My touring VFR... tell me what you thinks..

So, ever since I got into motorcycles I've thoroughly enjoyed long distance touring. Ive never had a dedicated touring machine but have been slowly building my bike upto that point. My most recent addition to that end has been hard luggage. I got a smallish SHAD SH25 topcase (made in Spain) and custom fabed up a mounting bracket for that, then I bought 2 fairly large Seahorse cases (similar to Pelican cases) and built my own quick release mounting brackets so one bolt and wingnut removes the cases. Also, with the side cases off there are no wonky racks, they atattche to the stock grab rails, which had to be widened to acomodate. Here are a few pics, let me know what you all think. all the brackets are aluminium and TIG welded

 

Looks good........... Nice job

 

Great work! :thumbsup:

Where are you going to test this out? :biggrin:

 

Memorial day weekend I might be going down to eastern Oregon just north of the Cali border. That is if the girlfriend allows me to leave, right now shes not too keen on the idea as shes opening up a booth at a Seattle farmers market that weekend and freaking out about it. Ahhh the joys of a committed relationship, why oh why did I think I needed one of them? J/K

 

Packman, very nice work, did you do the design and the welding or did you get some ideas from looking at the already designed products? Anyway you should really be pleased ,they look good . Have you had any difficulties with them while riding? edie

 

Thanks for the compliments guys. I did all the design and had a friend TIG weld all of the parts. I had been looking for a design that suited my needs but never found one so I came up with my own. My main concerns were not having a big ugly rack hanging off the side of the bike when the cases were off and secondly having them quick release. I have a buddy with similar bags on his BMW but you have to unscrew 3 bolts to get the bags off. Call me lazy but I wanted less screwing and more riding :smile:

 

Nice work, Packman. The VFR is such a great touring machine, and now you definitely look set to go!

 

Honda vs BMW

Nice Gspot Honda U need to market that idea.:thumbsup:Also a n update to turateck bags.

 

good job there man!

 

Sure beats the crap out of my set up..

http://vfrworld.com/forums/gear-accessories/23307-luggage-87-a.html

Looks good there Packman! Now you can enjoy the fruits of your labor!

 

Nice work but I would have the rear top bag a bit more upright if you can. Looks to be falling off...

 

Yeah, Im re working the topcase mount, making it out of aluminum rather than the steel flat bar that on there. Also Im still tweaking the bags a bit, so far the move around to much for my liking, Im working up some more bracing on the backs of them to attatch further forward on the grab rail. I might have to resort to some sort of crossbeam between the bags to get them as sturdy as I would like but hopefully not.

 

Awsome set-up

You are living the dream, my man.
Just thought I would mention that a cross brace from one sidecase to the the other is standard design on Givi and others. It really helps stabilize.

 

nice post:thumbsup:

 

Very nice, I got way to excited once I saw it was a 2nd gen you were doing this on. If its not too much trouble could you post a pick of your GPS mounting. Thanks

 

No Prob, I used a ram mount stem mount and a tom tom one 130 specific cradle, then ran the power cor to an aux fuse block under my seat.

Part Details

RAM Mount TomTom ONE 130 Series Cradle (GPSCity.com)

 

Oh, and today my Topcase mount gave way, I had it made of aluminum and tied into the exsiting grab rail for support on the blinker tabs and one of the stock welds on the blinker tab sheared off, looks like steel tubing bolted to the sub frame is in the works, Im gonna start work on that tomorrow.