Good review - I’m really interested in these but thought I saw you’d need an adapter to switch between hard and soft panniers with that system??

are the buckles removable and perhaps replaceable? thinking of swapping for magnetic options. using it for city commute so accessibility is a must, and can compress when empty to lanesplit

This is a perfect video of what not to do, ha ha. "Mainly for the content", as you put it. I laughed my ass off through most of it. Oh, and how's that clutch doing? Burn baby, burn. Hey, at least you guys were out there having a blast. that's what it's all about. Nice video.

Now we see why it took our great-grandparents all day to go 15 miles. Glad you survived the adventure!

Not a fan of mud. My gs mud packs under the front fender and locks up the front wheel. Wished they made a high fender kit. For the riding conditions you guys did pretty good.

Yes, you can send a route . But you can not send a single town or way point the app will then say : NOT SUPPORTED . And if you think about it, it is not great that garmin needs an other party for a proper map 😢

Great review thank you.

I feel you! I just completed the route and while there are easy parts to be sure, the hard ones make up for it. Fortunately I didn’t have to deal with the amount of mud you did but still had some and some of the ruts were insane. Awesome ride and awesome scenery. I recommend everyone do this route. If you are a beginner skip the expert sections but an intermediate rider should be alright but it will challenge you.

I enjoyed your videos on the BDRX. Only advice I want to give is carry more speed, stand up and stop following your buddies lines. Also don’t try and bounce from side to side on those muddy roads. Nine times out of 10 your best line is to literally ride the rut.

My Garmin XT will not allow importation of tracks or routes. It is WAY too complicated and convoluted. I blame the Pimply Programmers and young design team. Do you know how your refrigerator condenser works? No, you use the cold box so you can eat your fruit loops with cold milk!

How do you do those maps with the moving pointer, love that

Thank you, thank you. I have used this method for a long time and suddenly today, my kml track file imports perfectly into Explore, BUT... I cannot see it on the map anymore as usual. After about 10 import re-tries and spending hours wading through Explore settings and Garmin troubleshooting articles, I find this video. That little Plus sign did the magic. Would never have thought to click on that, it is super un-intuitive, and this used to work fine up to today without having to do that!!! Gotta love Garmin. Anyway, very glad I found this, and you've been of great help.

excellent review, thank you. I decided against the lone rider motobags because of their weight (and they aren't water proof...) - they are 30 lbs. combined...these are of the lightest I have seen that are of higher quality.

You need better tires, carry more speed through the mud and water, don’t be so timid. How do I know, I’ve been riding the Black Hills, in all weather, for the last twelve years.

Man, you are revving the hell out of that bike… OK to shift once and a while 😅

Made NO sense right out the blocks. No explanation as to what we're looking at, just right into it. He just assumes we're looking at the same links and screens. And Garmin's IT people are just overpaid morons given way too much creative license, Soooo many apps, sooo many incompatibilities and steps to do the simplest f*cking things, far too unnecessarily convoluted. Garmin has just turned something simple into an overly pretentious complicated, multi-app Mongolian cluster f*ck of a clown show. Just use Google maps, no endless incompatibilities and you don't have to jump through a dozen f*cking apps just to transfer a gd map. Shaping a route is a joke too. It takes you ALL the way to your f*cking destination THEN brings you back to your shaping point. WTF?!! What overpaid no-riding Poindexter thinks that we want to get to our destination THEN go back to a scenic route? Dufusses.

For owners of the NEW Zumo XT2. Take note that the "Garmin Explore" App, will no longer work with the new XT2. My work around was to first create the route in Google My Maps. Download the google route as a standard KML file. and then convert the KML file to a GPX file. I used the "MyGeodata" converter website to do the conversion. I then downloaded the new GPX file from My Geodata. Next, I then imported the GPX file into Garmin "BaseCamp" and finally exported the new route from BaseCamp to the Zumo XT2. Seems to work fine in "simulation" mode on the XT2. Weather permitting tomorrow I'll test it out in real life.

Did you upload maps onto your Garmin or where they already on it? I have a Garmin Tread and was wanting off road maps for the Black Hills area Thanks

After watching this vid I am so glad I am building an xr650l for an adv bike. Thanks

Meant to comment last year. This worked perfectly! I had a 12 hour loop in the Appalachian mountains and it didn't tell me I had too many points. Still kept me on track the whole time even when crossing over roads I had already been on. Just watched again to refresh my brain and made more routes for a trip coming up. Thanks so much, this was so incredibly easy.

I'm confused. My Garmin Explore says it is not compatible with the Zumo XT. Did something change?

Very informative review. The back plates are not made out of steel, but aluminium. You can test this with a magnet. Aluminium is non-magnetic.

Huh? When I open the Garmin Explorer app and I check which devices are supported, it says that the Zumo XT is not supported. Why does yours work??

How rigid are the SW-Motech quick-detach racks? The ability to remove them seems like a great idea. I'm considering the SW-M racks with the Sysbag WP or Mosko Moto Backcountry bags. Mosko's luggage is heavy. I've had trouble with Outback Motortek as well.

Were your SysBags damaged in any way, after this trip?

Grew up in SW Iowa currently in Nebraska. Looking at a solo of either the BHBDRX or the Wyo BDR in September. Great trip and video.. minus all the mud, well done looks like a blast.

Nice review. What if anything do you do for security?

Good review!

It doesn't work anymore on the web, it might work on the application though.

You asking me.. this video helped me very much. Thanks mate.

Thanks for the vlog, really helped figuring out plotting routes.

Never mind all this riding....what's happening /not happening to your xs650 Yam?

why does garmin explore say that it does not support my zumo xt? Sync is not happening and everything is connected

You need to forget you have a front brake , leave rear ABS on and use compression braking, then learn how to shift ur weight and control your slip..

Looks like you’re really enjoying yourself 🙄… stick to dirt roads dude..

Those tires are not for this type of terrain buddy. Great ride though!❤

Thanks for review, very detailed and all aspects covered

Nice ride. I too am from the Great Lakes region and enjoy riding in the black hills. Plan to attempt to do this 2 up this summer after we visit glacier.

And to add… there is no hook point for sling option and not lock to prevent other people to dismount the bag without authorization.. not thoroughly thought bag

After owning a couple big adventure bikes I have built an ultralight adventure bike with a Beta 390, I still ride and camp with guys that ride big bikes, life is just 50 times easier and I enjoy the ride more.

I might be missing something but can i ask what is the advantage of having such a big heavy bike that you can't lift on your own in those conditions seems like a disadvantage to me ?

Huge improvement over the Sysbag 30s I had.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that got caught out by the mud there in September! Great watch.

Nice review 👍 I'm leaning towards these bags. Do you know what the max weight the bags can carry?

I appreciate seeing it done the hard way, good effort guys!

That poor clutch..

Shiiiiiift!!

I recognize a lot of these roads.

Even with the lowering links my T7 is a little tall for my short legs. You guys did awesome for what you were into. I think I'll pass on the hard sections of this BDRX when I do it.

I absolutely HATE the OEM pirellis. They're great street tires and complete garbage in anything loose.