How to carry luggage on a motorcycle

If you’re considering any sort of motorcycle travel, thoughts of motorcycle luggage might have crossed your mind. There’s a mind-boggling array of luggage styles and flavours on the market these days, so how do you decide what’s best for you and your bike?

First thing to think about is what you need the luggage to do. Will you be doing short trips needing just a couple of changes of clothes plus personal items and a few tools? Or maybe it’s an overland odyssey, requiring gear for weeks or months away, including camping stuff?

Whatever your travel plans, choosing the right luggage for the job will save money and hassle, while keeping the bike fun and safe to ride.  

Panniers or saddlebags sit either side of the bike behind the rider’s legs and are available in soft (fabric or leather) or hard (plastic or aluminium) versions. Panniers are generally single bags that attach to a rack or existing mounting points with straps or clips. Saddlebags tend to be two soft bags joined with straps secured over or under the bike’s seat.

Soft panniers are popular with adventure riders, being reasonably light, expandable and often fitted with external straps and loops to carry extra gear. They’re not as secure as lockable hard panniers, but accessory steel cables and mesh nets can help mitigate that. Not all soft panniers are waterproof – check before you buy, otherwise you’ll need waterproof inner bags or plastic bags to keep your gear dry.

Rackless soft pannier set-ups – such as those made by Mosko Moto, Giant Loop and Wolfman –are popular with some adventure riders for being light weight and well suited to smaller and more hardcore dirt bikes.

Hard panniers are lockable, secure, waterproof and robust. On the downside, they can be heavy and expensive. Top-loading panniers are easier to pack than side-loading varieties. If you’re buying second-hand, check hinges, latches and seals are in good condition. As a bonus, metal panniers can double as a seat or table at the campsite.

On durability, there are arguments both ways for hard versus soft panniers. Hard panniers can take big knocks and protect the contents, but serious damage may be difficult to repair. Soft panniers tend to give, which makes them stronger than you might think, especially the better-quality ones made from tough synthetics. Minor tears and holes can usually repaired, but if they rip big-time, they’re beyond help. Anecdotal evidence says soft panniers are safer than hard panniers as they are less likely to cause leg injuries in a tip-over or crash.

Top boxes are hard luggage items (aluminium or plastic) that mount to a rack behind the motorcycle’s seat. They provide convenient, secure and weatherproof storage in a variety of sizes – the bigger ones often have space for a helmet or two.

Weight can be a problem with top boxes as their size and accessibility makes it tempting to load them up. By design, they sit high and behind the rear axle line, so a large, heavily laden top box can affect the handling of the bike, even with suspension adjustment to compensate.

Dry bags or roll bags, usually made from heavy PVC with a roll top, are a lighter, more flexible top box alternative. Not as secure or convenient as a top box, dry bags are just as weatherproof and can be strapped to a rack or the seat, moving weight inboard.

Seat or tail bags strap to the pillion seat and work well on a rack. They often have zip access and compartments and tend to be roughly rectangular in shape, with soft construction. Sizes vary from day trip small to deluxe versions suitable for a long haul.

Tank bags attach to the motorcycle’s fuel tank with straps, magnets or a fuel filler fitting. They provide easy access to smaller items such as glasses, phones and snacks, and some double as backpacks off the bike. Tank bags are flexible, often expandable and some versions are waterproof, but they don’t work well with every type of motorcycle.

Dual-sport and off-road bikes with smaller, steeply-angled fuel tanks are a case in point. There are tank bags available to suit these bikes, but they are often small with miserly storage space.

I couldn’t find a tank bag to work on my Safari tank-equipped overlanding Yamaha WR250R, so I had tank panniers custom-made from two ex-British Army daypacks, which worked a treat. They hold everything from my wet weather gear, heated jacket liner and water bottles to spare gloves, snacks, electrical cables and tyre pressure gauge. The panniers aren’t waterproof so everything inside is stored in small dry bags, but that helps to make things easy to find.

Luggage doesn’t come any easier than the backpack – load up, slip it on and away you go. And everything comes with you when you get off the bike. Genuinely weatherproof packs used to be hard to find, however there’s now a wide range of roll-top waterproof packs on the market.

Backpacks are great for shorter rides, but can literally be a pain in the neck, and shoulders and back, over longer distances. Bike-specific backpacks with more generous, supportive harness systems do help to distribute the weight better but take care not to load up the pack too much. A good comprise is a hydration pack. These backpacks combine a 2 or 3-litre water bladder with storage for small items.

If your bike has crashbars, there are specialty bags for those too. And for the handlebars. And even the front mudguard. If there’s a nook or cranny on a bike that looks like it might hold luggage, someone has probably designed something for it, not to mention a host of DIY options such as repurposed cooler bags and tool tubes made from PVC pipe.

Ultimately, your choice of luggage will come down to your priorities and the type of travelling you want to do. If security, durability, and weather protection are your main concerns, hard luggage may be the better option. However, if flexibility, affordability and weight are more important, then soft luggage might be the way to go. Many riders opt for a combination of both types.

No matter what type of luggage you use, resist the urge to cram stuff in willy-nilly. Do your future self a favour and pack carefully with some organisation. Having frequently used items where you can access them quickly without unpacking half your belongings is a massive time-saver.

Luggage means weight and that’s not just what you put in it. The luggage itself can add several kilos to your bike. This extra weight will affect the bike’s performance and handling, while fully packed bags also add bulk that can make the bike wider and more unwieldy.

A simple way to plan your loading is to imagine a triangle with the base horizontal at ground level and two sides passing through the bike’s front and rear axles to meet at the rider’s head. Basically, you want to keep as much of the luggage load as possible within that triangle, with the heaviest weight closer to the base or ground.

You may also need to adjust the bike’s suspension preload to compensate for the extra weight of luggage. As with a pillion, adding luggage to the bike will compress the rear suspension, reducing spring travel and ground clearance and changing the steering geometry, so increasing the rear and front preload will level out the bike.