Harley-Davidson Road King...
Harley-Davidson Road King
What's in Your Bag?
You need real room to cruise
Despite their bulbous, beefy-looking cargo holds, payload capacity on each of these bikes varies widely.
The Nomad, for instance, with its organically styled, integrated clamshell-opening units, will stash your personal crap with ease. Because said bags are side-loading, however, they can spill their contents out onto the road if you're not careful. Bag liners are a good idea here. We can attest to the watertightness of the Nomad luggage in anything short of a full-blown typhoon.
The Harley's squarish units offer a more functional approach-and a good waterproof seal-thanks to their top-loading, boxtop-like cover. You'll be able to stuff about 1155 cubic inches of stuff into each bag, for a total of 2310ci of storage. That's about 10 gallons, which should be more than enough for a long weekend (though the opening is a bit on the narrow side).
They must have taken judicious notes over in Merry Olde England, because the Rocket III's bags look suspiciously similar to the Harley's-though they get points for being slightly wider. Another subtle difference is the opening mechanism-a push of a button and you're in. But that latching mechanism inside takes up a few inches of valuable space, so the best way to maximize the room is to pack carefully. Closing the lid rewards you with a firm click, but it's a good idea anyway to make sure the latch is engaged. The bags fit 9.5 gallons each.
The Vision's bags, alas, while easily the most stylish of the bunch, offer the least real-world storage capacity. We have no doubt, however, that they're probably the most waterproof of the lot, thanks to heavy-duty gaskets found at the seams. It's odd, though; Victory claims 1714ci of capacity for the left saddlebag and 1656 for the right, but all that space is configured in smallish, strangely unusable spaces. That's an alleged total of 3370ci-over 14 gallons.
We're not sure if Victory measures the gaskets lining each bag, which take away a good gallon or two right off the bat-plus the left-side bag houses the built-in air-preload-adjustment tool-but both of the other bikes offer better real-world packing capacities.
The Royal Star Tour Deluxe's bags offer the best of both worlds-they're stylish and removeable and offer a whopping 4296ci-over 18 gallons-of total packing potential. It's the most carrying capacity in the group, and these units are attractively styled to match the bike, too. I think we can call the winner here, and by a landslide. Don't forget the kitchen sink . . . -AC