Project KTM 390 Adventure – Luggage Rack
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An adventure motorcycle is supposed to be ridden for days on end over long distances and needs to be able to carry luggage for an adventure. I have a Dirtsack tank bag in which I carry the essentials like tools, medical kit, towing rope, puncture repair kit, compressor, etc. However for a multi-day trip worthy of being called an adventure I needed to carry more things like clothes, tent, stove, camera, tripod, etc. I’m not a big fan of saddle bags. I prefer using my 40 litre Wolfman Expedition Dry duffel bag instead. So I decided to install a luggage rack on the tail of the Duke to strap down the bag. I toyed with the idea of fabricating a luggage rack myself. But as in the case of the tail tidy, I finally decided to buy a luggage rack off the shelf.
After some research I zeroed down on an aluminium luggage rack by SW-Motech and purchased it from the web store of a company called Big Bag Bikes. Today it showed up at home and it took me just 15 minutes to install it on the motorcycle.
I chose this luggage rack for its simple and elegant design. Another reason for choosing a luggage rack was to give some shape to the rear of the motorcycle. After I replaced the ridiculous rear fender with a tail tidy, the rear end started looking as if it was chopped off a little too much, almost like a dog with a docked tail. As you can see from the following image, with the luggage rack installed, the Duke now looks more like a normal motorcycle.
The main reason for wanting to go with the SW-Motech luggage rack and not fabricating one myself was its ability to be easily paired with other luggage solutions such as the Trax EVO Top Case or the T-Ray Top Case. Although for now I plan on sticking to my dry duffel bag.
I wanted to see how the bag would behave on the luggage rack. So I stuffed four large pillows into the bag and bloated it far more than its designed capacity , strapped it to the luggage rack and went riding on a bag village road. It was perfect.
I now plan to load the bag more reasonably and go for a day long ride on a combination of highways, village roads and maybe even a trail.
