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Saddlebag support brackets

scar04

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Laredo, TX
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Oscar
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Saldana
Are support brackets for throwover saddlebags absolutely necessary? Just ordered a set for the dyna and I'm not sure which ones work best. And I don't want to have to butcher my bike to get em to work if I absolutely need em. Thanks in advance.
 
My experience in using soft saddlebags is that the support brackets are needed - especially if the bags have any size at all. I bought saddlebag supports from this guy (he runs the Virago forum) and found them to be of very good quality and up to the task - and not expensive. He can make brackets for just about any bike.
 
Agree. Use the brackets to keep the bags out of the rotating parts. If you tie the softbags to the brackets (and you should), it also keeps them from flopping in the breeze.

Surely there are genuine accessories that don't require any butchering. You may need to relocate the turn signal aft depending on the size of the bags.
 
I will vote yes get some brackets , I'm going to. No matter how carefully I arrange and strap my cortech bags for a trip they always seem to shift around and set uneven after awhile
 
Oscar, you should give these folks a look. Nice folks to deal with.

http://www.bossbags.com/

and yes, get supports. Nothing looks worse than floppy saddlebags.

I'm gonna have to work my way up to there. I can't afford 700 dollar luggage systems quite yet, so these are a stop-gap for the time being. But I will keep them in mind later on down the line. Thanks

Edit: I found some on fleabay that look like the may do the trick as a stop gap to having to rewire the whole thing. Bolts to the fender strut mount. I'll post pics as things come in.
 
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never needed any supports for my Tourmaster bags on my Suzuki Bandit. The bags each have front and back loops that you hooks to the frame rails and passenger foot peg mounts. They don't flap, however, I've lost rain covers somewhere in triple digit speeds.

I think the supports might be helpful if your soft bags chafe the bodywork on the bike. I didn't have that problem. But monitored it very closely. Perhaps extended use, rather than occasional use of the bags, could've warranted supports.
 
My fleabay saddlebag project

So after having to be pretty ingenious about finding ways to carry stuff on the bike (like stuffing my jacket) I broke down and bought some saddlebags. I decided to see how cheap and non-deforming to the bike I could get. I found a set of River Road compact slant bags for a good price and some small support brackets on eBay. Everything looked good and new so today I threw it all on the bike.


Here we are before adding the brackets.

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My magical mystery ebay bracket.

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The bags before mounting.

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They even come with these nifty flaps to keep your stuff covered a little better.

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The bracket mounts to one of the fender strut bolts on the outside, so no real moving of anything is needed.

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The finished product:

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Total time to put it all together was about 20-30 minutes. We'll see how everything holds up. Im pretty happy with the way it turned out. Granted the bags arent very capacious, but they're big enough to hold some rain gear, tool kit and some other stuff. Not too bad. They bags even came with some bizarre grocery bag looking thing that I have no clue what purpose it serves

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So waddayathink?
 
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Well done. Make sure there are a couple of inches clearance between the right bag and the exhaust else it will cook the bag and contents. From the images, looks like you have plenty.

Scar04 said:

Maybe it's just camera perspectives, but the rear plate, turn signals and bags all seem a bit catty-wompus.:ponder:
 
I think the camera on the iPhone may be having issues. I thought the same thing and had to recheck everything. It's the camera that is off
 
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