Homemade saddlebag supports

After a bunch of reading decided to get a set of Cortech sport bags. The bike has heat shields over the mufflers, but I’d just feel better with a bit more clearance and support, so made a pair of bars. Thought I’d post pictures in case this might help someone.

Had some 1/16x1” flat stock. Took two pieces and made a right-angle bend near one end, first shot


Then made another bend on each, one to left and one to right. Second shot

Mark where the hole needs to be and drill. I’m using 5/16” bolts, and found a piece of 5/16” vinyl tubing makes the bolt fit the hole in the bracket very nicely.

Cut to length on both ends, rounded and smoothed off all edges, cleaned the surfaces and painted them with bedliner spray. Third shot

Last shot, how it looks installed.
With the hook on the front it locks to the bracket so no way it can sag down, and this should be plenty rigid for the purpose, and can bend to shape if need be. I’ll try it out, and if seems a bit light can go to a heavier stock.

 

Clever idea!

I was looking for some soft paniers and I had similar concerns regarding contact with the pipes and or rear tire, perhaps I will attempt to fashion up a set myself. I got a line on a used set of Teknic bags last night so I may need these soon.

 

Got these and the saddle bags on, here's a rear view.

Will tweak the shape a bit; wound up bending them out right behind the bolt hole and then back in a bit, seems to give plenty of clearance. Need to load them up a bit and ride around to see if they stay stable, but don't foresee any real problems.

 

Nice little project there, a friend of mine did a similar thing with 1/4inch rod on his 4th gen, his were pretty intricate and fastened down near the passenger peg as well. Wish I had a picture of it, maybe I can find one. Maybe if you ran a bar under the pipes to connect the two together it would give you more rigidity.

 

Could be done; I'll try using this setup a bit, if it works I'll leave it as-is.