Side bags are surprisingly suitable for winding roads.
Side bags are a great way to increase the width of the motorcycle and the capacity of the seat bag, so not many riders start out with side bags. This is especially true for sportbikes, which have a fatal flaw in their design: they don't look good on the motorcycle.
The bags I'll be reviewing in this article are for riders who have never used such side bags before!
List price: ¥37,400 (tax included)
Feature
- A cool design that looks great on a sportbike.
- A device that does not hide the tail lights
- The side bag itself doubles as a mount for the seat bag.
Fits like it's OEM
The first and most notable aspect of this side bag is the design. Until now, there have been two choices when it comes to side bags: rugged, square, boxy designs for adventure motorcycles, or authentic designs that look great on street motorcycles and cruisers. The carving shell case is different from those, and it is designed to jump up to the rear so as not to break the short and jumpy tail design of the sportbike.
In my impressions, I installed it on a Ducati Diavel, and it fits perfectly. The fact that it looks so good on a vehicle that I just picked up on the spot is a testament to Tanax.
Because it matches the design of the vehicle, even vehicles that have never had side bags before can be fitted as if it were a stock item!
Especially for Katana and ADV150, Cinderella fitment is amazing. I think I'll leave this on now.
This is very innovative. I've seen a lot of products for bmotorcycles, but there were many products that had good functionality but not good design. I've seen a lot of products that have good functionality but not good design. I have a feeling that this is a great product.
Easy installation even with compact tail cowl
Installation on the vehicle is simple and easy! Remove the rear seat and install the Easy Base Slim.
Then you can prepare two buckles each towards the left and right side of the motorcycle body, attach the side bags to them and tension the flaps together at the top of the motorcycle body.
For most vehicles, the length of the flap supplied will be sufficient, but if the seat is too wide to be fixed, an extension flap can be used separately. The surface where the carving shell case meets the vehicle is made of neoprene, which is easy on the vehicle, but if you are worried about scratches on the cowl, we recommend you to put the protector sheet.
Next, attach the belt that connects the front of the side bags to the vehicle. This works on a lot of motorcycles, you could use the mount on the pillion footpeg area!
The rear side is connected to the left and right side bags by a connection belt, so it can be mounted on sport motorcycles and other vehicles that do not have cargo hooks.
With conventional motorcycle carrier bags, the rear side also needs to be fixed to the vehicle body, and on sportbikes with few mounts, additional hooks are halfway essential, but with this carving shell case, no special vehicle preparation is required! Also great that there's no belt to tension down on the tail side so it doesn't ruin the design of the vehicle around the stylish tail!
The fit is pretty good.
I've got it installed and it feels pretty damn good! With some of the lesser brands of side bags, the bottom side of the bag may tilt in towards the inside of the vehicle and the tire when installed, but this bag is well-positioned. The secret to this is in the shape of the back of the side bag. The back of the bag is not flat, but is recessed to fit the shape of the tail cowl, which means it fits the vehicle with easy installation. Of course, the material is soft enough not to damage the motorcycle body.
I have tried to mount it and it is very easy. Since the installation base is only sandwiched between the seats, there is no need to prepare the vehicle side or worry about the fitment.
Don't you need support?
You may be wondering if you need support on the side of the vehicle to attach the side bags, but in reality, you don't need one as long as they fit properly. Even without the support, as long as the side bag is properly tensioned, there is no need to worry about it getting caught in the tire. In this impression, we are using a motorcycle model that has a narrow clearance with the tire, but we will install it without using the support.
The tail lights don't hide!
Mounting the older side bags on the compact tail cowl of a sportbike caused problems with the bags getting closer together as they moved towards the rear. What happens when you do that? The taillights would be hidden! This is a huge problem. Not only is this a safety issue, but it's also a fatal problem because it doesn't look very cool.
In fact, the old Tanax side bag series also had some visibility problems depending on the vehicle and the installation method. To solve this problem, the Carved Shell Case has a slanted back end of the bag to maintain the design along the tail and the visibility of the tail light.
Large capacity of 32 liters
It is the capacity that becomes matter of concern, but it is 16 liters × 2 on one side, and it is a large capacity of 32 liters. This is the size that can be used for touring from one day to one or two nights, and it is the capacity that most users use.
You can load a change of clothes, a drink, and of course a small souvenir, in other words, you can complete your load with this one. In addition, by adding a seat bag, it can be used for camping touring, and the upper surface of the seat can be used as a loading space, so you can use a net to load luggage.
Compared to a seat bag
| Carved Shell Case | Shell seat bag GT | Mini Field Seat Bag | |
|
|
|
|
| content | 32L (16L per side) | 14-18L | 19-27L |
Now, the sense of capacity seems to be usable, but what happens when this capacity is reproduced in a seat bag? The most popular seat bag for vehicles with stylish seat cowls is the Shell Seat Bag series, and the Shell Seat Bag GT is the one with the largest capacity. This has a maximum capacity of 18L.
Next, the compact seat bag for touring is the Mini Field Seat Bag, which has a maximum capacity of 27L. As you can see, the touring element is quite strong when it comes to mini field seat bags, but the maximum capacity of the carving shell case is better.
In other words, the same amount of luggage will look stylish in a carved shell case. This is a surprising development.
You can combine the seat bag on the side bag too!
The Carving Shell Case looks like it has a surprisingly large capacity, but it can actually be combined with various Tanax seat bags. Combining them is a man's romance, but by combining them, you can make it big in Kanto and Hokkaido!
Secret #1: The top surface is flat!
In fact, when the carving shell case is installed, the seat of the vehicle and the top of the side bag are almost flat. This means you can install a bag that extends beyond the width of the seat and it won't interfere. From the seat bag side, it's the same as having more support on the bottom, so it's more stable.
It's a common sight, but the seat cowl of a sportsbike has a very small area, and mounting a larger seat bag can cause the unsupported end to droop. This would not only make the luggage unstable, but also uncool. It can also serve as a supporter to prevent such a situation from occurring.
Secret #2: You can use the side bag as a mount
When installing a seat bag, the most popular method is to use belts from four places on the front, rear, left and right sides of the motorcycle, but this is also quite a hurdle for a sportbike. The front mount can be taken from the tandem step, but the rear mount can not be taken because there are no hooks in the rear. In such cases, you need to prepare the vehicle body as well, such as attaching a special attachment to the license plate.
This carving shell case has 6 D-rings on each side to serve as mounting bases for seat bags, etc. You can mount a seat bag to this case without any preparation on the vehicle side!
In other words, we can merge them! Isn't this a very big advantage?
I actually tried to test it!
Well, this time it's autumn, so I went touring. The destination is winding! This is the first time for me to fully enjoy the side bags since I mainly use the seat bag.
Side bags are actually recommended for winding.
The first thing I noticed was the sense of freedom that comes from not having all that baggage behind the rider! Unlike a seat bag, there is no luggage present on the seat, which means that the position while riding is almost the same as if it were unloaded. Using a seat bag on a vehicle with a compact tail cowl would have inevitably resulted in a feeling of pressure, so not having that uncomfortable feeling was the biggest difference.
Another difference from seat bags is that there is no uncomfortable feeling when switching vehicles, even when loaded with luggage. When a lot of luggage is loaded vertically, the balance becomes unbalanced, but with side bags, the center of gravity is never above the ground, which leads to a sense of stability when the vehicle is tilted.
It's got the capacity of a medium-sized seat bag, so there's plenty of room, and it'll come in handy for storing rainwear and spare clothes for when the temperature changes easily!
Even when driving with the camping seat bag attached to the upper part of the seat, it felt as stable as or even more stable than the one attached to the vehicle body, and we can say that the seat surface expansion effect was sufficient.
Now, when it comes to side bags, the main concern is the increase in width. In reality, there are a lot of riders who slip through, and I wonder if they can ride without problems. As for this, we, the staff who did the impressions, were also concerned about the extended width at first, but we got used to it while riding! There is no doubt that the width will increase slightly on most motorcycles, but it's just a range that you can get used to, and it didn't seem to be something that would bother me when riding safely while touring.
Good design for city riding
It is a carving shell case with a good feeling of riding and a good design, but I noticed something on the way back from touring. Yes! I think this would totally work on a night out on the town! That's what I thought!
I thought it was a stroke of genius on my part, so I took some pictures in a rather trendy spot, and I have to say, it's pretty cool! The sporty design matches the body of the motorcycle, with a thin touring feel, so it's stylish without feeling out of place! An urban, stylish silhouette that a seat bag or top case could never achieve. We realized that this is the biggest advantage of side bags.
I think I would like to use this for street riding, and if I wanted to, I could probably leave it on.
Recommended for sporty riders.
To tell you the truth, I've always been a seat bag guy, and I've never really understood the merits of side bags, but this bag has the merits to make me change my mind. Especially, the feeling of driving is excellent, and you don't feel the load more than the seat bag, and I want the touring rider who wants to enjoy the winding road sporty to use it!
I heard that it is common to ride with a bag or case attached in other countries, and this side bag made me think that this is how it is.
In cooperation with: Tanax Corporation
Vehicle Cooperation: Kizuki Rental Service
