Thought I would put this in a seperate thread. I picked up some used Viking bags but didn't want them to be a permamenant mount. I also wanted to make the mount myself since the cheapest QD mount I found was about $130. If I had been able to see those mounts in use it might have swayed me but, some seemed they migh be a loose, but not sure.

So here goes. First thing I had to do was move the turn signals so I made my own mount for that also.

This is the tubing I used, 1/2 x 1". I don't think I took a pic but I added "wings" that go towards the front of the bike that the turn signals are mounted on. This is all welded from 1/8" steel.

I then drilled 2 holes through the license plate mount to hold my new mount. I gotta tell ya removing the turn signals is a PITA. But in HD's defense, mjine is also a little tricky if I need to remove them. I ran the wires under the factory bracket, with a couple spacers under it to keep from pinching the wires. HD, thankfully, thought to put a 4th hole under the license bracket. That was where my wires entered the underside of the fender from their new position.

By the way, I did not cut my wires, I disconnected them from the bracket that plugs into the tail light. That way, once the wires were run, I just plugged them back in. No splicing needed.




This is the result.

Once that was completed, I started on the brackets. I traced from my QD sissy bar, onto a 1/8 x 2" steel flat bar. I will tell ya up front they do not match the HD ones, not sure where I got off track, but they work. I have not cleanedcthem up and painted them yet, so they still look rough.






So the first order of business was double QD mounts.

Then set the bags up to see where I want to mount them, to get just the right "look", for me.

The only negative is they cannot be as close as I would like, but not so far out as to look too bad, at least not to me.

Now comes the slow hard work. I have put MANY hrs into thinking this through and still made acbutt load of mistakes, but I won't mention those.

First cut and fitted the left side. Once I got that how I wanted it, I made a matching piece for the right. These will have HQ style QD rotating latches that lock. The hard bags will mount with the latch in the front, as opposed to thecrear like the sissy bar mount. I went double so I can removevthe sissy bar, and add a trunk with back rest in its place, for when we ride 2 up.

The pic above shows it on the right, but they are interchangable at this time. Once they are mounted to a saddlebag, they are side specific. No biggie since the bags are side specific.

Next I made a plate with 5/16" bolts welded to it, that go through the bags. I did it like this because the holes that thecprevious owner had drilled lined up right with my QD mount bolts. I wanted to reuse the supplied mounting brackets, but I couldn't use them as intended.

It's a little hard to tell, but the Viking brackets are sandwiched and welded between the two brackets, and still line up and are bolted at the bottom, as designed.

I had to tweak them a bit, and one was cut and re-welded about 3/8" shorter to make them line up. These pics are of the left side only, the right side is still under construction.

Once both sides are welded up, and test mounted, I will remove and sand them and paint them gloss black. I am not as concerned about getting them "polished" looking as they will onlt be seen off the bike, but will try to do the best I can.

One issue I discovered, and hopefully the rotating latches will help, and that is the bottom of the bags can move in and out about 3/4". That is not good. The latches will help some, but if not enough, I do have a solution. The empty bolt hole from the turn signals, will allow me to install a 5/16" bolt with nuts on both sides to control depth. This bolt will be tight agsinst the QD bracket on the inside and stops any sway completely. I will probably put these on anyway to protect the rotating latches from the twisting torque.

Don't be too critical of my skills. Doing all this with a drill press, welder, and 4" angle grinder. On top of that, my stinking auto darkening welding helmet quit the auto part, forcing me to use my old one that is always dark. Much harder to weld in tiny spots when ya can't see what you are doing.

No pics just yet, but both brackets are built, and painted. My locking rotating latches came, but I failed to notice they did not include the pressed in bolt to hold them.

After much searching, I ordered a non locking set from ebay for $9.99 shipped, but now have to wait for those. When thecrains let up a little, I will wade out to the workshop and take some shots of the brackets.

I am really liking the way these look. Will take about 1 minute to unlock and remove each bag when done.


There is a slight amount of lean in this pic, but that goea away when tightened to the brackets. Don't want to have to undo everything to install the latch bolts. They sit slightly wider than if I didn't have the sissy bar QD brackets, but I wanted everything removable, without unbolting.

Still waiting for the stepped bolts for the latches, but here are the bags, mounted on the brackets but not fully bolted up. I did a test fit with the latches and they are nice and snug.

If you go to post number 4 you will see the roughed out bracket on the QD mounts. That pic does NOT include the rotating latches as in this listing https://www.ebay.com/itm/Locking-Rot...item238482cb62

Its the bolts that hold the latches to my brackets, that I am waiting on. They didn't come with my locking latches, like I thought they did. The latches are the same HD uses on sissy bar brackets, etc. The inner and outer brackets are welded together. In post 4 the outer bracket has studs sticking out, those go through the bags and will have fender washers and locking nuts.

Also in pic 4 is the pic with the bracket on the bag, you see the cutout in the front where it slides over the narrow docking lug, and the cutout facing the bottom, slips over the wider docking lug. This is where the rotating latch will go, and it rotates around and locks around the wide docking lug.

I will show some close ups when the bolts come in and I get them installed. They are press fit.