GIVI Magazine - Maggio 2016

ENGLISH TEXT ON HOLIDAY... WITH THE SOFT ONES WOMEN’S CURVES HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. OUR STARS ARE MOTORBIKE BAGS. EXTRAORDINARILY USEFUL, UNIVERSALLY USABLE, VERSATILE AND OFTEN MULTI-PURPOSE. GETTING YOUR BEARINGS IN THIS WORLD, A LOT GREATER THAN WHAT YOU MAY IMAGINE, IS NOT EASY WITHOUT THE GUIDE OF WHO, IN GIVI, KNOWS THEM VERY WELL. Well, now’s the time, the warm season has started. We are all starting to plan a weekend trip, a bank holiday and then the summer holidays. But this year we are going by motorcycle: this means that if you are leaving alone with your R6 in one way or another you can manage by yourselves; if in the passenger’s place there is a lady, things change and you must take the bull by the horns: what we mean is that you will have to find on your nice sports bike the loading capacity of a 80s’ Volvo Polar at least. Is the idea of a case on your Vale46 replica enough to make you contemplate the idea of going back to being single, and anyhowwho on earth would make a mounting system for this speedfighter? After the typical visits to the various forums, pages, websites etc you realise that soft bags could represent a total solution. We were joking, but not about the potential of our soft bags, which you can use as a backup for hard cases if you need more load capacity or as a set with all that it takes to be autonomous. The second hypothesis favours mostly sports or naked bikes. SOFT BAGS: HERE'S HOWTO GET YOUR BEARINGS Let’s start from the classic side bags. Until the mid 80s’ bikes were all roughly the same with a nice flat ample saddle, discreet sides (if any), double suspensions, exhausts on the side of the swingarm... Side bags were fixed using straps that passed under the saddle and took advantage of the back suspensions to avoid contact with wheels, the chain or the exhausts... Which could create actual huge holes seen that the first materials used were mainly sky, vinyl or other untreated leatherette. Today bikes are completely different in their set-up, suspensions on the sides have disappeared in favour of single central ones, saddles are ever more slim and with particular shapes and the exhausts go on a roller-coaster ride coming out of the saddle, on the side and turned up 90°. Thismeans using frames allowing for correct positioning to avoid the problemswe’ve justmentioned. For the rest, the bags’ fixing systemhas remained the same, as has the philosophy of soft side bags, which absolutely wants them to be almost plug-and-play. In other words: I can remove them in a second! The problem is when you realise that nobody produces frames for your bike. So what now? There is more than one solution: we can fix the bags without a rack being very careful they don’t touch any of the moving parts such as the wheel and chain, and that they rest at least 10cms from any heat source, and finally that while riding they are firmly fixed to avoid compromising driveability and thus safety. If you don’t meet these parameters you can always try and ask your friend that does everything in his garage and has a solderingmachine with which in a couple of hours and a couple of beers can make you bespoke frames. Basically it’s a steel rod, bent so that it creates a support on the bags’ side towards the bike. If also this option (and it’s the third one) is not possible, then look at a nice and capacious tank bag: the ones in our range go from3 to 40 litres capacity. You will find models with the classic magnets; if you have a plastic tank go for the versionswith straps or the very practical and smart Tanklock system(patented byGIVI) which uses the screws of the tank cap to create a hook allowing you to remove the bag with just one finger. You can combine this bag with a versatile and capacious backpack your partner canwear (she’s got to do her part too!). The idea of using it for ‘her’ stuff could also help making it lighter... If your bike has a nice tail, or if you travel alone, there’s roomfor another small back-saddle/tail bag. This kind of ‘soft’ bag represents an excellent opportunity to increase the load capacity, especially if mounted on the back saddle as their capacity ranges between 14 and 30 litres. Fixing is easy: straps under the saddle and possibly a net to travel in super-safety, without compromising the bike’s centre of gravity. Andwhat about driveability? With soft bags your bike’s total encumbrance changes very little and thiswill allowyou tomove quickly through the holidaymakers’ traffic, avoiding long car queues. A possibility which is surely more difficult for the biker carrying big hard bags... Especially when temperatures are around 40 degrees! We want to remind you also that the standard rain cover is not 100% waterproof, but it guarantees some shelter; don’t expect to do 200kms under the rain and find the contents perfectly dry: if this is what you need and you use them a lot, there are the waterproof range bags that offer total water resistance even under heavy rain. So, whatever bike you own, hypersport, cruiser, naked, enduro, scooter, scrambler, your bike holiday is possible: there is a solution for all of them! Remember also this: soft bags, of any kind, are universal. This means they can be mounted on most of the bikes on the road (please don’t put tank bags on your scooter...). Before buying them, try themon your bike, make sure there is no interference with steering with tank bags, that the side ones don’t touch any of the moving components and that they are at a sufficient distance from heat sources. Materials have improved immensely but they are not fireproof. I hope I’ve given you come useful advice and that you will be able to have a nice holiday that will remain in your heart for the rest of your lives. Givi Magazine May 2016 - Givi Tutorial  45 SPORT-T RANGE