I have some fairly cheap saddlemen bags with easy brackets. Not the best, but they work for me when I need them. I don't have them on there most of the time.





They are empty here, when loaded they do not ride at such an upward angle.

 

Ed those leathers look really good on your bike!

Xantasm, have you thought about re drilling the top mount on your fairing so that you can kick it back about 2 - 3 inches up top? it looks very strait up and down and not flowing, just an idea... those bags look great!

 

Quick question, is edge bracket strong enough to hold the hard saddlebags? Most ppl say you need cycle visions with the bottom support. I can get a pair of FLHR copies for 299 no hardware. What do you think?

 

I am sick of seeing your setup Joe, YES!

Ed's setup is really nice, Leather pros now carry the slightly smaller bags that you dont need to relocate rear turns, those are the $700 ones.

 

anther option so you dont have to spend a ton of $$$, get a set of throw overs off ebay cheap, slice off the over strap, and bolt them to a set of edge brackets, done and cheap! i did this on mine a long long time ago... worked out great

i have edge brackets on my hard bags

i know it is a **** pic but it is what i got


another set up i used with a small leather bag that i used my sissy bar up right and flipped it and bolted the bag to that... poor man mount, worked great for little trips i needed a small bag for

 

If you remember seeing pics of GJW1911's bike with the audio fairing in silver you noticed the same thing. Well I bought his from him and I can sort of see why. The three QD clamps were mounted such that is sat the fairing about 2" higher than it should be to fit the look of the headlight. I fixed that (after the pics I posted were taken) but the bracket is stepped so I can't bring it farther in. At some point I think I am going to make a new set of brackets but for now its the correct height just tilted out a little which you can only see straight from the side.

Just my 2 cents but the answer to that I think depends on if you intend on using fairly heavy loads. The bags themselves are on the heavy side so that adds some weight to the load on the Edge brackets, I'm thinking twice the unloaded weight of leather. So if your just adding rain gear, a small tool kit, clothes for a road trip, tire kit, ,first aid kit, etc. etc. you should be fine but if your going to be hitting 30 or 40 lbs or more a side of gear you should have a support bracket system underneath. The Edge brackets are actually pretty strong because people load up their leather bags full of stuff that can get pretty heavy too so its not like hard bags are dramatically heavier.

You just have to keep in mind if you want to stuff 60lbs worth of junk in there the hard bags are already like 15lbs each. I have had mine on for about six months and no signs so far of any excess stress on the brackets or cracking in the box, but if you think about it the Edge brackets float on the two mounting tabs and the bags even though they are called hard bags are actually flexible composite so a lot of the vibration of the bike and road are absorbed. If your unsure, get the lower brackets as they are not a bad idea just expensive and in my case they won't fit a Fat Bob without modification. I bought my FLHP bags used in the semi gloss police model white for $450 with hardware and made a trade for the Edge Brackets. You can find the same style Harley hard bags unpainted on eBay for $299 which may be what your talking about. Harley used the same hardbags for several models of bikes just different hardware for the police models and the piano side hinges for all the rest.

 

 

xantasm you can just recut it... that is what i did

 

Are those mounted backwards? I just never seen them angle that direction before.

 

xantasm - I love your hard bag setup, looks great. Exactly what I want to do on my Fat Bob.

Joe-you setup is also awesome! Wish I had the skills and tools you do...