I don't plan on riding with a passenger, I think at this point the biggest barrier to a top box is the look... It's so dorky!
I'll take a serious look at them though
Yeh, they're not the "coolest" looking thing around but they do work. One thing with the Givi is a big piece of the plastic paneling comes off. You can have a paint shop match it to the bike's bodywork. They look much better when that is done. Almost like a pint sized FJR.
Oh and I want to add that my Fazer is my primary year round transport
I like the looks of those cortech bags, how do they attach? World the work with the givi top case mount and a V47?
In fact.. I might go with those cortech saddlebags and a wolfman "wolf tail" tail bag until I can afford hard luggage. The only real benefit to hard stuff is being able to lock them as far as I know and that wouldn't likely be a big issue most of the time
Well, the hard bags have lots of advantages too. Yes they lock, they have way more volume than soft, you can strap large lightweight items to the top of hard luggage (tent, camping mattresses, etc), they don't intrude on passenger comfort, waterproof, don't have to worry about them when stopping to eat or shop, they don't shift around when heavily loaded, on and off a lot easier, probably more I'm forgetting.
So most soft saddle bags have large straps that connect the two bags together. You then drape them over the passenger seat and they just hang there. At the front and rear of the bags you have adjustable nylon webbing straps to pull them tight. That keeps them from bouncing around. I used a full softbag setup for a few years. Cortech Tribag tailbag, saddlebag, and tank bags, discontinued now.
The soft saddlebags and tailbags usually form a system. Once the saddlebags are installed and cinched, the tailbag snaps into the saddlebags. One of the pictures in the link below shows the attachment. You may want to check if the wolman tail bag will attach to the cortech saddlebags.
Tailbag at Revzilla
The soft bags are very cost effective. You can remove them entirely preserving the stock look of the bike. And they don't obscure the taillight.
Downsides include:
The saddlebag straps are over the passenger seat, meaning your passenger would have to sit on them. Not very comfortable and my wife found it hard to stay planted, so was sliding around on them. They will also scratch the paint on the tail and grab rails some. Keeping the bags and tail clean of dirt helps prevent that.
They are not normally rain proof. They have a separate rain cover you have to stretch over them and pray doesn't blow off while riding.
If you use a soft tailbag, there is no more passenger seat. Also, when loaded they have a tendency to creep forward a little. I was constantly shoving mine back towards the rear. With more extra strapping you could probably fix that though.
They are not rigid. The tailbag tends to "flop" around as the contents shift. Tailbag works best for large lightweight things, like clothing, sleeping bags, etc.
I would check out twisted throttle's offering of soft bags as well. SW-Motech makes very nice soft bags. Their Dry-Spec stuff looks cool too. Solves the problem of separate rain covers.
Soft bags @ Twisted Throttle
