THE BILTWELL

EXFIL-80 BAG

Finding a good sissy-bar bag that can hold a lot of gear and can easily be switched from single or two-up riding is actually a pretty damn hard thing to do. That was until I got my mitts on the Biltwell EXFIL-80 bag. It is a roll-top bag made from 1680 PVC-backed UV-treated ballistic nylon. It has four rows of MOLLE webbing, three 1-1/2-inch mounting straps, and was designed by a guy named Bill.

Bill is the co-owner of Biltwell. He is an Army veteran from the Desert Storm era who spent time on the ground in Iraq. He is also an avid motorcycle rider who puts in thousands of miles a year developing and testing various products. Bill is one of the founders of the El Diablo Run, which is a chopper and custom-bike ride from Los Angeles to San Felipe, Mexico, that has been going on since 2006. To say that Bill may know a thing or two about rucking and riding would be a gross understatement.

I have more than 1,000 miles on the bag you see here, and I have used it on my rigid chopper with good results and also on my Dyna Lowrider. The EXFIL-80 attaches securely to a myriad of sissy bars and doesn’t move around no matter how loaded up it may be. It can hold a ton of items in its cavernous main compartment. The aforementioned is all well and good, but the real standout of this back is the large external tool compartment that doubles as a backrest. Inside the compartment it has places for nine deep sockets, seven combination wrenches, a zippered pocket, a mesh pocket, and a removable mini tool pouch. All I could ask for more is that the EXFIL-80 would come with some sort of removable backpack straps and all of my dreams would be realized.

The EXFIL-80 bag comes in black or OD Green, comes with a carry strap and waterproof sleeve for those rainy days, and retails for a hair under $200. For more info on this and Biltwell’s other burgeoning line of bags, hit up biltwellinc.com.

Truth be told, I wasn’t too impressed with the first iteration of the Harley-Davidson Street back in 2014. While it was a fun bike with a zippy little engine, a few things kept it from being a winner for me and possibly its intended audience.

Those few things included the fit and finish and the handling of the bike, specifically the steering head rake.

The finishing details were not up to the usual Harley-Davidson standards that everyone associates with the brand. Exposed wires with strange routing and suspect paint were more “late-night garage builder” quality than that from a manufacturer of premium motorcycles.

The steering head rake was kicked out too much, which didn’t make any sense to me, as the bike was touted as an ideal machine for urban assaults. The relaxed rake created a bit of a lazy steering feel and a hint of floppiness at lower speeds, less than ideal for ripping through the city.

Thankfully the H-D design team more than addressed these problems and came out with a bike that I feel is a big winner for the consumer. It’s also a winner for