As wonderful as my motorbike is, it has one big shortcoming – it can’t carry any gear. There’s no package rack, it’s not suitable for side bags, and the tank is too narrow for tank bags. Of course, this is a trail bike and it’s not meant for long trips and hauling gear, so I had to get creative to figure out how I can attach a tripod and some other gear on it, and also carry a couple of 1-liter fuel bottles in case I wanted to go for a longer ride (because that 6-liter tank puts a serious limit to the range).
In the end, I was able to solve all three. There’s now a rack in the rear, a tripod holder on the left and a tank bag which holds the fuel bottles. Since the weather has been what’s been this summer, I haven’t needed the extra fuel yet, but the rack and tripod holder are in use. Not pretty, but it works!
The tripod holder and tank bag are genuine leather articles that were made to my order. They cost quite a lot, actually, so it’s a bit shame that I haven’t needed them that much. Maybe I get lucky and we get an indian summer which would allow me to go on that long road trip…
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[added 2009-04-01] I contacted my local Yamaha dealer to get the package rack. No problems with it at all, I got in within a week of ordering. The documentation is in Japanese though so I’m not sure what the part number is, but I’ll make a wild guess and say it’s YSK-038-E30 because that’s the filename of the PDF: Tricker package rack. Note that it’s not made by Yamaha directly, but by YS Gear – ”Special gear & accessories”.