Review: Viking Adventure Motorcycle Bags

Viking is a manufacturer of motorcycle luggage. They have bags for street, dirt, and adventure riding. They also have brand-specific models for a wide range of models.

Recently, Viking Bags offered to let me sample two of their "Adventure" bags. The first bag I installed on the Kawasaki ADV Lite KLX300 was the small Odyssey tank bag.

Tank bags are handy for small items that you don't want buried in less accessible luggage. The Viking Odyssey ADV Tank Bag is small - but as large as the tiny gas tank on the KLX300 will allow. It is the right size for a few first aid supplies, cleaner for your helmet shield, a microfiber cloth, you wallet and phone.

The bag is constructed of heavy waterproof TPU fabric and has one zipper around three sides. Like all tank bags, it covers the gas tank cap - so it needs to be detached at every fuel stop. This is where my criticisms begin.

The Odyssey tank bag has an overcomplicated set of straps. First, the front harness (the straps that run under the fork yoke) have a right and left side. Pay attention that the buckles match the mating pieces on the tank bag. You will unclip these buckles EVERY time you fill up!

Second, the straps from the bottom of the bag to the frame are a mess of Velcro and buckles. According to the Viking design, you are supposed to Zip tie the end section of these straps to the frame - and NO ONE wants to do this! As shown above, I reused straps from the Viking tailpack (more on this later) to simply loop around the frame on each side. These straps were much too long, so after I had the tank bag positioned, I just cut them off and melted the ends of the webbing.

My biggest criticism is the case that is attached on top of the bag, intended for your cell phone. Evidently, Viking designers thought it would be clever to attach a case to fit large phones on this small bag. The aggravating design requires that you first attach a Velcro pad with their interpretation of Molle straps. Why not just sew a patch of Velcro to the top of the bag?

With the Velcro pad installed, then you can attach the phone case. I guess the idea is that you could pull the entire case free, phone and all. In reality, most of use just carry our phones in pockets on our coats or pants. The exception is using the phone as a GPS - but then it is probably attached to a mount on the handlebars for better visibility. The phone pocket is described as being "touch friendly", but I find this unnecessary. Finally, Viking also includes another flap that is supposed to shade the phone screen.

In total, I don't plan to ever use the phone pocket - unless I can fold a map small enough to fit. I have no use for the flap cover. I found the entire design and attachment system tiresome. If I didn't have extra looped straps available, i would have returned the tank bag and happily substituted a similar bag that costs less! At the time of this writing, the Odyssey tank bag has a list price of $125.00 - and is on sale for $105.99 - Click HERE to learn more.

As shown in the top photo of the KLX300 ADV Lite, I typically ride with a tail bag that holds my tools, a spare tube, a an extra liter of gas. The pack shown is a 30 liter dry bag from Rhinowalk. This is a conventional dry bag that you can roll down to fit the contents. In addition, there are two compression straps on both sides of the pack.

With my standard gear for day rides, this 30L pack is compressed fully - and is still too large. Even for overnight trips, I seldom need all this space.

So I was happy to try the Viking Odyssey 22 liter tail pack. My hope was that this would be the "Goldilocks" and be just right to hold my gear!

I'm sorry to report that I was once again disappointed. First, the bag is only designed to roll the top down, then connect the side buckles. There is NO strap over the roll top to make the bag shorter - ONLY one size.

Second, this bag also overcomplicates the design. There are pairs of long straps designed to attach to the cycle, fastened with cam buckles on top. As shown above, this is intended to attach the tail pack sideways. As shown in my other photo, I attach the tail bag lengthwise for better security and less wind resistance.

The Rhinowalk bag included attachment straps with plastic buckles - which I refuse to use! Instead, I use a cheap pair of orange Harbor Freight cam buckle straps that will never fail. (NEVER use bungee cords to attach any gear to your cycle!!!) The provided Viking straps were too long to work over the narrow rack on my dual sport.

Luckily, I never throw extra straps away - because eventually you are going to break one of those irritating plastic buckles. I repurposed two of the long straps with sewn loops to attach the tank bag - as shown above.

Finally, the Viking 22L tail pack is pretty expensive compared to the competition. As of this writing, the list price is $174.99, but on sale for $148.99. In contrast, the Rhinowalk 33L compression dry bag costs only $81.99 on Amazon.

I want to thank Viking for supplying these ADV bags for my review. I hope they use my constructive criticisms to both improve their adventure bag series - and offer even lower prices in the future!

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