New panniers fitted... Write up and pics

Pannier mounting
Here are the panniers I scored on ebay for just £50. They're only fake leather, but look really nice.


The beefy looking chrome belt buckle is just decorative. For convenience, they undo with plastic snap buckles like you get on holdall's etc.

And although the seller didn't mention it, the straps can be locked with a small padlock.. Bonus!



The rest of this thread looks at how I fitted them...

The panniers came with these strong looking tubular brackets, which I had planned to sandwich between the fender rail and sissy bar rail. So I  attempted to chop the lugs down to 12mm or so, but despite much filing and fettling, I couldn't get the cut face dead square..... Even half a mil throws out the angle of the bracket by miles. (And of course each one was out by a different amount).  And I only discovered the errors in my redneck fabrication after I'd lovingly primed and top coated them.



So, back to square one.... Decided to use some 4mm flat bar I had knocking around ...  sanded, primed and coated satin black. Cross rails are some bright plated metal straps that I 'found', and with a rolled top edge, they're nice and strong, and  I bought some 10mm nylon spacers to line up cross rail...



You'll notice the fender rails have a little dimple where the bolts pass through, so to get the vertical hangers to sit right, I added one washer in the front and a thicker spacer at the back.  The vertical hangers sit very nicely, and provide enough clearance so the sissy bar rail doesn't rub on the fender rail.



Hats off to Sim and others who in other posts discussed  drilling out the captive nut of the front fender bolt on each side and flipping the fender bolts round, which I've copied. This has allowed me to bolt up the fender, fender rail, sissy bar rail and pannier hangers nice and tight, whilst leaving the tails of the fender bolts sticking through. Here's the finished bracket... I may leave the cross rails bright...



The only slight snag was that the non suzuki sissy bar was already a poor size for the fender rails, and needed even more packing out with this mod. Looking online, stainless spacers were steep! And fiddling a stack of washers into a fiddly gap normally ends up with them all over the floor. So mixed a drop of araldite and glued up some stacks which don't look as good as a single spacer but were easy to use.



The scary part was drilling 9mm holes in my brand new (to me) bags, so buggered around with a crummy plywood template, to try various hole positions. (Behave yourself Dave, that's not what I meant!).



Especially when touring I don't want to have to dig out a spanner to unbolt the panniers, so I looked for a more elegant version of wingnuts, and found these beauties.... 



From how the previous owner had drilled the panniers, it looks like they are designed to just hang on the top bolts, and merely push against the cross rail.  From a quick test run today, they appear fine and dandy. Might araldite a stainless washer to the inside face of each bag to "help me find the hole in the dark."

Because the 'thumbscrews" sit on the inside of the bag,  they're not visible when the bags locked. So hopefully some scally won't think "hmmm... They look easily  removeable".

Spain here we come...!

Firstly Mal, What a fabulous write up with pics and "how to"   Secondly, Those are nice bags you've got there! they really suit the bike and at £50 what a Bargain!!! Thirdly, Bikes looking good mate! a credit to you   
ps, where'd you get those little locks from? I could do with a pair to deter the afore mentioned scally.

Good write up Mal,well explained.

Thanks chaps thanks chaps, I enjoyed doing it.

The little lock is great sim, because it's got the flexible cable part, it's easy to slip through.  it's one I had in stock... Got it from t k max. Probably none in stock now, but will check this week... I'll give you a shout if I find any. If not, if you google or ebay luggage lock you get similar items, although most have a rigid hasp, rather than a cable :(

Hey note to sim or anyone looking for little cable locks.... Wouldn't keep out a scally with a pair of bolt cutters but found some on ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201100581319?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_sacat%3D0%26_from%3DR40%26_nkw%3D201100581319%26_rdc%3D1

What a great write up, great bags as well. Love the snap buckles, in fact I am impressed from A of this thread through to Z. Nice one Mal.      

 Absolute bargain Mal, they look superb, I'm well impressed with the luggage & your write-up  

Very good write up and photo's I enjoyed reading it, the bags look very good and suit your bike well, they also like good quality items.

Very nice job Mal, well done! And at a bargain price to boot   

Good job there Mal. Has the good lady tried sitting on the bike now you've put the bags on as it looks to me like the top of the bag covers the footrest & she may have to have her legs broken to make them fit the shape   

Hi Mal
Good deal and a hell done write&work skils… 

Thanks guys. No need for leg breaking peter, the front edge of the bag drops away on quite an angle, so she can get her stubby little trotters in fine

You just like living dangerously don't you Mal!      

Bigmal,

Great Job on the bag mount, write-up and pictures!

I like the supports and easy mounting.



PS: You might want to put some aluminum tape on the bottom of the muffler side pannier.