If I were starting from scratch ...
Well, no one asked my opinion, but I'll share it, anyway. Hey, what are forums for, right?
There are some possibly relevant adages that come to mind, such as "Perfect is the enemy of good." I suppose that could apply here, but what I favor is, "Do it right, or don't do it at all."
With that in mind, I'd get the Shad 58X, the Shad mount for it, and the Shad backrest pads, just as Scooteria (a vlogger whom I subscribe to) did a couple of years ago:
(Full disclosure: after he crashed his C 400 a year or so ago, and went through some other bikes, he got another C 400. This time, I think he went overboard regarding storage capability vs. styling:
I think that's fugly, but he was on a two-up, multi-day, trip, and even put soft luggage on top of that case. So maybe I should cut him some slack here, and maybe he'll take that off around town.)
First of all, I'd want a sturdy, high quality, topcase and mounting system. Something that I, or a passenger, wouldn't have to worry about breaking or falling apart in any way, and lasting a long time. To me, Shad fits the bill here. And the expand-o-matic nature of the 58 (and 59) cases seems like an excellent feature: keep it small and sleeker for around town, and maximized for overnight or two-up trips.
I started out in life with a cheapo JC Whitney (anyone else here old enough to remember them, at least in the USA?) case on my R850R. Yeah, it was cheap, but it wasn't meant for the long haul, didn't work out well.
I've had some Givi cases on a couple of Burgman 650s. Good quality cases, but the roundish styling, IMO, doesn't go well with the angular styling of the C 400 GT that we're talking about. PLUS, if and when a passenger gets aboard, the Givi "backrest pad" is
possibly worse than nothing.
Here's the pad on my 2007 Burgman:
That piece is fairly hard and badly positioned, and is very uncomfortable. It's so bad that on one week-long trip I put an overlay meant for a seat back there, for extra cushioning for my wife:
But that was just a temporary and non-optimal solution. What I did after that was:
- Buy a clone backrest for an H-D topcase.
- Drill some holes in the Givi, to mount that backrest.
- Take that to a local upholsterer (who worked on cars, booths in diners, etc., etc.)
- The upholsterer gutted the backrest (keeping only its plastic form), and added high-density foam and vinyl covering all around.
I wound up with this:
That was nearly as good as the wrap-around passenger accommodations that came standard on my prior Valkyrie Interstate or later on my Victory Cross Country Tour.
So if a passenger is involved, the Givi pad absolutely sucks, as demonstrated by all the trouble I went through.
In contrast, Shad seems to know what they're doing, with their assorted pieces and ADJUSTABLE positioning. That is, unlike Givi, they seem to have given the matter a little bit of thought. And they obviously put some thought into their cases, given the adjustable sizing trick. And they've been at this for a long time, and have what I think is a well-deserved reputation. Oh, and I like the looks.
Now, me personally, I didn't do this. I've posted this elsewhere, but the short form is:
- My wife and I did two Edelweiss scooter tours, on a C 400 X, in May 2023, with her riding pillion.
- The day after we got home, I ordered a C 400 GT, with its topcase and pad, because my wife suggested I do so, because she liked the ergonomics -- including that flat pad that BMW uses -- so much. (And I was looking for a new bike, anyway, given that my sole bike at the time was a different 14-year-old Burgman 650.)
So, for me, the situation was: don't mess with success, don't upset my wife.
Even so, I have still thought about getting the Shad system, and seeing how she would like it. I mean, at max configuration, it's about twice the size of the 30L stock BMW topcase. But I haven't done so ... yet ... mostly because I haven't done ANY overnight trips since I got the GT, and because I do have that Beemer topcase on the bike.
But that's me. The only downside I see about the Shad system is price, but I'm hoping, in terms of this advice, that someone who can afford the C 400 GT can afford that. I could be wrong about that, of course -- we all have our own limits on discretionary spending, our own priorities, and so forth -- but that's my hope.
