Review Approved

Nice initiative. Will surely help a lot of tourers.

Awesome.. Thanks in advance for the experience comparo between these saddle bags..
Waiting for the details

During Sep 2011, I made an super dooper, unplanned, disorganized & hurried solo trip to RJ. I didn't know (or rather have) much options to buy a motorcycle luggage & I had to settle for Cramster Colt. At that point, no one knew whether Cramster Colt fits perfect to CBR 250R or would touch the exhaust. So I went ahead & made the purchase after a quick check. For Rs 2400, the bag accommodated 12 days clothing, chain lube & cleaner, some waste cloths, toiletries, bike docos, Canon S5IS, slippers, additional pair of gloves, 2 water bottles, 2 screw drivers, 2 pliers & insulation tape To carry mobile, laptop & charger, I used my Swiss gear backpack tied down to the rear seat using 2 bungee chord. Half the time I had to mount the Colt between the front & rear split seats to make sure always that Colt's underneath was saved from exhaust. Needless to say that entire trip was pain in the A**

After experiencing with 3 other motorcycles, it's quite interesting to look back & see what I got for what I paid





















So after 12 days on road, finally when coming to Chennai, the COLT bag started touching the exhaust which happened without my knowledge & made a burn hole in the bottom of the COLT. Thankfully nothing else happened nor I lost anything. My Wife gave a nice smile & took away the bag to dump old cloths. I'm quite happy on that part because she didn't ask me the cost of the saddle bag


Thus my COLT was short lived & I'd enough with the saddle bags & started for hunting for no more Indian makes & a tail bag combo

Learning is !! Not to buy Indian made products ?? or never buy things in a hurry?? or never buy things without trying it??...I had bought the Cramster Saddle's for my RE and it had been of full use to me and it suffices my requirement...had a bad experience with their riding pant's and boots...

Cramster saddle bags are designed for Royal Enfield and Older generation bikes..

They aren't perfect fit for New Generation bikes like Ninja 250R, R15, 200Duke, 200NS, CBR 150/250R, FZ.. etc. (i.e. bikes with raised seats & monoshocks).

Just FYI (for the readers) Cramster Stallion is made for bikes with straight exhausts (RE motorcycles). I have extensively used Cramster Colt on my Pulsar 220 and have never had an issue such as the one documented above.

No Antz. The other way around. Stallion is for straight exhausts and Colt is for upswept exhausts.

Linkie is here - Saddlebags

I use a Colt meant for upswept exhaust, been using it extensively for the last three years. No complaints so far.

My ride is a 220

The Colt does fit on bikes with upswept exhausts.. but like I said only on older gen bikes like the Pulsar 150/180/220, Apache RTR, Karizma etc.. there is a support in the form of the rear shock absorber of these bikes for the Colt to be mounted at the rear.

On Latest Gen bikes with monoshocks, the Colt doesn't get that extra support and there is always a fear of it hitting the rear tyre/wheel. Therefore its not a perfect fit. After all the colt has been around since almost a decade without any major change.. and these new Gen bikes have just arrived.

Also as in the case with Argee.. probably could touch the exhaust of the CBR250R as well (not all new gen bikes have exhausts with the same elevation).

Oopsie! I meant that only .

My Rx's exhaust burnt Stallion's saddle bag & the plastic under the saddlebag when returning from Tristate G2G held at Munnar during Mar 2011. Probably, if I'm little careful enough to pack (not like stuffing things & packing) then crapster...sorry...cramster might hold. Unfortunately that doesn't work with me, especially when I'm returning from any trip. I'm 10 times cautious when starting a trip, but the last day I'm all excited to return home & dump things & that probably might be the reason.

All said...I've moved away from saddlebags for good; after using a tail bag & learnt to travel light, I'm all in love with tail bags & tail bags only.

waiting for the review of other two...

Nelsonrigg was simple straight forward tailbag; simple box where you could dump stuff. Sometimes simplicity is best






Had a strong velcro in addition to two strong YKK zippers



A good handle to carry around & doesn't look like a motorcycle tail bag



The underneath was built with very friction material to bind to seat strong; what didn't impress me much was that, it has 4 straps to bind to the motorcycle. This wasn't so comfortable as it was shown in Youtube videos, may be on my CBR 250R. I also had to buy extra straps for $29.99 which I conveniently didn't.



Sturdy construction & retains the shape no matter what...



Finally I did a great Indian juggad by fitting plastic D-clips & that was way too convenient. This bag helped me to carry out several trips with just 2 flip side... 1. The stitches weren't strong enough for the bag to be stuffed. After about 3-4 trips, the stitch gave up once & I'd to fix it with a cobbler at Mumbai 2. 30 liters wasn't just sufficient for a week's trip. I realized I need about 40 liters & may be it was sufficient was 2-3 days trip All the more, the extra length of strap that I tied gave up while returning back & the tire just wore up the strap & one of the Dclip gave up. That is when I started looking for another bag & that is when I stumbled on Viaterra CLAW or what I like to call a TADDLE BAG

The Viaterra experience... I'd ordered a bag on 19-Jan & it left the warehouse on the same day; there're very few online stores that accept CC payments in this country & Viaterra is one of them, consider me lucky. Both I & Viaterra kept tracking the shipment everyday; we found the package reached my locality on 21-Jan, the lazy bumbs at DTDC delivered to me only on 24-Jan. Absolutely great packing - 5/5


Comes with a free rain cover - 5/5



This is what I found on the interior pocket, but then on one open & close, no apprehension, things are fine. And mind you, this was with just only one zipper, all others were intact - 4/5

This is the inner pocket, likewise there's another pocket at the exterior, just behind this one as big as this one, probably to place bike documents etc







The front side, or the side that rider rests upon, when mounted



The rear side, or the side that is visible to others, when mounted. Notice the long strap that comes like the one in any duffle bag, that allows us easy to carry anywhere without having to look like a motorcycle tail bag



Underneath, that sits on the rear seat



Material quality, I'd say it's same or better than Nelsonrigg & would be insulting to compare with Colt because, Colt uses 600 Denier Polyester + Nylon while Viaterra uses 1680 x 1680 Denier Synthetic Fabric. Read more about Denier here - Units of textile measurement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How good is the underside of the CLAW?? I mean does it stick to the seat well with the straps tied tightly.. Hope it won't slip or shake while taking a corner/curve..
I hope there is more write up on the CLAW; the amount of luggage it can take and if it has has a outer pocket on the upper side for quick access to bike docs and maps and stuff like that??

Once again thanks a ton for your review on these..