jlomb436 Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 As you can see, this was my first trip with my bike loaded up. It probably didn't help I had some weight in the bag and my bike lowered. The bags may survive, but I need some supports to prevent future damage. However, I'm looking for a cheap option. I've spent a ton of money on all of my gear and my upcoming trip will be an expensive one. Suggestions? By the way, I'm currently using the Euro Rear Rack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order66 Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Yep! I went to Lowe's, bought four 6" metal strips with holes pre-drilled in them. Painted them black. Put them between the bike and the soft bags using the existing bolts, and let them hang straight down, then tightened it all back up. Once everything was tight, I slightly bent the strips outwards towards the bags just to give the clearance. The bags now rest against the strips and can't come into the wheel well area. Cost me about $4. s e t h 2015 FJ-09 (The Me Bike) - CalSci, RAM, Shad, Givi, CrampBuster, Grip Puppies, GoPro, my custom Garage Door Opener Mod 2014 Valkyrie (The We Bike) - Too much to list, and no one on this forum cares anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order66 Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 With bags that appear to be non-structured like these, you could also 'bridge' a third strip between the two vertical ones if you wanted to. s e t h 2015 FJ-09 (The Me Bike) - CalSci, RAM, Shad, Givi, CrampBuster, Grip Puppies, GoPro, my custom Garage Door Opener Mod 2014 Valkyrie (The We Bike) - Too much to list, and no one on this forum cares anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlomb436 Posted July 14, 2015 Author Share Posted July 14, 2015 Yep! I went to Lowe's, bought four 6" metal strips with holes pre-drilled in them. Painted them black. Put them between the bike and the soft bags using the existing bolts, and let them hang straight down, then tightened it all back up. Once everything was tight, I slightly bent the strips outwards towards the bags just to give the clearance. The bags now rest against the strips and can't come into the wheel well area. Cost me about $4.so 4 pieces total, 2 for each side? Not sure how I can repair those bags so no water gets in, I'll have to look at that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deersSlayer Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 I went with overkill to keep my soft saddle bags away from the tire: http://fj-09.org/post/15505/thread FJ-09, 690 Enduro R. Back Roads. Period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order66 Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Yep! I went to Lowe's, bought four 6" metal strips with holes pre-drilled in them. Painted them black. Put them between the bike and the soft bags using the existing bolts, and let them hang straight down, then tightened it all back up. Once everything was tight, I slightly bent the strips outwards towards the bags just to give the clearance. The bags now rest against the strips and can't come into the wheel well area. Cost me about $4.so 4 pieces total, 2 for each side? Not sure how I can repair those bags so no water gets in, I'll have to look at that. Yep, 4 pieces for the bags I have, which are Nelson-Rigg sport bags. They have good built-in structure already, so there's no sag in them. I only used the two pieces on each side - if I had an unstructured (semi-rigid sides) bag, I'd have probably gone for a third strap on each side to make a "U" shaped support bracket. s e t h 2015 FJ-09 (The Me Bike) - CalSci, RAM, Shad, Givi, CrampBuster, Grip Puppies, GoPro, my custom Garage Door Opener Mod 2014 Valkyrie (The We Bike) - Too much to list, and no one on this forum cares anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order66 Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 I went with overkill to keep my soft saddle bags away from the tire: http://fj-09.org/post/15505/thread Very similar idea to mine, and way more metal Nothing wrong with overkill, though. I bet they're super secure, and so are mine.... so far. s e t h 2015 FJ-09 (The Me Bike) - CalSci, RAM, Shad, Givi, CrampBuster, Grip Puppies, GoPro, my custom Garage Door Opener Mod 2014 Valkyrie (The We Bike) - Too much to list, and no one on this forum cares anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlomb436 Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 Thanks Order. Went to the depot and found some small brackets like you mentioned. I actually bought these 8" L shaped ones, I'll see how those work out. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to repair those bags? I may try and take them to someone here in town if he can slap some fabric on it to keep the water out. DOn't really care about looks, just keeping stuff dry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlomb436 Posted July 19, 2015 Author Share Posted July 19, 2015 Yep! I went to Lowe's, bought four 6" metal strips with holes pre-drilled in them. Painted them black. Put them between the bike and the soft bags using the existing bolts, and let them hang straight down, then tightened it all back up. Once everything was tight, I slightly bent the strips outwards towards the bags just to give the clearance. The bags now rest against the strips and can't come into the wheel well area. Cost me about $4. Hey order. Round two. L brackets didn't work so hot so I went to home Depot and Osh as the holes for the bolt were too small for thr brackets they had. Did the ones from Lowe's need any modification? If not, I'll take a 30 minute cruise to pick those up. The 12 inch brackets I found allowed the bolt to go through but those are huge. Thanks for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order66 Posted July 19, 2015 Share Posted July 19, 2015 I had to just slightly drill out the holes, but only a tiny bit. I think my brackets are only 6" long, and I didn't bother with a connector between the two. I was originally mounting the bags against the factory brackets, but eventually took them off and used a 1" nylon spacer and bought 4 slightly longer bolts. The result was a much cleaner looking "hard mounted" bag. s e t h 2015 FJ-09 (The Me Bike) - CalSci, RAM, Shad, Givi, CrampBuster, Grip Puppies, GoPro, my custom Garage Door Opener Mod 2014 Valkyrie (The We Bike) - Too much to list, and no one on this forum cares anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlomb436 Posted July 19, 2015 Author Share Posted July 19, 2015 I had to just slightly drill out the holes, but only a tiny bit. I think my brackets are only 6" long, and I didn't bother with a connector between the two. I was originally mounting the bags against the factory brackets, but eventually took them off and used a 1" nylon spacer and bought 4 slightly longer bolts. The result was a much cleaner looking "hard mounted" bag. I was thinking of taking off the stock mounts as well and using the stock spacer. I'll have to drill those things out then, wasn't looking forward to that haha. WIth the 1" spacer, did it just sit more flush against the bike, is that why you did it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deersSlayer Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I had to just slightly drill out the holes, but only a tiny bit. I think my brackets are only 6" long, and I didn't bother with a connector between the two. I was originally mounting the bags against the factory brackets, but eventually took them off and used a 1" nylon spacer and bought 4 slightly longer bolts. The result was a much cleaner looking "hard mounted" bag. Post some pics please. FJ-09, 690 Enduro R. Back Roads. Period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order66 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I had to just slightly drill out the holes, but only a tiny bit. I think my brackets are only 6" long, and I didn't bother with a connector between the two. I was originally mounting the bags against the factory brackets, but eventually took them off and used a 1" nylon spacer and bought 4 slightly longer bolts. The result was a much cleaner looking "hard mounted" bag. I was thinking of taking off the stock mounts as well and using the stock spacer. I'll have to drill those things out then, wasn't looking forward to that haha. WIth the 1" spacer, did it just sit more flush against the bike, is that why you did it? Actually, when I was using the stock brackets, the bags rested against them and looked.... smushed. When I did the spacers, it let the bag 'stand off' the side slightly and looked a lot cleaner, IMO. With a non-rigid bag, YMMV, but my Nelson-Riggs have a form to them to they're able to stand on their own. s e t h 2015 FJ-09 (The Me Bike) - CalSci, RAM, Shad, Givi, CrampBuster, Grip Puppies, GoPro, my custom Garage Door Opener Mod 2014 Valkyrie (The We Bike) - Too much to list, and no one on this forum cares anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order66 Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 I had to just slightly drill out the holes, but only a tiny bit. I think my brackets are only 6" long, and I didn't bother with a connector between the two. I was originally mounting the bags against the factory brackets, but eventually took them off and used a 1" nylon spacer and bought 4 slightly longer bolts. The result was a much cleaner looking "hard mounted" bag. Post some pics please.Totally would if I were a member of imgur or photobucket. But, I'm not. s e t h 2015 FJ-09 (The Me Bike) - CalSci, RAM, Shad, Givi, CrampBuster, Grip Puppies, GoPro, my custom Garage Door Opener Mod 2014 Valkyrie (The We Bike) - Too much to list, and no one on this forum cares anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deersSlayer Posted July 20, 2015 Share Posted July 20, 2015 Post some pics please.Totally would if I were a member of imgur or photobucket. But, I'm not.I joined Imgur a few months ago just to post bike pics. I did not pay to join. FJ-09, 690 Enduro R. Back Roads. Period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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