How about an old metal milk crate and clamp it to the existing racks you have? May look a little cheesy, but maybe some really slick spray paint will give it that powder coated look. Should hold a small one man nylon tent and bedroll and a few other possibles you may need.

"OOTS"

If you pack carefully, the luggage rack you have looks like it will work fine. I strap my tent and sleeping bag to the passenger seat.

Ahh, the tent and sleeping bag. You are ready to head to Dauphin Island.

Yea what Springer said on the exhaust.

I am all about that stretchy net stuff...it holds secure, it has lots of hooks....and you can get them different sizes.  Bungee cords are ok...but the nets ROCK.

Val

I took the advice and put a heat barrier between my tent bag and exhaust.  even though it is about 3 inches away from it, id rather be safe than sorry.  iv still got to get some cargo nets then ill be set.  heres some updated pics:

-Matt

http://picasaweb.google.com/cmn1771/Packed#

i never really understood why all the dual sport guys HAD to have the whol saddle-bag thing going on, for $1500, when they could simply strap the stuff to the seat?

No, folks - I have to disagree strongly about the whole bungee-type cargo net.   

When yer bouncing around on the trails, ya want stuff nailed down TIGHT. Totally secure, don't give yer stuff room to shift. That leads to trouble. Lotsa ways to do that, and maybe we can incorporate some luggage / packing tips in our upcoming "learn to ride in the dirt" series. (Granted, "series" may appear to be a tad optimistic, as we haven't yet had our first lesson.  _

And dredman has a good point. Why do we have to haul all this junk, er, I mean, GEAR, anyway? The point is to "try" not to bring everything ya want, but rather, only those things ya can't live without. I'm certainly guilty of dragging along crap that I never actually use. There's a lesson in there, somewhere. Part of it might be to experiment... get out there, camping, whatever, and look at all the stuff ya brung but never really used. A weekend camping trip is probably just a little different than a round-the-world excursion.

Hey, I'm not really a know-it-all, but I've picked up a lotsa tips and tricks from years of poking around in ADVrider and a coupla dual-sport DVDs.

I agree with Sadlsor. Bungie straps are dangerous. I once had tailbag bungied on my street bike on a smooth paved road to come off. It was sucked under the tailpiece and wedged between the fender and tire. I was going at fast pace at the time and it locked up my rear tire and I slid for a bit then the tire caught traction burnt right through that nylon back, my clothes, shoes, rain suit, spare shield and everything else in the bag. It scattered all over the highway and and 18 wheeler destroyed what was left. My rear tire was severely corded within seconds. It wasn't new to begin with but it had at least 1k miles left.

I don't use bungees anymore. I now use Aerostich quick release cargo straps. http://www.aerostich.com/packing-it-in/straps-bungees-and-accessories/quick-release-cargo-straps.html I'm sure you can get straps like this from many places. But these are nice and long. Just cut to your desired length.

I've tried Rok Straps as well. They are just evolved bungie straps. They still allow the load to bounce around.

Here's a flat strap-on rack. It's only 17" wide but is this what you had in mind? http://www.aerostich.com/packing-it-in/straps-bungees-and-accessories/fastrack.html] [url]http://www.aerostich.com/packing-it-in/straps-bungees-and-accessories/fastrack.html[/url] I bet someone handy with tools could build a wider one from a sheet of aluminum.