Classic luggage

While many of us want to ride a classically styled machine that is unencumbered by components that may hinder the good looks of our pride and joy, Dave Manning takes a look at ways in which we can make our classic machines more practical and purposeful while retaining some timeless style.

As most of us are probably aware, classic bikes are actually far more suited to carrying luggage than many modern machines – long seats and twin shocks (or rigid/ plunger rear ends) are far more likely to retain a pair of throw-over panniers without them folding into the rear wheel than any new-fangled monoshock conveyances!

And those long and flat seats tend to be much more accepting of tents, doss rolls, tail packs and other fabric luggage, and classic bikes usually don’t have the same social stigma of fitting a tubular rack at the rear that a modern bike has.

Read more and view more images in the April 2019 issue of OBM – on sale now!