The R8 has landed :)

No, not one of these...

One of these, a Kriega R8 for Nambusters 3!  Almost as good as the £90k supercar, right??

I love that new-kit-just-arrived-in-the-post feeling.  It was quickly unpacked and loaded up so I could try it out on my commute to work, which is a ride of mixed motorway and city riding of around 28 miles.  I have a Honda VTR1000 and use a Kriega US-20 to carry my work clothes in to the office.

My '98 VTR.  She's getting on a bit but still rides and handles well.

The only issue here is that the US-20 mounts on the pillion seat of my VTR.  The R8 bumps up against it when you sit on the bike, not by much but a little.  In Nam that won't be a problem since my holdall will be mounted more on the rear rack, keeping the pillion seat clear.  Well, clear until one of the fine chaps on the trip buys me some unusual and bulky 'present' anyway.

In case you weren't reading this blog last time round, this is what they bought me.  The nice 2' aluminium bowl which is mounted on the back of my bike...

Turned out quite well actually, it was perfect for me to stuff my rucksack in and use it as half a top box.  When we were in the mountains I wanted to take a bit of Vietnamese mountain rock back with me, so I'd stop when I saw something of interest, reach down, grab a rock and chuck it in the bowl. On the last day, we stopped at a very remote village and this nice lady took a shine to it, so I gave it to her.  It makes me happy to think that as I type this, she's probably using it to cook, prepare some veg, or wash the kids, or any of a number of other uses that these bowls seem to get.

Anyway back to the R8. This is the bad boy in all its glory.  Two packs on a waist belt which is very well padded and that really helps it stay in place when worn.  The pack on the left is 100% waterproof since it uses a dry-bag type closure.  The pack on the right is not 100% waterproof, but should withstand a significant downpour since it's worn behind you and the flap covers much of the water resistant zip.  The zips are all YKK zips by the way so they should last well.

Covered mesh pockets in both lids/flaps

Main pouch has zipped pocket which contains the tool roll

Velcro front pocket under the flap

Main compartment has a second mesh covered zip pocket and a retaining clip for where the tool roll sits

Front zip pocket on the smaller section, with key lanyard

Main waterproof pouch in the small section

Nice details abound... this is one of the adjustment pulls

You can see how thick and padded the waist belt is. That helps it to stay in place.

The smaller section is easily removable. leaving just a single waist pack as above.

This section, which includes the dry-bag, just slides off the main waist strap. It's held in place with Velcro on the inside of a belt loop so it does not move whatsoever once fitted in place.

As you can see in the photos, the build quality is excellent, and it's pretty flexible. You can remove the smaller section easily if it's surplus.  There are plenty of pockets and zipped compartments to keep your stuff organised and dry.  Overall an excellent piece of kit.  I think there's easily enough capacity here for the items I'll want to keep handy when we're on NB3.

The tool roll, which fits in a purpose-made section (with retaining strap) of the main compartment

Tool roll opened out.  Could also be used to organise cables, first aid stuff etc

Lastly as you can see the tool roll is quite a flexible item, and not just limited to tools.  You could fit any of a number of items in there.  In fact I do not plan on carrying tools in it, inside the R8 compartment since I don't like the idea of falling and landing on hard tools attached to my waist.  I would either have them attached elsewhere on the bike (in the roll) or use the tool roll to keep other items such as power/data cables, chargers, SD cards, first aid items, swiss army knife (never leave home without one) and so on.