Some of you may recall an earlier post in which I conducted a real-life exercise to determine the water resistance of my saddle bags & tank bag. All of it failed miserably and being desirous of dry clothing, sleeping bag, etc., I decided to bite the bullet and invest in some decent gear. Enter GIVI, the folks who made the hard case panniers & top box on the Aprilia-Sputnik sidecar I rode to Alaska last summer. None of them had leaked a drop and since they make a nifty system for the Ninja I skimmed off yet another chunk of my children's diminishing inheritance and ordered up a set. They arrived yesterday afternoon so I beavered away till the wee hours of the morning installing the brackets and relocating the turn signals to their new mounts. This would have been an easy task but of course the original wiring was too short on one side so out came the soldering equipment, etc. I like the way it turned out and only one minor problem has turned up, namely one of the side case locks has lost it's retaining clip. This is not a huge deal and as soon as the repair part arrives it will be a simple matter to fix.
The new setup looked so nice I was inspired to give the beast a thorough washing, something it hasn't had for quite awhile. When that was finished I took a short ride to see how the new weight might affect handling and although there is a subtle difference it's very slight. Chance, our collie spent a great deal of time getting between me and the bike as he tends to be jealous about anything that gets more attention than him. Like he's so neglected. Eh?
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