On the Road Again!

My brother had a ride out today to my place to give his bike a trip, but also to help me fit these pannier and the rails. First problem was although I had a set of Allen keys to remove the plastic cover on each side the bracket that holds the Suzuki Givi topbox plate was 10mm head bolts.  I had spanners. None would fit. I don't have a socket set. Bizarrely I did find a 10mm 1/4" drive socket! So we had a quick drive to Halfords in Folkestone. For £17 I got a 1/4" drive set with the sockets I needed. Another fly in the ointment was the need to drill out two of the mounting holes to let the spacer fit through. Who has a 16mm drill bit lying about. The largest I have is 10mm! In the end the hole was enlarged (four times) using a sharp pair of scissors.  After that almost plain sailing. Neill's side perfect. My side I had a problem with the front upper bolt. The head was a bit on the soft side. It needs removing and replacing. I couldn't get it...

Finally after a long weekend away and my volunteering committments were over I got into the garage.  A two minute job to remove the yellow seat and fit the new grey one. I think it looks superb. Whilst I was in the garage I looked out the Shad SH23 panniers I picked up cheaply in the Autumn. I have the fitting rails in the garage that are ready to go on. That's a job before we go to Czech in May. 🇨🇿 They are brand new and never used by the previous owner. Well worth £60. They are a little small looking but in fact are the same size as the ones I had on the Rocket at 23 litres. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

I picked up the Shad panniers last night from the seller at his hotel in Dover. It saved me a long trip to pick them up from him in Hampshire. Luckily he was here locally to go to the "Lord of Lydden" motorcycle racing at Lydden. He  said they have been used once. To be honest they do look new.   They will need the 3P fitting rails and kit. I will have to get that ordered. There is no great hurry as I am unlikely to go anywhere where I will need any extra carrying capacity over the 58 litre Suzuki monokey topbox. I was worried that they might be too wide or look awful on the bike. I had a look on the US V-Strom Forum and found a post on fitting them to an L8 1000. They look to fit closely to the bike. I didn't want them too wide or look like they had a huge gap between the bike and the mount. These look okay to me. I'll not be able to know for real until they are fitted. I suppose I had better get googling for the best deal on the 3P system. Update 4.12pm ...

It's not an essential purchase, but when on a trip a set of luggage can be more than just useful.  With Vera probably going to be my solo touring bike, the need for massive panniers as I had on the BMW aren't going to be needed. I don't think that Touratech even make a fitting kit for their Zega panniers for the V-Strom. Maybe they do, but I don't want to go down that road again. I was considering soft luggage and was checking out Lomo panniers, but they are out of stock in UK,  expect they are stuck on a ship on its way from China! But there are so many differing makes, all with a range of reviews from 1* to 5*.  Plus, would they fit with the high exhaust? I had contemplated using the Oxford luggage that I have in the garage. But when I cleaned off all the cobwebs and muck off them, they won't fit across the V-Strom seat. The over seat straps are too short and when on almost full extension they still hang badly.  They will have to stay in case I use the GT750 for a...