$10.00 Saddle bag mount (pic heavy)

I never liked the way that saddle bags sat on my 550. They sat with a slant, and they covered up the passenger foot peg. So I took action

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First thing I had to do was move the rear flashers back. I drilled holes in the side of the chrome for the tail light. I'm a bit nervous about the strength of the plastic, but I'm sure that I will find out over time. It worked out good, I routed the wires along side of the tail light wires (had to lengthen them a bit)

I used some 3/4" aluminum flat stock that I had left over from mounting my new sportster mufflers to mock up the bracket that I wanted to make. The aluminum was easy to shape, but not rigid enough to hold the weight of a full bag running down Michigan's bumpy roads.

Once I had the shape that I wanted, I used 3/4" galvie flat stock as a permanent solution.


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Old home made bag gaurd
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Materials to be used 2pieces of 3/4" galvanized flat stock ($3.99 each) and some nuts bolts and washers (about $2.00)
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Aluminum mock up
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Finished product
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I used pretty much the same idea on mine when I bobbed it (more like a bagger now) I used spacers between the frame bags to clear the shocks on mine and mounted the bracing on the bags to keep them solid. Instead of bolts protruding out (looks crappy) I used black heavy duty wire ties instead. Now it's just a matter of cutting the ties if I need to remove the bags and replace them with new ones when I re-install them.

 

I hear ya on the bolts. It was a start, I will be changing it a bit to suit my needs. Did you do the same thing with the flashers, I'm curious how the plastic is going to hold up?

 

I like that setup I could do the same to mine to get my bags up a little higher and since I never will have a passenger slide the bags forward a little to get them off the turn signals. I've just been to busy enjoying the bike to work on customizing it much. Sounds more like a bad weather project to me might could let the down bracket be a little longer to keep the bag out of the wheel..............

 

The bags are actually pretty stout. There is a 5" gap between the bags and the tire. I was thinking of using the leftover flat stock to go down from the rear end of the bracket to the bottom corner of the bags. This will stop any movement.

 

The heavy duty wire ties will hold up very well on my bike. They are strong enough to pull a car! I have used them for various projects in the past with great success and are cheap enough to use is I need to remove a part and re-install it later.
I used to have them mounted using GOOP to hold them on, but that takes to long to set (24 hours) when I'm wanting to ride right away.
On my other bike, I made the saddlebag brackets out of flat stock, fabricated in an L-shape, so the bags actually sit on a shelf so to speak, so they don't sag down and touch the pipes when loaded too heavy.

 

I just added a back pad for the sissy bar. The bike is looking awesome. I couldn't be happier.