I have used their stuff on prior bikes, and their gear is high quality. The racks are solid, and the bags are durable. Just last week, the first shipment of L-brackets to fit our CRF250L's made it to the US, and I got one from the first batch. Here is the main page for Ventura's US arm: http://www.ventura-mca.com/ Here are some stock photos of the setup: The package was waiting on my doorstep this evening, and I wasted no time in getting it installed on my bike. Here are the L-Brackets: Installing the left side: (Make sure to keep track of which spacer goes where, they are slightly different from front to rear) Both sides installed: With the sport rack mounted: Sport pack mounted on sport rack: Standard luggage rack mounted: Mistral pack mounted, facing backwards: Facing forwards: Here's a link to a gallery with all pics available in high resolution. I'll be using the luggage for the first time this weekend; taking the sport pack out to hold keys and some tools for some loops around Metcalf.
I used just the sportpack for a ride yesterday. Was too lazy to change out the large rack, and it worked fine. I am having an issue with the spot tracker in that case; it won't stay laying flat at the bottom, and rotates around, sometimes facing downwards (and therefore not working). Need to find some way to keep it flat in there.
That rack looks awesome, especially with the ability to have the low bar for everyday riding and the high bar for longer trips to carry the bigger bag securely.
The choice of racks seems very limited here so far, but since the bike is selling quite well I hope things will improve. I've seen some neat designs available in the US and in theory they will send over - but postage costs seem to have gone up a lot the last couple of years. Apart from the obvious use I think a rack strong enough to help manhandle the bike could be useful at times.
Trying to resurrect this old thread.... I just bought a '13 250L. I have some Ventura luggage I bought years ago for a streetbike, and would like to see if I can just buy some L-bars and then be able to use the Pack Rack and bag that I already have. I just talked to Ventura and asked if I could just buy L-bars. Guy said no, there'll be a misfit between my old, existing rack and new L-bars. He said I need to buy a new, adjustable Pack Rack, which they didn't have when I bought this stuff in 2003 or so. However, I see a discrepancy. I looked at a pic of Alex's stuff and in particular, a pic of just the Pack Rack, and it looks like the old type, the non-adjustable original design. What I'm looking for is for someone who has Ventura stuff to confirm the distance between the Pack Rack mounting holes on the L-bars when installed. I measured about 12-1/4 or 12-3/8. I want to see if I truly need to buy an adjustable Pack Rack for $80 or if I can use what I have. Something doesn't jive with what Ventura told me. Given how old this thread is, I'm hoping some of the members are still around and active, and still have their Ventura stuff.
