Oh how versatile...

Today was the 2nd time I transported a 19" LCD monitor on the Ess Vee, so I decided to take a few pix.



An achievement worth writing home about? Maybe not. But it reminds me how far motorcycle luggage can go. I'm always impressed with what I can fit in these Pelican 1550s, and now I've added computer displays to the list.



A little extra effort and these high performance 2-wheelers can increase fun, save on gas money and provide the flexibility to carry cargo.

Pelicans pelicans pelicans...

Hard bags turn a bike into something useful. Sure, there are a bunch of soft bag solutions out there that can join forces to create a Voltron-esque container to store your belongings. But in my opinion? Soft bags suck. They aren't really lockable, they are annoying as hell to fiddle with when you're looking for something you packed toward the bottom. And before you know it, you've deformed your pack job to the point where you need to start all over again. UGH!!!! With a hard bag, you just smoosh everything back in and latch it. No deformation.



If I'm stuck on a bike without hard luggage, I consider myself to be using an inadequate tool of transportation. So it was with great pleasure today that I was able to place my Almax chain, backpack, and lunch into a Pelican 1550 (as opposed to a Joe Rocket tail bag that was hardly up to the task).

When I bought the ZX, the seller gave me one of those slick seat cowls that match the contours of the bike and replace the pillion seat. So I unbolted the frame from the cowl and reattached it to one of Megan's Pelican saddle bags. Much to Megan's satisfaction, this gave us the excuse to finally buy a matching orange Pelican and now her bike looks more presentable in all its VT colors!

That black Pelican 1550 started out on the SV650S, was moved to the SV650, and now has its home on the rear of the ZX. The bottom of the case is starting to look like Swiss cheese, but it's still holding strong and here's hoping it serves me well on the 636!

Maximizing efficiency

I don't know if it's the resource conservation, the challenge of surviving inconvenience, or the chance to be different, but it feels good to travel on a motorcycle. I don't mean commuting on a motorcycle, but traveling on one.



We recently outfitted the red SV650 with SW-Motech Quick Lock Sideracks. The aim here was to outfit a motorcycle for weekend travel to family and friends (which we do quite often). We figured that, if we used the motorcycle for enough of these weekend trips, then we could recoup the cost of the sideracks! More on that later - but the opportunity to inject some more excitement into our weekend travel is always worth $229.



We had two Pelican 1550s that were previously acting as top cases for the red SV and the blue SV. So we sacrificed these non-matching cases to mount to the SW-Motech sideracks (saved some serious $$$ that way). After a week of test rides to work, which proved very successful, we decided to put the setup to work on a voyage to Eastern PA.



I am most impressed with SW-Motech's product. First of all, the sideracks are easily-removable. So when you don't want your luggage on, it's minimal effort to take it off. This is great when you use the luggage for long trips too, because you can carry your luggage into your bedroom like you would any other bag you packed.

Second, the rack system is solid. We liberally packed (stuffed?) our 1550s with clothes, footwear, and just about everything we'd take with us were we driving in a car. So our cases were quite heavy (I'll weigh them next time). But they mounted just fine and the system of brackets hung onto our cases through all kinds of bumps, leans, and quick stops.

Third? "Nothing. There is no third thing." (Monty Python fans?)



After our weekend trip, we got an accurate calculation of the SV's gas mileage when traveling long-distance. Let's take the average miles-per-gallon for our red SV650 at the time of this writing, 55.34 mpg. Lets compare that to the average miles-per-gallon of the MR2 (since that's what we'd be otherwise traveling in), 30.46 mpg. Now let's see - I remember paying $2.49 per gallon when filling-up on our trip out to Eastern PA - and that was a good price!

$2.49/30.46 = $0.081 (cost per mile driven in the MR2)
$2.49/55.34 = $0.045 (cost per mile driven in the SV650)

So how many miles would we have to drive on the SV to save enough money to pay for the sideracks? Well, the sideracks cost $229 plus shipping - so lets say $250. The savings per mile when driving the SV is $0.081 - $0.045 = $0.036. So...

$250/$0.036 = 6,944 miles

That's not bad! If we were diligent enough in choosing the SV over the MR2, we'd make our money back within a year. Will we be that diligent? We'll see...

I highly recommend this product - I've used it transport oil change supplies for our MR2, to commute to work, for a 9-hour round-tripper, and we plan to hit the Raleigh area with it this coming weekend. Maybe this time I'll get pictures with us actually on the bike!

Another Pelican

My wife has the more reliable and efficient of our bikes - a 2007 Suzuki SV650. It's a beautiful black and red beast with 2 spark plugs per cylinder and fuel injection! I'm so easily impressed by modern automotive technology...



Anyway, we aim to turn that bike into a touring machine. If we want to two-up on a trip to visit family (maybe to save on gas or to add excitement to our many 200-300 mile trippers), then we'll have a bike that's up to the task. The first requirement that comes to mind is luggage space. In my opinion, the simplest solution to sturdy, lockable luggage is a top case. I previously mounted a top case on my first-generation SV650 by mounting a Pelican 1550 directly to my passenger seat. I've been really happy with the result, but my barbaric approach rendered my passenger seat useless. Unfortunately, mounting hard luggage while still retaining use of the passenger seat means spending more money (because I'm not interested in manufacturing a complete solution myself). So I purchased the SW-Motech ALU-Rack from TwistedThrottle.com, with the intention of mounting a Pelican 1550 to it. The SW-Motech ALU-Rack is supposed to be used with a conversion plate specific to the kind of case you are going to mount (like a Givi case or other motorcycle-specific container). However, the rack happens to have three conveniently-spaced holes:



All of my plans were first okayed by the bike owner. While I can take credit for most of the ideas here, an exception can be found in the color of the Pelican case. But hey, that's cool! To each her own.

Installation was quite simple - little was left up to assumption given the single picture in the ALU-Rack manual. Aside from having to grind down 2 aluminum spacers and losing one of the provided nuts, the rack was assembled without issue. Mounting the Pelican 1550 was also a simple task. I went with the very straight-forward method of bolting the 1550 to the ALU-Rack via the 3 available holes. After drilling 3 holes into the case and picking up the necessary hardware, the case and the rack became one. The final product looks acceptable and, as expected, does not prevent use of the passenger seat.




The question is, will the rack support the weight of a Pelican 1550 (~10 lbs) full of traveling gear and supplies (? lbs). Only time will tell, and I plan to test this setup tomorrow when I head to work. Should this arrangement prove useable, we plan to incorporate the SW-Motech Quick-Lock side racks. With two top-loading Pelicans on the sides, we may have enough room for a weekend trip!