Lost Luggage - Tell the truth

[vtduc]

A few years back I had a tail bag come off my 900ss on a bouncy section of road....Unfortunately, it wedged itself between my rear tire and swingarm, immediately locking up the wheel at about 75 mph. Thank God it happened on a straight section of road, as I left a 150 ft skid mark before it came to a stop. Not bad at first, but it got real squirrelly at about 30 mph. Come to think of it, I might have left a skidmark somewhere else also. Ruined what was left of the rear tire.

[Grreatdog]

Originally Posted by Bacon_Grease

How many of ya'll have lost luggage off the back of your bike?

If anybody finds a Tusk fender pak with a KTM two stroke tool kit, front tube, CO2 and inflator inside of it around Annapolis it is mine.

[dwoodward]

My wife lost her jacket liner somewhere between Alice's and Half Moon Bay this year- when we stopped for gas, the saddlebag (Givi E21) was open and it was just... gone.

Of course, since the bag was attached to my bike at the time, it was my fault...

[SteelB12]

I was towing a motorcycle on my little trailer and lost the spare trailer wheel. Does that count??

[sleazy rider]

Thermopolis, WY, stopped for the night at a motel and the bike was a disaster of bug guts. I took it up to the quarter car wash and took the tent off the back rack. Left that bitch laying in the bay when I headed back to the motel. Realizing my mistake, I went back in 15 minutes, but it was gone. Lesson learned? I quit washing the bike.

[the_jest]

Was going on a one-mile ride across the city, so instead of bringing a backpack, I just tied my gym bag to the luggage rack with a single knot with its own handle. Retraced that one-mile ride three times, but never did recover two pairs of glasses, good gym clothes, and an inexpensive but no-longer-manufactured pair of headphones.

Next time I'll tie a double knot

[redwing51]

Lost the top to a touratech pannier going down the road. I remember hearing something and thinking wtf was that. Didn't realize it was gone until 150 miles later. Didn't go back to look for it, it would've been dark by the time I got back to it, and it was on a stretch of divided highway anyway. Someone is probably using it for a TV tray by now.

[humvee]

Dropped my Garmin GPS. I turned around, IT SURVIVED!



But as I took the picture, a car came up the highway, moved over to avoid me and took out the GPS.



Lesson learned...taking photos for ADVRIDER Ride Reports is very expensive.

[Student Rider]

Originally Posted by Mgbgt89

I lost a can of chain lube after it bounced out of my milk crate going over some rail road tracks.

I also lost a set of brand new harbor freight allen wrenches out of the same milk crate while I was inside a liquor store. I hope the guy that stole them rounds out whatever bolt he uses them on.

They are from Harbor Freight, he will.

I left my garmin on the top box, it didn't get run over but I did have to replace the battery cover.
won't do that again. right?

[randyo]

I've been very very lucky so far, sometimes I have a bad habit of being a space cadet. I use my bike regularly for business errands, on my SV650, I just stuck all my sh!t in a backpack that I double bungeed to the luggage rack on back, never had the bungees fail, just didn't always remember to hook em down. First time I lost my backpack, I was headed to city hall, when I got there, no backpack, I immediatly began to retrace my ride in reverse, even stopped at the PD in the town I last stopped in reported my lost backpack, then went home. On my answering machine was the PD in the same building as the city hall I went to, apparently someone saw me loose it, tried chasing me down but I took off before they could flag me down. I had bank deposits and company checkbook in the pack

a year or so later, I did the same thing in a different city, no company money this time, but my personal payroll check was in the pack

the next time I lost something was on my V-strom, during my "I'm gonna ride today just to see if I can" ride, one of my caribou case latches failed and a helmet bag with an extra pair of gloves, visor, terry rag, etc. fell out. When I got to my first stop, I thought, I'll just keep my eye out on the way back, its prolly already plowed into a snowbank. it was mid blizzard with about 12" so far and coming down 3"/hr, I finished my errands, went home, about a hour later one of my neighbors pulls into my drive in his Suburban, brings my my bag I lost, he said he tried catching up when I lost it but couldn't keep up with me.

next, when I took my Vee in for annual safety inspection at my dealer, I took my seat off and handed them the registration that I keep in a ziplock under the seat. space cadet time again, when they handed it back to my, I temporarily set it down on the luggage rack while I got sidetracked into another conversation, then put my seat back on and rode away
Didn't even realize I lost it will a week later, I had a call on my answering machine from a farmer that found it out near a manure spreader in a field that he had for sale and someone came to look at it, otherwise he wouldn't have been in the field, it was 3 miles from the dealer and even though I drove past on my way home, it was over 500 feet from the road (the ziplock has my registration, insurance card and about $50 in US & CDN currency)

[jgiacobbe]

Originally Posted by DAKEZ

**off** [klay]

I use ROK Straps. I don't lose shit.

Lost a dry bag off my WR when 2 ROK straps failed. Both failed right where the strap is stitched into the buckle. There is a little fabric that is used to sew them on to the stretchy part. That is what wore through. Both the rock straps were about a year old. Broke the buckles off and used the nylon webbing and knots to tie everything back on. It was embarrassing to watch the minivan I had passed a half mile back drive past as I was picking my bag up off the road. The Walmart dry bag did pretty good, only had a couple holes worn through. Replaced it next trip to Wally world for $6.99.

Previously I lost a go pro and a long sleave shirt when I forgot to zip a back strapped to the rear of my WR. Shirt was found wrapped in the rear wheel. The go pro was in the bag lastt and was probably violently thrown out after the slave of the shirt found the wheel and was never found.

[JOKER650]

Originally Posted by humvee

Dropped my Garmin GPS. I turned around, IT SURVIVED!



But as I took the picture, a car came up the highway, moved over to avoid me and took out the GPS.



Lesson learned...taking photos for ADVRIDER Ride Reports is very expensive.

HAHAHHA...thaT IS FOOKN funny, reminds me of a ride home 1 day.

Was riding down a 4lane road 60kph speed limit. Saw a young gal on the side walk with a bicycle on the ground and she was looking around kinda weird like.
I wasn.t quite sure what was going on so I slowed and kept an eye on her as I approached. She seemed to be looking and thinking of running out in front of me...I was kinda worried so I slowed a little more....YUP...SHE'S GUNNA RUN IN FRONT OF ME !!
Shit..I move to the left a little more as to not to hit her !!
I look right in front of me and there is her cell phone RIGHT IN MY TRACK on the pavement !!!
SHIT ! No time to do anything I hit the opened up "flip-phone" dead-on and look in my mirror and see nothing but shrapnel in the air behind me

Son-of-a beoach!!!!
She is standing there with her arms in the air giving me the bird.
I felt like such a Douch...I really wanted to go back and pay for the phone..but didn't.

As I thought about what had happened.....I came to realize that she had been riding her cycle on the sidewalk with her groceries or something on the handle bars and she went down. Her and her purse flew to the ground and the phone flew out into the road.
If she hadn't tried to run out to get it in front of me I would not have hit it.

[WeazyBuddha]

Never lost a thing until this October, riding to Luckenbach I decided to do a little off roading. Lost my kermit chair, did not realize it until I got to camp.

[JimVonBaden]

Originally Posted by jgiacobbe

Lost a dry bag off my WR when 2 ROK straps failed. Both failed right where the strap is stitched into the buckle. There is a little fabric that is used to sew them on to the stretchy part. That is what wore through. Both the rock straps were about a year old. Broke the buckles off and used the nylon webbing and knots to tie everything back on. It was embarrassing to watch the minivan I had passed a half mile back drive past as I was picking my bag up off the road. The Walmart dry bag did pretty good, only had a couple holes worn through. Replaced it next trip to Wally world for $6.99.

Previously I lost a go pro and a long sleave shirt when I forgot to zip a back strapped to the rear of my WR. Shirt was found wrapped in the rear wheel. The go pro was in the bag lastt and was probably violently thrown out after the slave of the shirt found the wheel and was never found.

Other than clicking only half the clip, I have never seen a Rok Strap fail, and I have put some off stuff on bikes with them.



Jim

[jgiacobbe]

Originally Posted by JimVonBaden

Other than clicking only half the clip, I have never seen a Rok Strap fail, and I have put some off stuff on bikes with them.



Jim

Nope, buckles were still latched, just that both straps had split from the buckles. I was very surprised after everything I heard about them. Now I just use plain old nylon webbing and knots. It appears nothing is fool proof. I only post up about those straps since everyone seems to think they are better than everything else out there. Before they broke, I really liked them. I had been cinching them down very tight because my bag had been shifting a little. Possibly, I had more tension than they were rated for on them.