The Biltwell Motorcycle Luggage Backstory - "By Riders, For Riders"
Biltwell was one of, if not the first, to bring tactical-style MOLLE-equipped motorcycle gear to market with their universal-fit EXFIL-7 back in 2014. "I came back from Iraq in '05 and used the machine gun ammo pouches from my gear to hold stuff on my bikes for years," says co-founder Bill Bryant.
"Those pouches were way tougher and more universal than anything on the market, but not really meant for motorcycles. So, we designed the EXFIL-7 to be a moto-specific, but universally mounted utility bag."
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| The EXFIL-65 is Biltwell's latest offering - 100% waterproof and just the right size for nearly any adventure, it straps on to a sissy bar or luggage rack and offers a myriad of tie-down and attachment points. |
Now, nearly a decade after first launching it, Biltwell's EXFIL line of motorcycle luggage has expanded to nine different bags for a wide variety of 'missions'.
Not ones to sit back and design gear from behind their desks, Bryant and crew log plenty of miles, and not just riding to the local bar either. This year the Biltwell gang was slated to ride old bikes to the top of the world - Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, but COVID-19 had other plans and the adventure had to be postponed.
Not ones to give up easily, a "back-up plan" was initiated. Remote camping through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon meant social distancing was easy to do and the group used the opportunity to shakedown final prototypes of the new EXFIL-65 bag, fine-tune future design modifications on the other gear and maybe sneak in just a little bit of fun and call it work.
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| Putting their money where their mouth is - the Biltwell crew puts down many adventurous miles each year in search of good times and thoughtful product designs. It ain't bad work if you can get it! |
From the hugely successful EXFIL-80 sissy bar bag to the thoughtfully designed EXFIL-11 tank bag, all of the gear is meant to be universal fit.
This makes it particularly easy for dealers to stock and simple for riders to buy and install. "There's plenty of traditional, complicated and ugly luggage out there for baggers and touring bikes," says Bryant, "but we wanted something much more rugged that worked on any motorcycle and was built for the way our customers ride."
The numerical naming convention? Simple. "Conventional luggage is measured in liters. That's an odd measurement that doesn't connect with our customers." So, the model names are derived by determining how many 12 ounce beer cans can fit in each one. Something nearly every Biltwell customer can identify with immediately - one more clever example of this company's empathy with the younger and more adventurous modern-day rider.
BILTWELL INC.
www.biltwellinc.com