Luggage lunatics

[Pastychamp]

Hello from Cornwall UK. Summer is coming (screw you Game of Thrones!) and I have just bought myself a Wingman Goose tent from the U.S. of A. Nice kit by the way! Now I don't know how to put panniers on a GS850GN with her big ass and lollipop turn lights to make her into a tour busting legend. Found and fitted a rack, got bullet lights tucked in under and am looking at 2 ammo boxes to attach cos... it'll be baddass and cheap! Got me thinking... What have you done creatively to carry your Sh..tuff around? Show and tell please. Cheers now!

[Burque73]

I picked up a set of Vetter bags from another member here, but they were for a '78 750E. I had to change a couple of things to make it workon my '83 850G, and to use part of a rack I had laying around.

It attaches under the tail cowl to the frame and the forward support is the rear foot rest. I suppose many other pannier boxes, like ammo cans, could be mounted to this setup fairly easily.

[LAB3]

I'd looked into mounting cans on my 450 and have even considered it on my Goldwing for the looks of it. In the case of the Goldwing it's a no-brainer, use the rack and mounts as is and just bolt them on. On the 450 the easier solution was to go with a pre-made rack as pictured above and adapt it to the bike. By the time you find a rack, buy it and pay someone to make brackets or other fasteners you're in the same boat money wise as having mounts custom made from scratch. If you have the tools and ability, making a rack seems like the best way to go. If you have friends or other acquaintances that can do it at a discount then from-scratch still makes sense but adapting a rack is easiest, if you're paying full price at the welding/fab shop it makes the most sense to adapt a rack.

[metalfab]

My advice use small strong material for the mounting brackets. Like annealed 4140 or 4130 steel. Attach brackets to the rear frame, and STAY AWAY from the swing arm or anything that moves with it. The upper shock mount area is particularly strong. I would cross brace with an X pattern in the rear, it transfers and equalizes loads increasing overall strength. If you have some fabrication skills that should carry you through the project.

[Noreg]

I need a luggage rack now that my wife will join. But when alone I just do like this:

[Gorminrider]

No welding, and little "fabrication" excepting a drill:
-a simple diagonal steel strap from the foot rest to the turn signal mount will do as a big start to keep bags out of the wheel. it's Easily bent to miss the shock if needed
-to mount hard bags, another strap can run from the shock's upper bolt to the turn signal, drilled to bolt the hard bags on, again, bent ate the ends so you can get at the bolts needed to hold the bags on. Obviously, this strap will replace the "hand-hold" or washers at the shock.

[metalfab]

I need a luggage rack now that my wife will join. But when alone I just do like this:

Wow that is a lot of things amazing is one of them. Resourcefulness & necessity the mother of all invention.

[argonsagas]

I believe the rack for a GS1100GK will do the job nicely.


I had a couple, but not sure if I still have one of them. however, because it would be charged for volume rather than weight, shipping to UK would be expensive.

[argonsagas]

Hello from Cornwall UK. Summer is coming (screw you Game of Thrones!) and I have just bought myself a Wingman Goose tent from the U.S. of A. Nice kit by the way! Now I don't know how to put panniers on a GS850GN with her big ass and lollipop turn lights to make her into a tour busting legend. Found and fitted a rack, got bullet lights tucked in under and am looking at 2 ammo boxes to attach cos... it'll be baddass and cheap! Got me thinking... What have you done creatively to carry your Sh..tuff around? Show and tell please. Cheers now!

See if you can get our friendly moderator, Don Pepe to put up a photo of the load he built on his bike in New York. All of us who were present got a great laugh out of it.

His bike was loaded and parked before I got there but I would guess the seat of the garden chair on top of his load was above his head.

[Wingsconsin]

You can purchase a system from -->> https://shad.co.uk/

You only have to figure out which of the designs for a modern bike might work on your mounting points

They also have a US distributor arm that I purchased a 3P system from --

In this picture you can see the adapted mounting bar -



Looks like this in full regalia --




This short video might shed some light on how they work

[grcamna2]

I'd looked into mounting cans on my 450 and have even considered it on my Goldwing for the looks of it. In the case of the Goldwing it's a no-brainer, use the rack and mounts as is and just bolt them on. On the 450 the easier solution was to go with a pre-made rack as pictured above and adapt it to the bike. By the time you find a rack, buy it and pay someone to make brackets or other fasteners you're in the same boat money wise as having mounts custom made from scratch. If you have the tools and ability, making a rack seems like the best way to go. If you have friends or other acquaintances that can do it at a discount then from-scratch still makes sense but adapting a rack is easiest, if you're paying full price at the welding/fab shop it makes the most sense to adapt a rack.

I've had success purchasing Connecticut Cycle Accessories 3-piece luggage racks and then had a welder adapt them to my bikes using BMW/Krauser lower rack mounts and then using the vintage Krauser hard-case bags.

[Grimly]

If you come across Givi panniers and boxes, the mounts can be purchased seperately for not a lot of money, if you're making up a rack from scratch. Certainly a tenth of the price of buying proper Givi racks.