The short and sweet: Givi vs Sw-motech racks (both top and side cases). Which is better quality and more likely to handle the fact that I seem to like overloading things?
The details (I wrote the rest of this before I decided some of you might prefer I get to the point hence the above. You can skip everything after here if you want):
For my Ninja 250 I had the Sw-motech top rack with a 45 liter Givi case (forget the model number but its rebranded "Simply" or something like that). In regards to mounting it I didnt have much of a choice because Givi doesn't make a top rack for the little Ninja. Im happy I bought it though because its been the best thing I could have ever added to my bike and am making sure to bring the case over to my new (to me) 2006 FZ6.
The Sw-motech on the Ninja seems to be of great quality and I've overloaded it many times with only the once every like 6 months retightening of the screws. Because of this I've gone and claimed one of the top racks that Twisted Throttle has on the way in. Lately though because of my upcoming cross country roadtrip I've been thinking of adding side cases too (I have soft saddle bags but never really did like them and figure I can attempt to resell them if I go hard). With just the top case I'm willing to pay the extra for the sw-motech because I know I'll get the good quality and its worth it to me but now that I'm considering both top and side its pretty expensive for just racks and buying all Givi brand racks would save me quite a bit of money.
Are the Sw-motech racks really that much better quality? Do they take more weight than the Givi's or is it quite the opposite? Im sure I could cancel my order with Twisted Throttle and get the Givi brand for both top and side. Given my long trip ahead of me it would be a really bad thing if any of my cases decided to break off in the middle of nowhere.
So durability and overloading my biggest concerns are the Sw-motech worth the extra money or not?
I will be carrying some of my tools with me which will definitely add to the weight on my trip and I'm also going to be away from home for at least 2 to 3 months so I'll want to have quite a bit of things on me from clothes to my laptop or at minimum my tablet (prefer to bring laptop though) and even some camping gear. So much I'm spending though in getting ready for the trip (and my recent purchase of the FZ6 when I was spending money prepping my Ninja for the journey and now having to prep the FZ6 instead) so I'm even wondering if I should bother with buying the side cases at all, I did okay with the saddlebags on my Florida trip last summer they just didn't thrill me and I hated that they sag so much and don't look anywhere as nice as hard cases. It was kind of annoying to keep taking them off every time I stepped away from my bike so the added security of hard cases is the other seller for me.
Haha sorry if that was too much info and thanks everyone for reading
The details (I wrote the rest of this before I decided some of you might prefer I get to the point hence the above. You can skip everything after here if you want):
For my Ninja 250 I had the Sw-motech top rack with a 45 liter Givi case (forget the model number but its rebranded "Simply" or something like that). In regards to mounting it I didnt have much of a choice because Givi doesn't make a top rack for the little Ninja. Im happy I bought it though because its been the best thing I could have ever added to my bike and am making sure to bring the case over to my new (to me) 2006 FZ6.
The Sw-motech on the Ninja seems to be of great quality and I've overloaded it many times with only the once every like 6 months retightening of the screws. Because of this I've gone and claimed one of the top racks that Twisted Throttle has on the way in. Lately though because of my upcoming cross country roadtrip I've been thinking of adding side cases too (I have soft saddle bags but never really did like them and figure I can attempt to resell them if I go hard). With just the top case I'm willing to pay the extra for the sw-motech because I know I'll get the good quality and its worth it to me but now that I'm considering both top and side its pretty expensive for just racks and buying all Givi brand racks would save me quite a bit of money.
Are the Sw-motech racks really that much better quality? Do they take more weight than the Givi's or is it quite the opposite? Im sure I could cancel my order with Twisted Throttle and get the Givi brand for both top and side. Given my long trip ahead of me it would be a really bad thing if any of my cases decided to break off in the middle of nowhere.
So durability and overloading my biggest concerns are the Sw-motech worth the extra money or not?
I will be carrying some of my tools with me which will definitely add to the weight on my trip and I'm also going to be away from home for at least 2 to 3 months so I'll want to have quite a bit of things on me from clothes to my laptop or at minimum my tablet (prefer to bring laptop though) and even some camping gear. So much I'm spending though in getting ready for the trip (and my recent purchase of the FZ6 when I was spending money prepping my Ninja for the journey and now having to prep the FZ6 instead) so I'm even wondering if I should bother with buying the side cases at all, I did okay with the saddlebags on my Florida trip last summer they just didn't thrill me and I hated that they sag so much and don't look anywhere as nice as hard cases. It was kind of annoying to keep taking them off every time I stepped away from my bike so the added security of hard cases is the other seller for me.
Haha sorry if that was too much info and thanks everyone for reading
