The Viking Odyssey 72L Adventure Touring Luggage System is a stylish, practical soft luggage solution designed for riders who need a versatile, rack-free setup for their adventure bike travels. With a total capacity of 73.5 liters, it’s built for long hauls and off-road trips where durability and weather resistance are essential.
I’ve been slimming down the Ultimate Motorcycling Yamaha Ténéré 700 Project Bike. This luggage system weighs just 14 pounds, contributing to weight reduction while offering an extraordinary amount of storage space. It’s a user-friendly, rack-free soft luggage system tailored for adventure bike riders on long-distance and off-road journeys where toughness and weatherproofing matter.
The system includes a mounting harness base, two 25-liter roll-top drybags, a 22-liter tail bag, a 1.5-liter tent pole bag, a map pocket, and mounting hardware. It’s constructed from ballistic nylon and TPU, offering excellent abrasion resistance and 100 percent waterproofing for the drybags.
The harness base fits without a luggage rack, using five adjustable tie-down straps to secure it to the bike. The 73.5 liters of storage is enough to accommodate all my camping gear, clothes, and several days of food, evenly distributed between the two 25-liter legs, the 22-liter tail bag, and the tent pole bag. The tent pole bag can be repurposed for storing canned food if you don’t need it for tent poles.
Assembling the Odyssey kit took less than an hour, including reading the instructions and test-fitting the angle of the leg holsters before securing them with the supplied blind nuts. The entire base, with its exposed blind nuts, is covered by a hook-and-loop-attached protective layer.
Initially, I planned to mount the Viking Odyssey Luggage System on the tail rack I had used for a removed tail box. However, that rack’s passenger grab rails pushed the Odyssey’s legs awkwardly outward, so I removed it and searched for a better mounting solution, keeping in mind that there must be tie-down locations for the three tail straps and the two front straps.
Upon removing the tail rack, I realized the rear mounting bracket for that rack could secure the back of the harness base straps. Positioning the horseshoe base on the rear of the pillion seat and angling the legs just behind my Steg Pegz resulted in an ideal location and fit.
Mounting to the Ultimate Motorcycling Yamaha Ténéré 700 Project Bike was straightforward, thanks to an existing rear tie-down location. The harness base straps down securely, and the drybags slide into holsters, keeping the weight balanced. The MOLLE panels on the harness and tail bag are a nice touch for attaching extra gear, though I don’t have any MOLLE accessories. The tail bag doubles as a backpack with stowable straps, making it handy off the bike, and it’s FAA-compliant as a carry-on, too.
Before I got the Odyssey kit, I had hoped the entire system could be an airline carry-on. Unfortunately, the base harness, with the holsters and drybags, is too bulky to be allowed in an airline cabin.
The tent pole bag is a clever feature, allowing the tent to be scrunched down inside one of the drybags without poles in the way.
The large, detachable map pocket on the rear beavertail is very convenient for riders using paper maps. The two utility pockets on the front beavertail fit my abbreviated camping toiletries. Each strap has an attached strap keeper to neatly secure excess length, preventing it from flapping in the wind.
Performance-wise, the Viking Odyssey Adventure Touring Luggage System is great:
- Waterproofing: It’s rain-proven. It’s still winter in the Pacific Northwest, and rain-soaked rides left everything bone-dry inside the roll-tops.
- Durability: The ballistic nylon shrugs off scrapes from brush or tip-overs, and the supplied heat shield will keep the exhaust from melting anything. I have the Odyssey mounted far enough from the exhaust that the heat shield isn’t needed.
- Accessibility: The beavertails surrounding the 22-liter duffle have enough expansion capacity to easily secure my (self-rescue) Eastbound Motowinch within reach if I were pinned.
- Stability: Weight distribution feels even, and on rough terrain, the soft setup did not shift around when cinched up tight.
- Profile: When loaded to capacity, it looks bulky, but the entire width is no greater than the handlebars of the Ténéré 700.
The Viking Odyssey Adventure Touring Luggage System is designed to be installed without a rack, so it lacks a quick-detach option. However, you can remove the entire kit from your bike by undoing just five straps, taking no more than two minutes to fully detach.
Alternatively, if you’re okay with leaving the base attached to the bike, the two 25-liter slide-in drybags, the 22-liter tail bag, and the 1.5-liter tent pole bag can be detached in just five quick snaps. My gear required filling the drybags to capacity, so they don’t look as tidy as the marketing photos, but they allow for overstuffing.
Viking’s Odyssey Adventure Touring Luggage System is priced at $600 and includes a one-year warranty and a 45-day return policy from Viking Bags. It offers a practical and durable alternative to hard panniers or pricier rack-mounted soft options, fitting the Ténéré 700 as if it were custom-made, while remaining adaptable for the broader ADV market. Backed by a globally recognized brand with nearly 18 years of experience, the Viking Odyssey Adventure Touring Luggage System is a buyer- and user-friendly choice for motorcycle luggage.
