Scooters Love Shad!

 If you've been following along you know that we recently purchased two Honda ADV150 Scooters with the intent to ride them in the 2021  Scooter Cannonball Run which is a 10 day cross country adventure on scooters!  To that end, we've been slowly adding farkles and making adjustments to make our scooters suitable for that kind of trip.  So far we've added mirror extenders, hand guards, a rear luggage rack, an air horn (for my bike) and a tire repair kit (for Eric's bike).  Of course we also added GPS units and my XM radio along with a heated gear connection and a battery charger connection.

Now we need to think about luggage.  We realize we will have to be minimalists because there isn't a lot of room on a 150 cc scooter, lol!  We began shopping and found some awesome bags at Shad USA that we thought would just fill the bill.  Eric instigated a dialog with Michael Schuiten at Shad USA and told him what we were doing.  Shad USA was just as excited about our upcoming adventure as we are!  Awesome!

So this morning I see the UPS truck pull up to our driveway and the driver delivers this.

Oh my heck!  What is this?  We were expecting two top box mounts from Shad USA but got this!  Three boxes of goodness.  Yes, yes, yes.  Eric, open those boxes NOW!  We were like giddy schoolgirls at a rock concert waiting for the main show to come on stage.  Jumping up and down, grinning from ear to ear.  Get those boxes open!

From the git go we were totally impressed.  Everything was extremely well packaged to eliminate any potential shipping damage.  The first box contained the two mounting plates that we were expecting.

Peeps, let me tell you, this is quality stuff.  Strong aluminum with stainless steel hardware.  Beautiful finish and attractive but functional.  This next photo shows the thickness (there's definitely some heft to this plate).

Oh that brushed aluminum is going to look sharp on our black ADV 150's!  But hey, there are two more boxes to open.  WooHoo!  Look at that packaging.  Quick, what's underneath the styrofoam sheet?

Oh my goodness!  Just look at that beauty!  Shad USA sent us the Terra TR37  aluminum top case and it is absolutely stunning.  Sturdy, rugged and the tie down loops are bolted to the lid.  The cases are  waterproof and came with two keys.  By the way, the keys are also very sturdy.  They are NOT going to break trying to turn them in the lock.

But what's this?  Inside the top case was a liner!  Dude!

The liner is so freaking awesome!  It's fine luggage is what it is.  First it has an outside zipper pocket perfect for the laptop.  That solved a concern for us immediately.  We weren't sure we'd have room for our laptops and might have to just use tablets which is less than optimal for blogging 😉

We unzipped the liner bag and found that it was expandable (nice feature) and it was just like your carry-on suitcase with retaining straps, a mesh zipper pocket on the top and a shoulder strap for carrying.  A feature that just screams quality is the fact that the liner bag is shaped to fit into the top case and has a dent to accommodate the locking mechanism of the top box.  Sweet!  That's some smart engineering!

Inside the top box is a really nice padded floor mat.  Dang, they thought of everything.  We are super impressed.

Now, of course, Eric needs to get the mounting plates installed on our scooters and put the whole kit together!  Here is a close up of the plate installed.  I love the color on our black scooters - snazzy!

A view of the scooter with the top case mounting plate.

Eric said the installation was a piece of cake!  And this is what the scooter looks like with the top box installed.  A couple of rear views.

A side view.

And a pair of matching Honda ADV150 Scooters sporting top of the line Shad Terra TR37 Top Cases!

Front view.

View with top case open.

We're so excited about our new Shad top boxes.  Now we need to plan an overnight right and test them out!  Pretty sure we'll be happy with them.  We're debating on any side luggage.  Weight is an issue because we're on such small scooters.  Shad offers some awesome soft luggage and I'm thinking if I need more storage space, the soft luggage might be a good solution.

For now, we're thrilled to team up with Shad USA who supports our goal of riding the Scooter Cannonball Run.  Eric will be posting a blog about the technical details of the Shad top boxes and I'll add a link for that when it's ready.

Today was a super fun, exciting day for us!  Our scooters are that much closer to being Cannonball ready thanks to Shad USA.  Stay tuned for updates and check out Shad USA.  Their cases are superior to anything we've had in the past and that's saying something!

As always, thanks for following along.  Hopefully we'll get an overnight scooter ride in soon.

Cheers,

Cletha & Eric