As you may have figured out from my experiment of putting adventure bike tires onto the CBR-600RR I have no qualms against mixing motorcycle gear genres to get the outcome I want. I decided to apply the same principle when looking for luggage for The Bolt. The problem as I pointed out in an earlier post is that the "tail" on The Bolt is too short for most generic "Cruiser" style luggage unless one relocates the turn signals. Most of those saddlebags are day tripper type things and not really up to going the distance anyways.
My existing Cortech Super luggage that I use on the CBR is just too big for The Bolt and looks to interfere with the shocks, turn signals, rear brake, and sprocket.
Enter Giant Loop. I stumbled across this brand while scrolling through an unfiltered by riding genre list of all luggage MCSUSA had on their website. The basic principle is that it "rides" your rear seat like a passenger would. The "Coyote" is the smaller (39-Liter) variant of this style, which I found on Amazon for a very reasonable price.
Giant Loop designs their luggage for dirt riders and is based in Bend, Oregon just over the hill from me. Bend is a mecca of outdoor enthusiasts from every season and discipline. Its no wonder that the GL Coyote is designed and built a lot like rafting luggage from the placement of the heavy duty main zipper under a flap, the material selection, to the inclusion of aquatic sports style dry bags.
The Coyote "sits" on the back of your bike like the pelvis and thighs of another rider. Approximately where the calves would be are tie down straps to attach to the frame or passenger pegs of your machine. Underneath the "crotch" of your Coyote bag is a set of metal clips on adjustable straps to attach to the plastics or frame of your dirt bike; fortunately these are removable since there's no way to attach them to anything on The Bolt. The rear compression straps of the Coyote conveniently looped around the turn signal stalks to stabilize the bag further. The last feature worth mentioning is the incredibly bright retro-reflective stripe all the way around the bag.
I took the bag on a thousand mile trip this month. Half of the time the weather was wet. One day the skies dumped on me for 260 miles without letup. In the Coyote I had packed all of my stuff expect a sweatshirt into the dry bags. At the end of the day everything in the dry bags was dry, while the sweatshirt was marginally damp. After the third day on the trip I was already kind of tired of having to undo the straps every night and re-attach them in the morning; a quick disconnect feature would be a nice improvement. Visually the Coyote is ugly, obviously made for a dirtbike, and looks like a giant gray sausage slung across the back of my bike. I suppose the aesthetics don't matter as much because I'm dressed in my goofy high-vis gear not my urban bobber cool-guy gear.
In conclusion:
Pros - Keeps stuff dry
High vis piping
Holds all my stuff
Secure on the bike while riding, doesn't get in the way
Cons - needs quick disconnects
Can be tedious to pack
Looks like dirt bike gear
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