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I've been looking to pick up a tailbag for a while now, since I'll be using my 650G to commute as much as I can during the summer, and I'll probably want to bring stuff with me at some point. After looking around at lots of different bags, I finally found one that had all of the things I was looking for:
- Reasonable size / capacity
- Not really expensive
- Doesn't look too dorky
The bag I found was the Tourmaster Deluxe Tailbag, and here are my initial impressions of the product.
The overview:
When the box finally showed up from BikeBandit, I was pretty happy with the overall quality of the bag. It feels really rugged, like the material ought to hold up for a good long while. It came with a rain cover and a removable shoulder strap. I was also happy to see that the bag was of a reasonable size--a lot of times it's tough to gauge exactly how big a bag is when you're looking at it online, because most of the photos you'll see don't have anything to give you a sense of scale in them.
There are four plastic bungee hooks integrated into the bottom of the bag... Technically, it's two bungee straps, crossed over inside the bag, with a hook on each end, but the result is that you've got four hooks to secure your load with. Initially I selected some points on the frame of my GS650G that I thought would be good attachment points for the hooks, but the hooks are a little too small to hook onto the frame. I wound up having to get creative and choose other attachment points to secure the load, but I was able to secure it without any other problems.
On the bottom of the bag, secured by velcro, is a big, thick, non-slip pad thingy to help keep the bag on your seat. Theoretically, you can remove the pad, roll it up, stow it in the bag, and tuck the four bungee hooks into their little hidey-pocket things, thereby converting your tailbag into a normal duffel bag. Not bad!
The good:
The price is pretty good for this bag! $55 for a basic, "starter" tailbag seems like a great deal to me. The other ones I was looking at, such as the Rapid Transit Division and Nelson-Rigg Silver Streak were more expensive and a bit more complicated--I was looking for something I could use to "stow and go" without jacking around with too many buckles or straps (and also I was concerned I wouldn't be able to secure the Rapid Transit bag without a sissy bar). Thus, the advantages of this bag for me are:
- Price (Under $60 is great!)
- Simplicity (nothing to jack with, really, just pull it off your bike and go into work)
- Compatibility (mounts pretty easily on my bike, will probably do the same for many others)
- Looks (It's subtle, it's black, and it doesn't have a ridiculous shape or anything)
The bad:
The bad stuff are mostly little details I noticed about the bag.
The zippers are really hard to open and close! This is because of the stiff nylon material the bag is made out of--there is a sort of "flap" of material that covers up most of the the zippers, and the flap is just long enough to make it a pain in the butt to open and close the bag. You'll wind up having to zip, stop, move the flap out of the way, zip, stop, move the flap out of the way until you get it opened or closed. Maybe I'm just being too gentle opening and closing it, but so far, it's been kind of a pain to deal with.
The compartment openings are small! When I looked at this bag, I was all all, "Oh, hey, awesome! When I get to work, I can cram my helmet and gloves into the bag and take it all inside!" It was a great plan, but I can't fit my helmet (A Vega Summit II) into any of the bag's openings. So then I was like, "Oh, well, fine, at least I can cram my Joe Rocket Reactor 2.0 Jacket in there..." But... NO, I can't! When I started cramming, I quickly realized I would be expending way too much effort to get it in there, so I just gave up. I was able to fit a half-helmet in the bag, though, so there's that. I'll be packing a little toolkit, a rain suit, and some other necessities into the bag, but nothing else as large as a helmet or a jacket that I'll be taking with me when I commute, so it's not that big of a deal, but still... It would have been really great to be able to pack some or all of my gear into a bag and take it inside with me.
Conclusion:
Overall, I think this will be a good entry-level bag for me. It will let me take stuff with me when I go places, provided that stuff is of a small enough size to fit into the opening of the bag
The bag seems real easy to use and durable, but there are some improvements that could stand to be made. Can't beat that price, though! I suppose I would buy it again.
Update 09/13/2007:
After spending an entire season with the bag, I must say I am very pleased overall with the way it held up. It still doesn't hold a helmet, but that was not as big an issue as I initially thought, as I can always use the helmet lock. The stiffness went away as the bag broke in, and the zippers became less difficult to open. I managed to cram just about everything I needed to take with me into this bag and haul it all around, and now that I've got a '99 Triumph Sprint ST, and I've managed to mount the bag on that bike without any problems as well.
The material has faded a little bit from being out in the sun just about every day, which I guess would be a concern if you buy the red bag, as it will probably become pink eventually
The rain cover that came with the bag performed wonderfully when I rode home in a monsoon.
I guess that's it. I give this bag a thumbs-up, and have managed to overlook/overcome the initial faults I found with it.
- Reasonable size / capacity
- Not really expensive
- Doesn't look too dorky
The bag I found was the Tourmaster Deluxe Tailbag, and here are my initial impressions of the product.
The overview:
When the box finally showed up from BikeBandit, I was pretty happy with the overall quality of the bag. It feels really rugged, like the material ought to hold up for a good long while. It came with a rain cover and a removable shoulder strap. I was also happy to see that the bag was of a reasonable size--a lot of times it's tough to gauge exactly how big a bag is when you're looking at it online, because most of the photos you'll see don't have anything to give you a sense of scale in them.
There are four plastic bungee hooks integrated into the bottom of the bag... Technically, it's two bungee straps, crossed over inside the bag, with a hook on each end, but the result is that you've got four hooks to secure your load with. Initially I selected some points on the frame of my GS650G that I thought would be good attachment points for the hooks, but the hooks are a little too small to hook onto the frame. I wound up having to get creative and choose other attachment points to secure the load, but I was able to secure it without any other problems.
On the bottom of the bag, secured by velcro, is a big, thick, non-slip pad thingy to help keep the bag on your seat. Theoretically, you can remove the pad, roll it up, stow it in the bag, and tuck the four bungee hooks into their little hidey-pocket things, thereby converting your tailbag into a normal duffel bag. Not bad!
The good:
The price is pretty good for this bag! $55 for a basic, "starter" tailbag seems like a great deal to me. The other ones I was looking at, such as the Rapid Transit Division and Nelson-Rigg Silver Streak were more expensive and a bit more complicated--I was looking for something I could use to "stow and go" without jacking around with too many buckles or straps (and also I was concerned I wouldn't be able to secure the Rapid Transit bag without a sissy bar). Thus, the advantages of this bag for me are:
- Price (Under $60 is great!)
- Simplicity (nothing to jack with, really, just pull it off your bike and go into work)
- Compatibility (mounts pretty easily on my bike, will probably do the same for many others)
- Looks (It's subtle, it's black, and it doesn't have a ridiculous shape or anything)
The bad:
The bad stuff are mostly little details I noticed about the bag.
The zippers are really hard to open and close! This is because of the stiff nylon material the bag is made out of--there is a sort of "flap" of material that covers up most of the the zippers, and the flap is just long enough to make it a pain in the butt to open and close the bag. You'll wind up having to zip, stop, move the flap out of the way, zip, stop, move the flap out of the way until you get it opened or closed. Maybe I'm just being too gentle opening and closing it, but so far, it's been kind of a pain to deal with.
The compartment openings are small! When I looked at this bag, I was all all, "Oh, hey, awesome! When I get to work, I can cram my helmet and gloves into the bag and take it all inside!" It was a great plan, but I can't fit my helmet (A Vega Summit II) into any of the bag's openings. So then I was like, "Oh, well, fine, at least I can cram my Joe Rocket Reactor 2.0 Jacket in there..." But... NO, I can't! When I started cramming, I quickly realized I would be expending way too much effort to get it in there, so I just gave up. I was able to fit a half-helmet in the bag, though, so there's that. I'll be packing a little toolkit, a rain suit, and some other necessities into the bag, but nothing else as large as a helmet or a jacket that I'll be taking with me when I commute, so it's not that big of a deal, but still... It would have been really great to be able to pack some or all of my gear into a bag and take it inside with me.
Conclusion:
Overall, I think this will be a good entry-level bag for me. It will let me take stuff with me when I go places, provided that stuff is of a small enough size to fit into the opening of the bag
The bag seems real easy to use and durable, but there are some improvements that could stand to be made. Can't beat that price, though! I suppose I would buy it again.Update 09/13/2007:
After spending an entire season with the bag, I must say I am very pleased overall with the way it held up. It still doesn't hold a helmet, but that was not as big an issue as I initially thought, as I can always use the helmet lock. The stiffness went away as the bag broke in, and the zippers became less difficult to open. I managed to cram just about everything I needed to take with me into this bag and haul it all around, and now that I've got a '99 Triumph Sprint ST, and I've managed to mount the bag on that bike without any problems as well.
The material has faded a little bit from being out in the sun just about every day, which I guess would be a concern if you buy the red bag, as it will probably become pink eventually
The rain cover that came with the bag performed wonderfully when I rode home in a monsoon.
I guess that's it. I give this bag a thumbs-up, and have managed to overlook/overcome the initial faults I found with it.
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