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I have a big trip coming up and need to figure out something for luggage. I've looked into getting a luggage rack from Harley and the stupid thing would end up costing $650 by the time they nickel and dimed me to death and I got hit with our wonderful Canadian taxes and exchange rates.
Most cheap options are out of the picture since I have no passenger seat, and am too particular to have anything touching my paint at all. Does anybody else make a detachable sissy bar luggage rack combo for this bike? I found a luggage rack online that attaches to the stock seat mounts however that won't work for me since I don't use the stock seat and also it would dig into the paint around the rear bolt hole.
sounds like you need to fedex your stuff to where you are going.... you want storage but don't want anything touching the bike. while i understand you don't want to damage your bike at what point are you just being over critical of using it for it's intended purpose. things that get used get scars (story starters) and continue to give lots and lots of joy.
not having a back seat makes this more difficult. if you have your stock seat around i would say use that with one of these.
Last edited by Jersey Drew; May 26, 2016 at 01:22 PM.
sounds like you need to fedex your stuff to where you are going.... you want storage but don't want anything touching the bike. while i understand you don't want to damage your bike at what point are you just being over critical of using it for it's intended purpose. things that get used get scars (story starters) and continue to give lots and lots of joy.
not having a back seat makes this more difficult. if you have your stock seat around i would say use that with one of these.
A luggage rack 100% eliminates anything touching the paint. Lots of different saddlebag options would rub up against the frame and my exhaust would also be troublesome as it sits quite high.
I have absolutely no concern with my bike getting scuffed, scraped and dinged from riding, but that doesn't mean I'm going to consciously hang something off a 40000 dollar motorcycle (yes I've put too much into this silly thing) that will scuff it up.
Those are nice looking bags you've linked, unfortunately the stock seat simply doesn't fit me well enough for riding 10 hours a day for 2 weeks.
Those viking bags are nice as well, and might be a good option as far as bags go. However the luggage rack itself is really the problem I'm running into, I might just have to suck it up and pay the dealer for it but the pricing is just so absurd, comes out to 640 dollars Canadian for a detachable luggage rack all in. I was hoping someone made an aftermarket one but the more I look I'm thinking nothing exists.
A luggage rack 100% eliminates anything touching the paint. Lots of different saddlebag options would rub up against the frame and my exhaust would also be troublesome as it sits quite high.
I have absolutely no concern with my bike getting scuffed, scraped and dinged from riding, but that doesn't mean I'm going to consciously hang something off a 40000 dollar motorcycle (yes I've put too much into this silly thing) that will scuff it up.
Those are nice looking bags you've linked, unfortunately the stock seat simply doesn't fit me well enough for riding 10 hours a day for 2 weeks.
Those viking bags are nice as well, and might be a good option as far as bags go. However the luggage rack itself is really the problem I'm running into, I might just have to suck it up and pay the dealer for it but the pricing is just so absurd, comes out to 640 dollars Canadian for a detachable luggage rack all in. I was hoping someone made an aftermarket one but the more I look I'm thinking nothing exists.
does the after market seat you have offer a pillion? that might be a better route. the backrest is very expensive i bought and put mine together with used parts for about half the money. but i will tell you you may be disappointed with that option, the rack is TINY! i can take a pic of mine later with something on it to reference the size. you are not fitting a large bag on that without it tipping and hitting the paint. not sure how much "stuff" you need to take but there are mounts (recent thread referenced them) for attaching saddle bags to any softail. harley makes a set of saddle bags that are terribly expensive. this is an area that i have struggles with in the past. there is no easy way to carry "stuff" on a BO. the only idea that i had and i never implemented it, someone else did, is to make a tour pack type mount and attach either a harley tour pack, givi top case or one of those cheap mutazu copy tour packs (my friend has one of these and it isn't terrible but it isn't great either.
I'm thinking you might be onto something with a fabricating a mount for some sort of tour pack type of case.
I could easily purchase the side plates and the mounting hardware and I'm sure a local fab shop could make a rack to bolt onto the side plates easy enough or a mounting plate for a hard case. Wouldn't have to look pretty, I have a local powder coater who could powder coat the thing for 20 bucks after.
I have a tour pack mount I designed and fabricated. The only thing you'd need to do is buy the Harley quick release latches and drill some holes for whatever you mount to it. Works with Harley quick release hardware. Unpainted and no latches, I would sell it for 125 plus shipping. Pics toward the end of this thread: https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softail-models/1056621-indroducing-my-new-breakout.html
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