Look, Ma, No Stands
We're big fans of ride-in wheel-stands, whether used for parking centerstand-free motorcycles upright in cramped garages, sportbikes in the pits at races or track days or facilitating simple maintenance tasks. There's no arguing the convenience of the ride-in concept, so we paid attention when the new WheelDock SportDock was said to offer a unique feature that made it the best such unit on the market.
Where most ride-in stands rely on some sort of ramped or rocking apparatus to hold the front wheel in place, the WheelDock relies instead on a clever air-spring mechanism. To use the WheelDock, you simply ride the bike into the stand (an easy task thanks to bent rails at the front that guide the wheel into place and the lack of any raised ramp or rocker to ride over) and then tap the extended trip lever with your toe to release the air spring that locks the bike securely in place. The SportDock is easier to get into than any other ride-in stand we've used and holds the bike more securely, too.
Made from welded rectangular steel tubing for maximum strength, WheelDocks are available in seven different sizes to accommodate any type of front tire, from dirtbikes to fat-tire cruisers. The SportDock is sized specifically for 120/70-17 and 120/60-17 tires common to sportbikes. Adding to the versatility, there's an optional $50 Quick-Detach Transport Bar that allows you to mount the WheelDock to a truck or trailer in seconds without tools. The WheelDock is a clear and clever improvement of the ride-in wheel-stand concept, and it easily earns our approval.
Rating
Verdict
An elegantly simple solution, well-built and exceptionally easy to use. Our choice for a ride-in stand
Cortech Tribag Tail Bag
Soft Solution
The too-trendy underseat exhausts found on many modern sportbikes look trick, but with hot, high-mounted muffler cans ready to melt soft saddlebags, it's hard to carry gear for anything more than a short trip. Our search for suitable luggage led us to the Cortech TriBag Tail Bag, which provided a solid and secure cargo solution for a recent four-day sport-tour. Featuring a spacious, 30-liter capacity divided into a top-loading main compartment and four exterior pockets, the TriBag secures with four built-in hooked bungee cords that hide away when not in use. The cords easily cleared the hot underseat mufflers on both bikes we rode that weekend ('06 ZX-10R and '06 R1), though you might need to be clever with your rear anchor points if you've deleted the factory rear fender and/or license-plate bracket.
We were skeptical about the security of the bungee-mounting system at first, especially with a full load, but the bag stayed in place for the full 1000-mile trip, standing up even to the occasional stand-up wheelie and triple-digit speed blast. The only problem we ran into was when we tried to mount the TriBag to an '06 R6. A much better bet for a bike with a miniscule tail like that is the Cortech Sport Tail Bag ($59.99, expandable from 16 to 18 liters), which offers the same user-friendly features as the big brother TriBag in a smaller size.
Rating
Verdict
Tubular styling means it looks like your dad's old gym bag, but you can't argue with either the capacity or ease of use. A great value.