PRoductreviews Green Chile adventure gear straps By Bill Hooykaas #12547
THIS PAST SUMMER THREE MOA members and I tackled Asia on our own, riding from London to Vladivo- stok and back to London again as we hugged the Hindu Kush Mountains along the Afghan and China frontiers. A couple of companies supplied us new products to field test and offer feedback for further product develop- ment. One of these was Green Chile Adventure Gear, made in New Mexico. Green Chile is a small American
company run by a couple of off-road riders frustrated at the lack of mount- ing options for their dirt bikes. They set out to come up with a solution for bikes without carriers. In the process,
Rack kit which was not used on the trip, though it certainly adds additional versatility. The straps take a bit of trial and error to
figure out how to best suit one’s needs, but once we understood the mounting/con- necting system, it was a breeze to use. There are lots of videos posted online for every type of mounting option... and there are many. Like our BMWs, Green Chile gear is
frankly, overbuilt. Their straps are strong, extra long, and really, really hold tight. We all mounted drybags to the tops of our pan- niers and tied down our spare tires to the rear rack using a combination of Bag Snake kits and Mondo kits, Snakes on the pannier lids, longer Mondos to mount the spare tires. Throughout around
24,000 km of some of the most challenging roads and trails in the world and numerous bike drops, the straps held tight and never lost their positive grip.
However, when we wanted to change out our Tourance road tires for Heidenau Scouts, the Mondos quickly released their iron grip with just a press on the cam buckle release. The build of the straps is second to none.
All the tensioning rubber connectors are encased in heavy nylon sheathing, the D-rings are chrome plated, and the straps are a heavy weight grade of 1” nylon web- bing to interface with the steel cam buckles which are covered in NRS buckle bumpers. Green Chile Adventure Gear is competi-
tively priced for a hand-crafted, American- made product. The Bag Snake kit sells for $35, the Mondo kit is $36, and accessory NRS protection bumpers are well worth the $8 a pair. The Uprising Soft Rack kit comes in a $99. They are available online at www.
greenchileadv.com, at outdoor stores across the USA, or in Canada through outback-
motortek.com, and they will ship globally. And as a bonus, Green Chile Adventure is offering MOA members a $10
Gear
discount on purchases over $99. Use the discount code “BMWMOA”.
they came up with a superior mount- ing system for all types of motorcy- cles, including those with racks and panniers and those with minimal racks or none at all. Think of ROK straps – but improved. We were each supplied with two
sets of Bag Snake kits, and a Mondo kit. In addition, the metal buckles were protected with optional rubber NRS (National River Supply) protec- tion bumpers. We chose Hi-Viz green straps for maximum visibility, but many colors are available. We were also provided with one Uprising Soft
28 BMW OWNERS NEWS February 2016
member tested
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