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Posts Tagged ‘dual purpose’

The past few months have had me out exploring actual, honest to goodness single track trails. This is a transition from paved and dirt road exploring of which the Suzuki V-Strom excels. An old Suzuki DR 350 dual sport is my new tool for back country motorcycle adventures.

The high-viz yellow color of the Fly Racing Trekker dual sport helmet really stands out.

Dual sport riding requires different gear than paved and dirt roads. The main difference is that riding trails requires a good amount of physical activity. This exertion requires airflow to keep the rider’s body from overheating. Heavy breathing quickly fogs up helmet screens, too.  So my search for quality and affordable dual sport riding gear began. After a bit of poking around, the Fly Racing Trekker dual sport helmet was the first piece of my off-road kit that was purchased.

The first thing that caught my attention about the Fly Racing Trekker helmet is the option to use the face shield or a pair goggles. When in place, the face shield makes paved travel easy without having to fuss with goggles. It is nice to have the option of swapping to goggles. The opening seems to be sufficient enough for goggles, but I haven’t yet tried to use them. The shield does a good job when moving. It has a holding point about half-way open and then it drops all the way to the closed position. During cool-weather rides where temps are near or at freezing, this doesn’t allow sufficient air flow to keep the shield and my glasses from fogging up. I modified the shield to stay slightly open to allow air in without having it rush up to make my eyes water. It required drilling a small hole in the shield. This modification doesn’t allow as tight of a seal when closed.

Available colors include black, matte black, silver, white and high-viz yellow. The high-viz yellow color screams “Start Seeing Motorcyclists.” High-viz really stands out against the backdrop of the back country woods or among the cagers in traffic. This is important to me while riding during hunting season in the woods or year round in traffic where it is open season on motorcyclists.

The fit of the helmet is actually quite nice. I have worn it all day on several occasions now without a single hot-spot caused from fitment issues. The Fly Trekker honestly feels like a much more expensive helmet. I tried on the much more expensive dual sport helmets from Shoei and Arai and couldn’t justify the $400 or more to purchase them. In hind sight, that was a very good decision. My local dealership explained that the added cost was because of better materials that created a more comfortable helmet. The Fly Trekker is a very comfortable helmet for a fraction of the cost.

Overall Quality – A

Ample venting of the Fly Racing Trekker DS helmet.

The Fly Trekker is a high quality helmet at a discount price. It allows good visibility for the rider, is fairly quiet and is both DOT and ECE approved for protection. The paint finish is high quality with few imperfections (it’s a dirt/adventure helmet so it is bound to be scratched before too long anyways). The angular face shield is easy to see out of with minimal distortion. The distortion is so minor that it is not an issue for me, personally. The wide shield opening allows excellent side to side visibility. Air flows through the shield decent enough for mild to warm temperatures. I wish the shield could be cracked open for cool and damp winter riding conditions found here in the Pacific Northwest.

Take note that there are reports of the face opening being too small for some goggles. This is something to check if it is a priority for you.

Comfort – A

As mentioned above, The Fly Trekker is a very comfortable helmet. I have worn it on several all-day rides without any pressure hotspots. In fact, I would put it up against my much more expensive Italian-made street helmet for comfort. The fact that it is a full coverage helmet means that I have to take off my glasses to put on or take off the helmet. This is a minor convenience issue that would occurs with any full coverage, non-modular helmet.

Comfort is slightly affected with speeds above 75 mph. At higher speeds there is a hint of lift from the dual-sport style visor. This only occurs on my dirt bike, which has me reaching deep into the carburetor to sustain 75 mph. The helmet is good for maxed out speeds on my Suzuki V-Strom with a windshield.

A minor modification using a drill allowed the shield to stay slightly open. In stock form, it goes from half open to closed.

Bang for Your Buck – A+

This is the first perfect score that I have ever given on a product review. The Fly Trekker dual-sport helmet has a suggested retail price of $140. It can be found in dealerships and online for as little as $125. It would be hard to find a helmet that performed as well for twice that amount. This is the best value dual sport motorcycle helmet on the market.

I purchased this helmet and am pleased that it will be my go-to dual sport helmet for several years.

Side view of the Fandango tank bag on a Suzuki V-Strom 650

Motorcyclists have ridden off-road as long as they have pointed their wheels down paved roads. The term road should be used loosely to describe the rutted and muddy mess that riders took the early Harley Davidson and Indian motorcycles down. Despite this long history of on- and off-road riding, very few motorcycle accessories are equally at home on your bike in the dirt and at speed on the road.

No matter the terrain, carrying capacity is always in demand aboard our two-wheeled machines. Luckily, my Suzuki V-Strom come stock with cargo rack. Tying small items such as wallet, keys and camera to that rack is senseless. These items can stow in a pocket, but sometimes that option isn’t comfortable or pockets are in short order.

That’s where a tank bag comes into play. Tank bags come in many shapes and functionality. Some have so many pockets that you lose items in them simply because you can’t remember which pocket they are in. The shear number of pockets makes it difficult to get those small items quickly when you need them. For example, it should be easy to locate and pull out your wallet to fill the gas tank without getting off the motorcycle.

The accessories that get used day after day on my bike are simple, functional and water tight. A product that does all of these things well is few and far between.

The Giant Loop Fandango tank bag is a rare combination of simplicity and functionality that is equally at home on the road or on the trail. The Fandango has one large compartment that is accessible via a sealed zipper. The bag simple design of the bag makes it down right cavernous with a single Velcro divider for organizing contents. I keep the divider all the way to the back of the pocket. This is just wide enough to hold my cell phone, wallet and a small camera where I can get them quickly.

A clear plastic map pocket tops off the Fandango tank bag package. The pocket holds a folded map. Again a simple waterproof zipper protects the contents against the elements (see critiques below).

Removing the Fandango tank bag is simple. The single zipper makes the fuel cap easily accessible.

A third zipper runs along the bottom perimeter of the bag to attach it to the base. This simple design allows quick removal of the bag when needed. Upon removal of the bag, a cutout allows easy access to the fuel cap to keep the adventure going.

The base attaches to the bike with three straps. A single strap goes around the frame, under the triple clamp. The remaining two straps attach to the frame or other solid point on either side of the bike. I found the perfect attach points around the GIVI crash bars on my Suzuki V-Strom. In all, it takes a couple minutes to solidly attach the Fandango Tank Bag to the bike.

The Fandango was originally designed for use on dirt bikes. This means that when attached, the bag isn’t going anywhere. When I first attached the bag to my V-Strom, the triple clamp strap was a bit short. It worked, but left me nervous with the lack of remaining strap.

I ran into Harold Olaf Cecil from Giant Loop at the Vancouver Motorcycle show. Upon sharing my critique, he walked out to the bike to actually check it out. Apparently, their design evolved to fit larger bikes and I had one of the original (more dirt bike-oriented) straps. He was nice enough to pull the base off of a bike at the show and swap it out. Great customer service goes a long way with me. Giant Loop won me over in this area.

Simple, single compartment keeps everything organized in the Fandango tank bag.

The other critique that I have is that water can find its way inside the bag. The “truckers tarp” material and waterproof zippers are 100 percent watertight. The seams between the zippers and fabric allow the slightest amount of moisture to get through. The map pocket is especially susceptible to moisture and a wet map is a useless map. Giant Loop does provide seam sealer with the product and I highly suggest it be used. A couple minutes applying the sealer makes moisture a non-issue.

Giant Loop is a fairly new player in the motorcycle luggage field. This small company based in Oregon is definitely worth looking into. Their customer service has been quite impressive and the product is solid. They are passionate about their product and it shows.

The Giant Loop Fandango tank bag is available in three colors: black, orange and yellow. It sells for $149.00 at www.giantloopmoto.com. You can also find it through their dealer network.