Upgrades 13. Full Hood Bag

Not much to say on this one but I feel I need to include it for completeness on the blog. I like the idea of always having full weather protection handy but I don't like the idea that the full hood takes up valuable boot space. So with that in mind I decided to grab a full hood bag which sits behind the roll bar, but on top of the boot space. The new full hoods come with a zippy rear window. which I leave open at all times anyway to avoid any misting up. The heater, heated windscreen and heated seats also help prevent this from happening

There are a couple of things to me that make this a good purchase:

• It is extra storage space, such that I keep a warning triangle in there as well.
• It acts as a draught excluder, driving without it can be very blowy, whereas having this on the rear seems to reduce the buffeting that happens.
• I think it actually makes the back look a little nicer and less "lost" visually.

There will be people out there who say ditch the full hood, and use a half hood. I still think I'll be getting a half hood at some time, but I think I may still keep this full hood and bag handy, rather than opting for a long nose shower cap or similar for full weather protection.

Initially the bag sagged quite a bit and also had a fold line along the top which looked a bit naff. I decided to buy a 150mm x 1m long pipe (Manrose ducting pipe), as this was the correct diameter/curvature for the tube. I then cut it down (I kept the length the same but ended up using about a 1/4 curvature arch) so it fits inside the leather tube and sits at the top and stops the top from sagging down. This also meant I could use a hair dryer to remove the fold line from the top.

Adding this bit of pipe also made it easier to store any other things in the bag, like a warning triangle, which is a handy thing to carry on road trips.

These are before shots showing that it sags in the middle and has a crease line running along the top:

I find this video very useful to come back to when I forget how to fold the hood quickly, thanks to Callum and Turn 7 for this.