Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories hard bags from newspeedmaster (review & comments)

ok, so i received my hard bags yesterday. to start off i was EXTREEMLY impressed with the way they were packaged for shipping. fiberglass box bolted shut, inside....enough foam padding to cushion a fall from my roof. the bags themselves were very impressive and smelled of freshly cured fiberglass (ahhhh ). i started to read the instructions and thought this wouldn't be too hard. although there was no parts list, i compared what i had to do with what hardware i had. everything was there except for these rubber washers the instructions said to install. the instructions were, all in all, pretty generic and did not include anything on wiring up the turn signals, that you have to figure out on your own. i recommend a rubber grommet and a little silicone on the bag side to keep water out, some quick disconnects under the fender (remember your dielectric grease) and a little shrink tubing on the exposed wire worked well for me, but lets face it you don't need to be an electrical engineer to wire up turn signals and hide the wires creatively. after 3 hours of fiddling with these i finally got them mounted and they look nice. (08 america, phantom black) went on a ride to solvang, ca with them today and got a lot of comments from my buds about how nice they looked. overall a great product and fairly easy to install. would recommend to ANYONE looking for a good set of hard bags.

Thanks Adam, great writeup. And now, to complete the narrative....(Pssst, Clay - ask him for the pictures!)

LOL


By frijoli

never posted pics before.....how's is done?

cool, thanks guys. i'll post some up this afternoon. i has me some runnin to do this morning.

Adam,
Have a look at this Hard Bag Install write up, particularly the mounting hardware portion.

I wasnt happy with the washers provided and wound up upgrading the hardware.

looks like you got a completely different kit than i did. the brackets on yours look different than mine. and you got the little rubber washers i never got.

The first pic is what I got....the second is what I used.
What do your brackets look like?

my brackets were very simple just straight and square with about an inch or so 90 deg angle in it.

Can you post a pic? Id like to see what they changed.

so i finally got around to taking some pics of the finished product. sorry i didnt take any pics of the process. didnt want to get the fiances camera filthy.















and just for laughs.....


the brackets look like a "Z"

So those clear lenses on the hardbags are the rear signal lights? Btw... lookin' real good. Something to be very proud of. Way to go!!!

thanks man. yup, there is a 40 something LED panel under the lenses. (see my thread need help!! for my frustrations on that one)

east coast plate on the west coast eh?

Looks good.

Now you need to do the lay down license plate mod! Looks great! When I got mine, I went without the LED signals and got them in primer grey to save some money, then had a friend spray them black.

yeah, i'm an active duty navy seabee so i can just keep em til they expire then get cali plates.

you ride it over to california?

wanted to, but in the end i'm glad i didn't. it was early january when i transferred out here and i hit a few ice patches going through texas. nasty little suckers. i would have been dust, or at least a large greasy spot on the road, had i hit one of those bad boys on the bike doing 80. i hit a really bad one somewhere between san antonio and el paso, skidded a little bit and jerked back straight, in the trailer a box fell on my tank and scratched it down to the primer. fiances golf clubs came loose and dented the side of the tank and rubbed a spot on my side cover down to the primer.

dang.

Very nice bags. Well intgrated into the lines of the bike.