Saddle Bags: What Ones Hold The Most?

Basically I thought that this would be a good place to throw out there to anyone who has packing equipment for their WR's. Be it, the Giant Loop, the Wolfmans, the DirtBagz, whatever. How much can you pack in your bag/s, and in the end, what bag holds he most?
Now I know the Giant Loop is one big wraparound bag, but it holds a fair amount...but does it hold more than the Wolfman or the Dirtbags, or some other bag I might have missed? Be interesting to see who comes out KIng in this regard.

Posting what you have all stashed in your bags would be a helpful insight to true capacity.

SheWolf wrote:

Basically I thought that this would be a good place to throw out there to anyone who has packing equipment for their WR's. Be it, the Giant Loop, the Wolfmans, the DirtBagz, whatever. How much can you pack in your bag/s, and in the end, what bag holds he most?
Now I know the Giant Loop is one big wraparound bag, but it holds a fair amount...but does it hold more than the Wolfman or the Dirtbags, or some other bag I might have missed? Be interesting to see who comes out KIng in this regard.

Posting what you have all stashed in your bags would be a helpful insight to true capacity.

Do the touring bags on the R65 count? XD

If so, 3person tent, double sized airmatress, air pump, tent pegs and poles (poles strapped to outside of pack), clothes for two weeks, work supplies (sanding suit, sanding pads, paint brushes, paint rollers) and my rain boots and rain jacket. Divided amongst two BMW old style touring bags.

No Rob... Your BMW doesn't count because those are BMW specific hard cases. They don't even fit our little bike, you big dummy.

SheWolf wrote:

No Rob... Your BMW doesn't count because those are BMW specific hard cases.

But they're saddle bags

Have you tried to fit them on an R² or an X?

SheWolf wrote:

Have you tried to fit them on an R² or an X?

The ones off the 1100 don't look TO outlandish, they aren't as massive as the R65's

It's a matter of running the support frames mainly.

Get them on your XT and take pics and post them. I don't think they'd be much good offroad; they'd stick out way too far.

SheWolf wrote:

Get them on your XT and take pics and post them. I don't think they'd be much good offroad; they'd stick out way too far.

I'll see what I can do. as for offroad, might have to resort to taking them off ahead of time. or invest in surplus ammunition cases.

SheWolf wrote:

Basically I thought that this would be a good place to throw out there to anyone who has packing equipment for their WR's. Be it, the Giant Loop, the Wolfmans, the DirtBagz, whatever. How much can you pack in your bag/s, and in the end, what bag holds he most?

Packing has a certain amount of art to it - some people are hopeless. If you really want to learn the art of packing, back in the day of the old Airborne Regiment, we had these incredibly small 64 pattern rucksacks. And your valise. The "rules" were simple. First, everything the army said you had to hump got first dibs: ammo, batteries, etc. Whatever was left was yours for nonessential items like food, sleeping bags, etc. Oh yes... packing is an art form. But bitter lessons can certainly teach the art!

I've been meaning to list out all the packing options out there, contact the manufacturers, and simply ask them the capacity of their bags in litres, cubic centimeters or inches, whatever. That will give you a raw figure for what has the greatest internal capacity. What do we have for contenders? Off the top of my head there's:

• Giant Loop (is their bigger size a possibility or over-monsterous?)
  
• DirtBagz
  
• Wolfman
  
• Ortlieb
  
• Andy Strapz
  

And more I'm sure.

I'm sorta occupied right now and shouldn't even be messing around on the 'puter at the moment. Why doesn't somebody start compiling a list/chart of the various options and their internal capacities?

What I wish is all the manufacturers would make their bags ridiculously oversize with compression straps. You don't have to throw in everything including the kitchen sink, but it's a lot easier to arrange things in a volumous bag and then tighten the crap out compression straps than try and shoehorn things around in a smaller bag.

I'm still working long distance on getting the materials engineering dude to come up with a tight little custom rack suited for the WR before I decide which way to jump on bags.

Jäger wrote:

Packing has a certain amount of art to it - some people are hopeless.

OMG +10 It would be neat to see who has what and what they all got into them. Yammi packed the hell out of his GL by the looks of it, and the means to actually get capacity numbers from the manufacturer's is a great idea. Oh, and be careful you don't wake up with some hippie looking for a back rub. That's a crazy place you're in.

Here's what I get into my dirtbagz scout saddle bags and wolfman enduro tail+tank bags, loosely from memory:

Left bag:
Sierra Designs Light Year tent (1-person)+ground sheet in a stuff sack (poles, stakes are in the tail bag)
REI Halo +40 down sleeping bag (in a waterproof stuff sack with a small pillow)

Right bag:
Camp shoes (Sanuk's)
Extra clothes (2pr Under Armor boxer briefs, 3pr ski socks, 2 wicking t-shirts, North Face convertable pants, board shorts, Under Armor ColdGear pants, a long sleeve thermal shirt, a fleece pullover, and a wide brimmed stuffable hat, all in a waterproof stuff sack)
Rubber overboots, overgloves, rain pants

Tail Bag:
Coleman Peak1 single burner stove and fuel
REI pot with lid, pot handle, utensils, small microfiber hand towel
Toiletries bag (toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, cleaning wipes, TP in a ziplock, large microfiber towel etc)
Tools (so far: 1/2" drive torque wrench with 1/2" drive 22mm and 27mm sockets plus extension; 8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm 3/8" 6pt sockets plus extensions; 8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm wrenches; 4mm, 5mm, and 6mm T and L allen wrenches, vice grips and pliers, 2 phillips screwdrivers and 1 flathead screwdriver, rubber mallet, tire irons, valve stem tool, moto stand, patch kits, small handheld tire pump, electrical tape and wire stripper, probably a few other little bits, kit still needs some work to pare down to the bare essentials, most will eventually be moved to a fender bag)
Food (room for a dinner, breakfast, and small snacks, sports drink mix, instant coffee and a cup, lunch will be on-the-road)
Notebook (paper kind), chargers for cell phone and iPod, pencil
headlamp and small handheld flashlight
First Aid kit
REI Camp Pad 2.5 lashed to the rear rack using the bag's straps

Tank bag:
Klim Stowaway jacket (may migrate to the right dirtbag with the rest of the rain gear, but it lives in here 95% of the time), tire pressure gauge, house keys, wallet, cell phone, P+S camera, 'stich silk scarf, waterproof over gloves, goggles bag, chain lube, extra ear plugs, and a few other odds and ends I'm sure I'm forgetting.

I know I've posted it before, but it seems relavant so here it is again:




Only thing thats gonna be different for my August TAT trip from that picture is I've added EB's rotopax rack to the left side with a 2gal gas can and I'll be adding a 1gal water Rotopax under the wolfman tail bag/camp pad combo. Also in these pics I didn't have my clothes in stuff sacks, they were in plastic bags and I was carrying a few extra things in general. I may be adding a small 10x12 tarp as well as I have the room, wouldn't mind the shade option but don't really want to spend the money as I'm pretty sure I'll never set it up. I'm 50/50 on it right now.

Its not how much room you have, its what you're carrying and how good
you are at packing it. The right gear makes packing so so so so so so
much easier. If I got a giant taj mahtent instead and a synthetic bag
I'd need much larger bags just to fit them, instead my tent packs down to about the size of a soda bottle and the bag down to a nalgene bottle. The sanuk's when packed are about 2" thick, tennis shoes are much thicker let alone boots. The microfiber towel packs smaller than my wallet, a cotton towel would take an entire side bag. I could go smaller with a different stove, the coleman doesn't fit inside of the pot for example but a pepsi can stove or a sierra stove would. A Exped mattress would fit in the left bag with the tent/bag, cutting some bulk or alternatively giving me room for a chair or something I guess. I picked my gear based primarly on packed size vs. cost, keeping in mind what I know I need when camping and what I need (but hopefully will never use) to take the bike apart for repairs, and what I already own (edit: hence, no pimpy tire spoon/wrench combo's I didn't know existed until now for example )

Nice heavy straps and buckles that are long to add extra bags to Giant Loop.



Packing list for Loop. https://wr250rforum.forumotion.com/packing-list-f18/packing-list-for-the-giant-loop-t727.htm