Me and the wife both have XT660Rs and currently use Giant loop Great Basin pannier/tail bag things together with a couple of dry bags, rucksacks, tool tubes and other bits and bobs. This is great for lightweight and shorter trips, although we (just) managed on a 6 week trip to Southern Africa earlier this year, but had no space whatsoever for any extras or stuff picked up en-route.

We went for the Giant Loop set up as a lightweight option, which it is and it really is very good - even better if it was waterproof, and to make riding gravel roads a bit easier, especially for my wife who isn't confident off the tarmac. Anyway and despite all that, after a lot of thought and several trips where we thought we might hit the trails but didnt we have decided we might as well bite the bullet and go for some hard luggage. We are probably shipping the bikes to the USA next year for a 6-7 week tour from New York to LA, via Canada and the Rocky Mountains, and I think we could do with the extra space, ease of packing, security and convenience of hard luggage.

My bike is easy - I have 2nd hand Metal Mule exhaust and bash plate fitted to mine AND an old pair of MM panniers in the garage, so all I need is a MM pannier frame, but I am not paying out the �1300+++ to MM to kit out the wife's bike.

So questions.....

What hard luggage has anyone fitted to the 660Rs and how have they found it in terms of weight and how it effects the ride, especially how noticeable the extra weight is? Pics of the width would be good too

Anyone got pics of a fully set up MM bike, again width and how it effected the bike?

Ta.

Austin

I got some Givi racks second hand for mine as I already had some E45 cases. They make the bike quite wide and when loaded up with the tent too make the front a bit lighter than I would like. However if I was after high speed touring I'd take the thou which is getting very little use now. pics: Smaller cases are obviously available but I'm tight

Thanks Hermy, those cases are very wide! Making the front light was one of my worries, these bikes pop little wheelies easily enough as they are.

I was thinking about slim aluminium Ard Cases - about 35litres for my wife's bike which are 8" wide, so probably slimmer than Givi E45s, but will be heavier.


Sent from my iPhone with a smile

If I was doing a long trip I would move mine forward to try and sort out the light front end but at present I can still use the rear pegs which is handy for daughter collection duties up the crater strewn track to the stables. A larger tank would no doubt help but the bike was done cheaply and works for what I use it for.

I have fitted Give Trekker aluminium cases to my XT660X, see http://www.givi.it/Bauletti/Monokey/TRK46N-TREKKER. These are lighter and slightly less wide than the black plastic ones you show above. They cost more but SHOULD last longer. The advantage is that they can be fitted either as pannier or as a topbox, and they have a clever opening mechanism so they can either be opened all the way OR just the top, and you can buy the internal bags so you only need to carry a bag and not the case. The disadvantage is that they cost more of course!! And each case has its own key but they supply spare keys and barrels so you can change them and have a single key for the 2 cases. Clever stuff!!

__________________
(Now sold on, sob) 2011 Blue XT660X with gold wheels, was 26,500 km.
Engine mods: K&N Stage 1 filter, DNA Stage 2 filter, snorkel removed, Kev fuel mod fitted.
Plus: smoked Puig screen, Yam aluminium sump guard, Yamaha / Acerbis handguards, Givi Trekker aluminium side cases, Leo Vince X3 cans plus Kev front fork mod and Fender Xtender. Just fitted Michelin Road Pilot 3 tyres.

SOLD the XTX for a Super Ten 1200. And just bought a Raptor 700 so staying on here for some tips....