Hondaline Rear Seat Trunk
HONDALINE REAR SEAT TRUNK
EVALUATION
A CARGO HOLD FOR BIG LOADS
SOME RIDERS WILL GO TO ALMOST ANY lengths to give their steeds a heaping measure of load-carrying capacity. Inveterate cargo-mavens will mount everything from aftermarket trunks to inch-thick marine plywood boxes to their motorcycles' luggage racks, and we’ve even seen one benighted overachiever with a footlocker bolted onto the back of his bike.
Hondaline’s Rear Seat Trunk, though, offers a far easier way to carry bulky, oversize loads on your two-wheeler. Resembling nothing so much as an oversize doctor’s bag, Hondaline’s top-loading trunk provides a cavernous cargo hold measuring some 1 1 inches long, 15 inches wide and 1 1 inches tall. That's more than enough room for a full-face helmet and some gear, or for sufficient clothing to dress lavishly for a weekend. Hondaline’s bag can swallow enough foul-weather gear to prepare you for almost any weather condition you might happen upon on a
long trip. And when the bag is empty, vinyl-covered foam in the front, base and back, along with plastic stiffeners in the sides and a 4-inch-deep plastic tray in the bottom of the bag, help it keep its shape.
Such prodigious carrying capacity might conjure up visions of an elaborate mounting system with chains and hooks to hold the bag in place, but that’s hardly the case. Four vinylcovered, J-shaped clips anchor to a bike's saddle or bodywork and cinch down a flat, nylon harness, while four Velcro-backed straps on the bag secure it to buckles on the harness. It's a quickly operated, easily used system; and although Hondaline recommends carrying only 10 pounds in the bag, we found the harness could handle almost twice that load. Fully packed, the trunk will shift slightly on the harness, but not enough to concern the rider.
Provided, of course, that the saddle is wide enough to support the har-
ness. Hondaline warns against using the bag on narrow saddles that let the buckles extend past the seat's edges. Also, the harness doesn't work well on saddles with thin, flexible bases, because cinching down the straps can tweak the base’s sides out of shape.
On most bikes, though, the trunk will hold your gear securely, and, for the most part, keep it dry, too. Despite the foam and vinyl, and the urethane-coated nylon exterior, in a long, hard rain some water will sneak past the sides of the top flap’s twin Velcro strips into the bag.
Apart from that minor shortcoming—and the fact that it obviates carrying a passenger—Hondaline’s Rear Seat Trunk (available in blue or black from Honda dealers for $85) is a boon to cargo kings. It offers more trunk space than some high-dollar sportscars, and carries awkwardly shaped loads with ease. And it makes a lot more sense than bolting a footlocker to the back of your bike. ga
