Motorcycles

I have been familiar with the French company Top Block Racing (TBR) for several years. My first encounter with their products was when I acquired frame sliders for my BMW K1300R, a bike I rode from 2014 until the autumn of 2023. Recently, while searching for frame sliders for my new Kawasaki H2 SX SE, I discovered that TBR manufactures them for this model as well. Despite some uncertainty from a German dealer regarding compatibility with the 2023 model, I decided to place an order, knowing they fit models from 2018 to 2022. Unfortunately, the sliders did not fit my bike, possibly due to minor changes in the frame or thicker welds. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to write about these frame sliders because of their exceptional aesthetics and high quality.

Triumph has rolled out two distinct variants of its Rocket 3 motorcycle: the R and the GT. At first glance, these models seem quite similar, but a deeper dive reveals key differences in handlebars, seat configuration, and foot control placement. While the GT includes a backrest as standard, you can easily retrofit the R with one from your Triumph dealer, making it possible to convert between the two variants to suit your preference.

Grip puppies are made to reduce handlebars vibrations on the grips preventing hands fatigue. For riders with bigger hands they also may provide a better comfort because of the increased diameter. Someone may argue that they may also endanger the feeling of the front end but in my experience that is not the case or at least there is enough good feeling in a regular traffic riding. Sports riding on a track is probably different story.

Alpine MotoSafe Tour and Race

Alpine Hearing Protection is founded 1994 in Netherlands as a producer of customized earplugs for professional applications. They claim their motorcyclists earplugs are the best for the motorway and racing circuit. Their earplugs have special filter which reduces wind noise while keeping the sound or the engine and helmet communicator.

Their main products are MotoSafe Tour (with black filter) and Race (with red filter) which provide 17dB and 20dB noise reduction respectively. MotoSafePro that you can see on the pictures is actually a set of both of these earplugs with included carrying bag, insertion stick and cleaning spray. Further, Alpine sponsors MotoGP so they have a special edition of MotoSafe Race with MotoGP branding (black earplugs with red filter).

After unsuccessful try to use SW-Motech Daypack Pro tank bag on my K 1600 GT, I searched for an alternative and found a new series of tank bags from Wunderlich named CLICK BAG. They offer 5 different sizes, 3L, 6L, 13L and finally 16L. CLICK BAG 3L is not extendable, but remaining sizes expand to 8, 16 and 19 liters respectively. 3L bag is the only one that comes with the rain cover while other bags come with internal waterproof bags. This second solution also keeps your goods dry but I find it not that practical. First, it occupies some space inside and second, it’s more difficult to put the stuff in and take them out. Anyways, the bags are really good quality and they attach to appropriate tank rings very easily, just one click. This attachment system is very similar to SW-Motech Pro but without magnets. Wunderlich is an expensive brand but some of their CLICK BAGS are basically the only safe options for BMW K 1600 GT, namely 3L and 6L. Unfortunately SW-Motech Pro tank bags collide with the fully turned handlebars and random switches might got pressed. Besides that, this may limit the movement of the handlebars to the end which may make turning the bike around more difficult. But let’s see how Wunderlich tank bags fit on K 1600 GT and which one I chose for my bike.

What would “best inner bags” mean, just the quality of the bags or something more? Well, since plastic side cases very often have irregular inner shape, in my opinion, optimal space usage is as important as the quality. Instead of the further explanation, let’s see the internals of the BMW touring cases:

BMW offers good quality inner bags but according to the pictures and forum’s opinions I could find online, they do not occupy all internal space. This can be good in case you want to add some additional items like rain clothes, but these small items may also very easily fall out of the cases when you open them so my conclusion is that it is better to use the whole internal space of the side cases by inner bags and keep all small items in the top case.

Are you wondering who would ever write a blog of installation of some rubbery impact protectors for some motorcycle’s side cases? I completely understand you. 😀

So why did I write this? I recently bought K1600GT and started looking for some aftermarket parts. But I was surprised that there are actually not many information about some of the products, very often no pictures or just bad quality ones, no videos, quite strange. This specially applies BMW genuine parts. Some forums contain some information but very often without any pictures. All this makes decision to buy something or not very difficult.

After quite a while, I decided to blog about my other hobbies, namely motorcycling. In the future, I will more about my past, current and future motorcycles, but the reason for this blog item today is the new generation of the Shoei GT-Air helmets, GT-Air 3 Realm TC-5. I just received this helmet and it looks amazing. Since today, I have been using GT-Air 1, which is a great helmet, but after 5-6 years of usage it was time to get the new one.