NEW GEAR DAY: Giant Loop Moto set up for my AZBDR trip
NEW GEAR FOR A BIG TRIP
It is mid-March and I’m getting ready for my solo Arizona BDR adventure. I’m super excited to start this trip, which will take me from my home in Denver south all the way to Bisbee, AZ near the US/Mexico border. From there, I will start the Arizona Backcountry Discover Route on a six-day solo ride, where, after completion, I’ll point the bike west and ride another two days to Mojave, CA for the Revzilla Get On! Adv Fest. In total the trip will be about 15 days of riding everything from snow-covered passes in Colorado and high alpine mountains in Arizona to desert sand in California, eventually traversing Nevada and Utah before finally returning home.
For this trip, I wanted to leave my aluminum BMW panniers behind and try a set of soft luggage. While the factory hard bags certainly offer a great amount of protection and water-repelling capabilities, this trip that will be mostly off-road, and I want to have a set of bags that not only sits closer to the bike but give the added ability to strap things down much tighter than those just placed inside the hard bags. Having a set of luggage that packs tighter, sits lower, and is less wide than that of the metal box-type bags, is much easier to control while riding through more technical terrain.
About a week ago, I reached out to Big Loop Moto to see what they thought would be a good setup for me. I sent them a picture of my bike and told them about my trip and asked what gear would be good for this type of adventure. Right away, Paolo, the marketing manager for Big Loop Moto had responded to my inquiry with a full rundown of the gear he thought would be a good match for me. It sounded great, so I told him to send it out! It shipped that day. I have to say that the team at Big Loop Moto is fantastic and I am incredibly grateful for their support.
Now, on to the gear. I received several items including; The Round the World (RTW) pannier system with 95 liters of carrying capacity, the mounting brackets and adaptor for the BMW factory pannier racks, 2, 6 litter Impossibles dry bags, a Tillamook roll top bag with a huge 48-liter capacity, the Diablo 6 liter tank bag, and an Armadillo fuel bladder. All in all, over 160 liters of carrying capacity. This setup is going to ensure that I can carry everything I will need to survive a solo trip of more than 3000 miles.
Since I will be tent camping for most of this trip, there are two major factors that go into choosing what type of luggage to take. First, it has to be large enough for all the gear that I would not have been taking for a hotel/motel trip. I’ll need to carry everything for a campsite, like a tent, sleeping bag, chair, hammock, and mattress pad. Plus I’ll be bringing all of my own cooking equipment like a stove, pans, water, freeze-dried food, etc. Not to mention clothing, cameras, and a drone. Second, I need to be sure that the luggage will not only be able to keep out water, mud, sand, and everything else that gets picked up on the road, but it must be durable enough to survive harsh conditions in the backcountry. If one of the bags fails, that means I lose the equipment that I need to survive during the trip. It has to be tough enough to survive the day-to-day rigors of adventure riding.
The first thing I noticed un-packing the gear is that it appears to be exceptionally well made, in fact, it is “overbuilt”. I feel confident at this point that it is up to the task. While it looks to be very durable, the luggage doesn’t have a lot of extra, unnecessary frills. It is simplistic in design which leaves fewer things that can fail. Many of the companies out there today try to pack everything but the kitchen sink into their equipment. I don’t feel that is needed. Just give me a piece of equipment that does the job I’m asking it to do. I’ve always believed that when it comes to tools and equipment, you can either do one thing exceptionally well, or you can do many things with mediocrity.
All together, I have more than 150 liters of carrying capacity with this set.
The Round The World Panniers
The RTW pannier system is really just two large-capacity roll-top bags. There are no divided compartments to them, just a huge open container to store your gear in. There are two pouches that are sewn in on the front and the back of the bag that are independent of the pannier itself and that’s really nice. Once filled with gear and rolled closed, the top flap is secured with 3 fastex buckles. Each pannier also comes with a dry sack to add extra assurance that your gear will stay dry. I will probably use dry sacks to separate out my different pieces of gear such as campsite stuff, clothes, tools, etc, and place them into the bags so that I can just access what I need instead of having to dig through the bag every time I need something. Where the panniers really shine is how well thought out the strap system is. Once you have everything stowed inside the bags, you can cinch it down so well that there is no play whatsoever in the bags once they are loaded with gear. They stay nice and tight up against the pannier mounting bracket and won’t budge. I feel that these bags will stay completely attached even going over the most unforgiving terrain. I don’t think that you could get these to flop around even if you are jumping the bike all day.
To mount the bags to the motorcycle, you use the Giant Loop Moto adaptor plates that mount directly to the factory rack. The bags can be mounted to the adaptor plate in one of two ways; either run the pannier straps through the holes in the bracket or, for a more secure mounting, you can hard mount the bags to the adaptor plate by placing holes in the back of the bag and fastening the bags to the adaptor plate with the provided hardware. This is the route I chose and it wasn’t hard to do at all. Anyone who is halfway handy should have no problem with the task.
With 45 liters of storage capacity and straps in all the right places, the RTW pannier can hold a ton of gear and keep it safe and secure.
If you have a GS, don’t forget to add the top hook extension for the offset of the exhaust.
The pannier mounting brackets utilize three hooks to mount to the rack. They have so many different positions to place the hooks that I don’t think you’ll be able to find a rack system where you can’t mount these guys. Once you have positioned the hooks where you need them, you simply push the mounts down on the rack and the top hook will lock in with a very secure system that cannot be removed from the bike unless you want it to be. Another very slick feature of the pannier mount is that on one of the bottom hooks, there is a thumb screw that, once the mount is positioned on the bike, can be turned against the bottom rail to really give even more security to the system.
The impossibles pouch holds 6 liters and can be mounted just about anywhere. It’s super tough and very convenient.
The Diablo Tank bag holds a massive amount of stuff with it’s 6 liter capacity, yet stays completely out of the way even when standing up.
The Impossibles Pouch
The Impossibles pouch is a 6-liter roll-top bag that you can fill with just about anything you want. I fill mine with tire repair equipment. It comes with plenty of webbing on the side and two straps per bag so that you can mount them just about anywhere. They appear to be super tough and I don’t think I will have a problem with wherever I want to mount them.
The Diablo Tank Bag
This is a really great tank bag. The most impressive feature about it is that it is so large, 6 liters, but when mounted on the bike, is completely out of the way. It looks very large sitting there on the bike, but when you mount up and stand on the bike, it doesn’t even come close to getting in your way. The way the bag is mounted to the bike is also a really interesting design. The straps are basically independent of the bag. Once you route the mounting straps the way you want them and get them cinched down, you simply zip the bottom of the Diablo bag to the mounting system. This allows you to unzip the tank bag and take it with you without disturbing the mounting straps, so once you have it cinched down exactly where you want it, it never moves after that. Great design if you ask me.
The Tillamook Roll Top Bag
The Tillamook bag is 48 liters of rolltop, waterproof storage with tons of mounting options and it is open at both ends so you don’t have to empty the bag on the ground to get to gear you may have packed at the bottom. It is super rugged and once filled with gear and strapped down on the bike you get great piece of mind that your gear is safe, secure, and waterproof. I’m really excited about using this bag for all my clothes, camera equipment, and creature comforts I plan to take on my trip.
At the moment, I haven’t had a chance to fully evaluate the bag, because I want to actually get out on the ground and carry it with the accompanied backpack straps to see how it feels on the back. Once I get a chance to do that, I'll do a more thorough review.