Lifestyle Cycles Product Review: Biltwell Saddlebags

"Hi, Davin! Thanks for coming out."

"Hey, thanks for having me! So, I see you brought the luggage out on your bike. Let’s dive right into it and tell me about it."

"Uh, so yeah, luggage. Well, does luggage— not a lot of people know that, but a lot of people do, 'cause we sell quite a bit of it. Our original piece of luggage was our XFL 7 bar bag. You'll see it in a lot of our old shots; they had it up on the front here or on a [__] bar on a chopper or something. So that bag turned into an entire Xfill line. We’ve got luggage, we’ve got straps, we’ve got tool rolls, we’ve got all sorts of stuff. These particular ones on this bike are our Xfill 18s, so you can see the size and shape. The shape is very similar to our XL 7 bag; we just made that bigger. The numbers mean you can fit that many cans of beer in that bag. So the XL 7, you can fit seven cans; these, you can fit 18. These ones I actually have my 17-inch laptop in there. I've got my little, you know, man folder for doing all this running around. I've got snacks in this pocket back here; you know, I've got my shield spray, microfiber towels, all that stuff in there. So these are perfect for running around town, doing errands. You can leave them on the bike at all times. We have a 36, which is twice as big—boy math—and those are about the size of a leather Pro."

"Okay, so just so people out there, you know, if they want to use their brains, um, yeah, twice as big, and those are great for camping. So if you want to go camping, throw your tent, all your sleeping bag and stuff in there, food, all sorts of stuff. We've got three different [__] bar bags: we've got the XO 60, the XO 65, and the Xville 80. They've all got their own little, you know, some of them—the 65 is just a dry bag with some Molly straps—you strap it to your bike. The 80 has like a big, you know, section in the front for tools, a huge, you know, hole bag. You know, the bag itself is the biggest because it's an 80, so it's just a big, kind of cavernous space. And then on the inside of the bag, we do hi-vis orange, so when you open it, you can see what's in there if it’s dark out."

"So, yeah, exactly. Little stuff like that. Um, obviously, Molly panels all around the outside, straps—you can, like, you know, these straps on the outside are adjustable, so you can make them longer or shorter. If you need to bring your Mexican blanket with you, you can throw it in there. Um, you know, and then these are just a throwover style, but they're quick to take off. You can just unsnap, unzip, and take it off. We use, um, this bike has just drag specialties saddlebag supports on it, so any factory aftermarket saddlebag support will work. Um, this [] bar is actually ours too, so that's part of the Xville line. We call them the Xville [] bars. And then, uh, up front, we have our Xfill 3 bar bag. We've got a couple different sizes of those. We've got a tiny little magnetic tank bag that's really nice, so if you just need a little bit more room than what you have in your pockets, it's magnetic. So, on this, it can fit anywhere, but on the bikes that have little center dash panels, that fits on one side or the other, which is really nice."

"And then we've got tool rolls, backpacks, and all sorts of stuff in the XO lineup."

"Very cool! Sounds like you guys have done a lot of thought into making stuff that people are actually going to use when they're going either around town or on the road."

"Yep, exactly! Yeah, one of our bosses really loves to suffer, so the harder it is for him, the more he enjoys it. So, you know, like packing all his stuff into a small space gives him pleasure."

"So it’s the game of Tetris?"

"Exactly! So, just making—being expandable is nice because you can start with these smaller ones. You can add different things, strap to it, like I said, and just keep kind of building out from there. You could even strap a couple of these Xville bags onto the front, back, or side of these things because they all have the Molly panels. And, you know, you can get Molly sticks on the internet where you can just slip through there. And then we've got Volet straps—I don't know if you've seen those—are like the rubber straps; they're a little bit stretchy with a little connector on them. We've got that; we've got just normal nylon straps. All sorts of luggage solutions, and they're all kind of nice looking."

"Very cool! Well, I'm really glad you came out to talk to us about these. I know we sell these downstairs, and I know they move quite well on the website. But now our customers get a little bit more insight into just what they're about, and I know we'll sell more of them because you came out."

"Absolutely! Yeah, there's endless information out there, and you can check out reviews and whoever's website you like to go to the most. It would be lifestylecycles.com; it's the best one in my opinion."

"Right on! Thanks for coming out, man."

"Thanks for having me! And wait, don't go anywhere until you like and subscribe to make sure you get notified every time we post our how-to videos, our product reviews, and all of our amazing interviews with your favorite racers and industry icons. I'll see you guys next time!