without remembering to reattach it.

Bottom line, though, is that I expect I’m going to need a new top bag at some point in the future.

So there we go. A bunch of new gear and I’m very pleased with each item. Cool.

Biker Quote for Today

Don’t let the fear of what could happen make nothing happen.

If I have one motorcycle that has plenty of storage space it is the V-Strom, especially now. I just put on a tank bag.

The V-Strom already has a pair of really large Givi side bags. These things are so big that when I travel one-up I don’t even need to worry about packing, I just throw stuff in and never get them more than half full.

Nevertheless, awhile ago I added a top case on the back. What that enables me to do is leave the side bags off most of the time while still giving me cargo room. I mean, who needs to be riding around with those huge, empty side bags all the time?

Now the tank bag takes that a step further, adding a lot of convenience in storing smaller items such as a camera or gloves or such.

I had no idea how this tank bag was supposed to attach and I don’t recall that there were instructions, which now strikes me as somewhat odd. But it is made by Wolfman, and I knew that Ron Coleman, who rents V-Stroms and equips most of his bikes with Wolfman bags would be able to help me out. So I headed up to Boulder for assistance. I mean, heck, what more excuse do you need for a ride on what proved to be a beautiful spring day?

It turned out to be super simple. If I had known what to do I could have done it myself easily. One of the things that confused me was that the bag came with four identical straps, but for some reason I’m sure makes sense to Wolfman, they were laced together in the package. I looked at that funny thing and had no idea how you would put that to use. Answer: you separate the pieces and hook each one up separately. Doh!

So all it took was to loop each strap around a bar at each end of the gas tank, slip on the snaps, and presto–tank bag mounted. Heck, I thought we were going to need to raise the tank so as to feed the straps under it. This was so much easier than I expected.

Not that I headed home right away. It seems Ron and Jacque recently took a three-week trip to Vietnam where they rented motorcycles and hired guides and did some serious touring of that country. And of course Ron had all sorts of stories to tell and photos to show me.

Anyway, thanks for the help, Ron.

Biker Quote for Today

Go soothingly on the grease mud as there lurks the Skid Demon.