I was wanting to hear opinion on different t bags. I think I will need a pretty large set of bags or bag for my future trips. I just can't imagine fitting my wifes stuff on the bike. The bike is a 98 road king. Has a large luggage rack.
Stuff sack for clean undies and a tooth brush.
Credit card for everything else.
Ok... Me & the wife can travel for about 3 days, with rain a cool weather gear using the tour pack and both side bags with a small duffel on the top of the tour pack. This includes a small tool kit, decent first aid kit, rain suits, clean clothes and bathroom bag.
EDIT-
Not in any particular order...
Think and pack light.
Big heavy bags = big heavy bike = rides like an unbalanced pig.
Bags with wheels & collapsible handles = unnecessary weight
Load it up and do a test run before hitting the road for the first time.
You only need about 1/2 of the stuff you think you'll want.
Jeans can be worn for several days on a tour. Nobody will know and if they do, they won't care because they are wearing day old jeans too..
Buy a smaller bag and tell the Mrs. that it's all they had. Then tell her she can use half the bag, you get the other half.
I carry the OEM roll up bag plus two crescent wrenches, some fuses, zip ties, a couple of bungees, a small roll of electrical tape, tire gauge, and a 1/4 drive socket rail.
I can't do any major repair with it, but I figure I can rig something to get me off the highway if need be and able to limp it to a better location. Fact is, it's an EFI bike, so major failure = shop repair anyway.. All I need is the basics.
Oh yeah..
The first thing the wife will want is a curling iron or hair dryer.
Gently remind her that she's going to have a helmet on all day so no need for all that.
Almost any decent place to sack out will have a hair dryer bolted to the wall anyway, so hers is just extra baggage that you don't have room for.
Tell her she can take a small makeup bag OR the hair care products...not both..
Then buy her some nice blingy hair thingies and she'll be happy. If she's happy, you are happy.....Savvy ??
You might need to invest in the new stuff out there that will allow you to wear those pieces of clothing for multiple days... anti-bacterial, anti-stink stuff that you can wash each night and will quickly dry by morn... coconut socks, undies, t-shirts. Jeans you can wear a few days. Dirty clothes are wasted space. While that will help reduce the load, the ladies typically bring all this extra hard stuff. I gave up and got a trailer for the longer trips.
About five years ago, I picked up a T-Bag Super T. I ride alone, so I mount it so once the bag is packed I can use it as a back rest. Course that won't work in your case unless your wife one day decides she wants to have her own scoot.
Anyway, the super T fits the bill nicely for me. I use it for week-long adventures and she has never let me down.
As for your tool bag....Instead of packing multiple screw drivers and allen wrenches, I picked up a Craftsmen screwdriver with a magnetic tip. It came with 20 additional bits I could swap out as needed including torx, phillips and allen. Just an FYI.
When my wife and I were traveling two-up, I just gave her the space she could have and she had to decide what was important. It worked. We used the saddlebags for riding gear/tools (rain gear, leather coats, chaps, etc.). We used the tour pack for gloves, glasses, maps and all the miscellaneous stuff you end up with. We had a t-bag that I would bungie to the luggage rack on top of the tour pack.
Now we each ride our own and have out own t-bag plus saddlebags. There is an abundance of room.