Hello all,
For my first road trip I purchased a set of the Ducati Semi rigid tail bags from
Saltlakemotorsports.com . A great shop with very helpful sales team.
The instructions were minimal at best full of warnings in multiple languages with pictures
, the fit and finish is good with only a couple of loose threads. The anti theft mechanism is an internal lock that latches to the top of the support. It feels very secure on the rack; however there is no lock for the zippers to secure the contents.
I must say they look good mounted on the bike.
During installation I managed to strip the hex sockets.
off to work to drill out the head and extract the bolts.
Not having the proper bolts (shallow button hex cap screws) I used some regular hex head bolts, after mounting the hardware and checking the seat closure, the seat requires a bit more push to get latched. I will need to get the proper bolts after the trip.
I put the bags on and checked exhaust clearance. Looks ok. After loading up the bags with a week’s worth of cloths, I put the bags on the bike and found the one flaw with the design, you need to pull most of the stuff out to lock the bags on the rack. Well locked and loaded, I went to bed excited and nervous for my first real road trip. My brother (Honda 1100 Shadow) and I where off at @ 7:30, to visit family. The day was cool and sunny, a great day for a ride, we made good time all the way. Spent time with the family, all were impressed that we rode our bikes up. When we were set to leave, they all wished us luck good weather and a safe trip.
After 931 miles with an average of 42.22 MPG, I am home safe if not a bit tired but better from the experience. The bags did well fully loaded, you could feel them back there only when pushing top speed, all in all a great purchase.
g6