As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.
When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.
Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.
Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.
Thanks for your patience and support!
I just got me a set of Givi E22N side boxes to go with the Givi Blade Topbox which I have had since I go the bike 6 months ago.
The Givi bracket for the TR650 is not available here and I could not find one on any websites either, even though the literature that came with the E22Ns clearly shows the luggage rack on a TR650, so I set about having custom racks made...
Can you post some more pics of your bike with the E22N's on it.
A full on side view if possible.
Also, can they be mounted on either side, so they slope up or down towards the back?
That is wild that the E22N's paper work clearly show the TR650 & the factory rack.
I have though the E22's would match well with the bikes lines and scale, particularly with the Strada.
I wonder if it was originally developed for the Strada as a possible factory option.
Just be sure to change out the wimpy rubber bumpers under the exhaust heat shields. Those bumpers fall out extremely easily, causing the shields to melt against the exhaust when there's pressure on them.
Figured I would weigh in with my new bags. First off when I got this bike I wanted to keep weight down as low as possible because it's already 400 pounds. In the past I have always gone with hard bags because I like how I can beat the shit out of them and they just keep going. Its nice to able to lock them and they add an extra layer of protection for the bike. But in the interest of keep weight down I did some looking.
Enter the Altrider Hemisphere saddlebag system. I can not say how happy I am that I found them. The first thing I liked about them was that they need no rack system. Huge weight saver right there. Second bonus was the holster system. In my mind this is genius, the holster system is what straps down to your bike and carries the horseshoe shaped dry bag. The holster system seems to be very rugged while I am not a fan of being a riding poster board the Altrider logo is highly reflective which is great at night. I like the fact that this system is what takes the brunt of any contact with any ground/tree/etc. If it rips its not a big deal because I can just patch it up and the dry bag stays safe. Also on the road or camping it take me all of about 30 secs to take the dry bag out of the holsters and then I am free to ride without the weight and my stuff stays safe locked in my room. The holster system never comes off my bike, I go grocery shopping with it, pack cloths in if for after work, pick up 2 months worth of dog food. It is really awesome.
As for the dry bag. Pretty standard dry bag, in the shape of a horse shoe. The seams look great and well sealed it is about 45 liters which is enough for me. Really not much to report on here works well and does its job. I do have much concern with it breaking. The top has some velcro in addition the normal buckles which helps to keep it closed up tight.
I stuffed all my normal stuff in there and I had room to spare. On my test ride the weight felt good. I had packed heavy items down low. The holster systems also has two outside pockets which are great for my tool kit and water bottles or fuel bottles if you rather, really anything you want to have quick access too. Everything tightens down really snug and with the cam-lock buckles. The top straps have plenty of extra to strap down other items with great ease. In my case my tent.
It also comes with a stuff sack for your sleeping bag or whatever, I already had one so I use it for my clothes which is nice.
Another nice thing is that because of the way it sits on the bike you still have the whole rear rack if you want to put something else back there.
The two gripes I have with the system are pretty minor really. It would be great if the holster system was a little bigger so that when I have a stuff dry sack it makes it easier too get the bag in. Also the buckles on the inside of the holster system which connect to the dry bag are kinda a pain to grab and connect with the bags full maybe if they where moved up an inch or 2 that would be perfect.
Now for the fun part the pictures.
First off all this is what I can get in it with some room to spare. This is everything I would need for a week long trip assuming I would be able to restock on food every day or so. Sorry its a little dark.
The rest are just view of it out on the trails.
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Interesting to note that you don not seem to be using the OEM Rack at all ??
Here are the Adventure Spec Magadan Panniers MK2 mounted on Touratech racks and I can't say enough good things about them. I just love this setup for travel and fun. You can read about the panniers here if you're unfamiliar http://www.adventure-spec.com/default/adventure-spec-magadan-panniers-mk2-1.html
Those do look really good for a larger sized soft pannier.
I wonder if they are available from a US supplier?