Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Trashed my Saddle bags

Saddleman Bags - Accessories International
Bought mine from this place, the cheapest I could find. Quick service, no issues.

Thanks for the link. I am waiting for Travelcade to tell me when they might get their Cruiser bags in stock. The ones you sent are pretty nice and simple. For size issues, for a long weekend of travel in the summer, is the Large big enough, or is the Jumbo a better choice?

I'd go with the Jumbo size for extended trips. The Large size can hold one jacket in each side, but not much else. Another nice feature is you can lock the buckles (locks included). I loop our helmets over the bottom section of the buckle, lock and they are relatively secure.

Hi There

Having seen the pictures, I have just done the same as you and cut an ally plate out and fitted them on the inside of the bags and rivited the plate to the bags.After all the backing is only cardboard!! Gives it a lot more strength.

Take care & ride safe

Martyn

The backing on the Saddlemen bags is pretty thick plastic, still some additional assistance or light packing would be in order. Oh yeah: no Supercross action!

I found the Slant Drifter bags from InternationalAccessories, thanks for the link guys! But I think they are too big for use with EAsy Brackets. I called my Triumph dealer and they have 4 types of brackets, but they can't say which one will fit. Saddlemen said they can't supply brackets to fit our bikes.

If you can't use Easy Brackets for Jumbo sized bags, what kind of brackets can you get to fit. I think that having more attachement points to the bag might help to alleviate the stress that this EB might be making on larger sized bags.

Any brackets that we know fit?

I'd be willing to bet that the jumbo bags would work with EZ brackets it you fabbed up some sort of backing plate... I also think that would be easier than trying to find alternative brackets!!!

My brackets are for a Honda Shadow. Using two of the four mounting holes in the back of the Saddleman bags, I used a cable clamp to each side of the bracket. I picked up some stainless fasteners at Lowes. On the bottom, I just used the strap supplied by Saddleman.

Al,

SO you think if I pick up a shadow bracket, I can make it work? Do you have a cheap source so if I can't make it work, I'm not out much?

Benny, I asked them(New Bonneville) about the Easy Brackets, they state that they work well on small to medium bags. Not to work with Large, let alone Jumbo. One of the issue is that there is no side support kepping the bags from going in and out. This would give a lot of stess to the mounting points. Fashioning a 'plate' to help support it sounds like a temporary solution and only adds weight. I'm not sure it is the best solution. I think having a few rigid mounting points is a better solution, especially on a long journey. I'd hate to be 1000 miles from nowhere(Dwight Y) and have the bags fall off.

Did a search on the old forums. The Honda Magna brackets fit our bikes, probably the Shadow fits as well. Here's the link from an old post:
Saddlebag Bracket Thread
Mine bolted right up with no bending or modication. I have the tall sissy bar and the bolts to the sissy bar had more than enough clearance for the brackets. My brackets were bought from bonnyusa (Phil), check with him to be sure on the Honda model. Initially, I didn't want to sink the money into Easy Brackets but now after using the bags, I would never remove them so that feature would have been a waste of cash. The bags are too convenient to travel without them.

web page
My brackets look like this.

Yeah if you're gonna leave em on for the most part, then go ahead and get some permanent mounts! I like the look of mine with nothin on the back, so I like the EZ option. I also liked the fact that there's nothing rubbing across the top of my fender anymore... Did a number on my paint.

That's the beauty of my bracket mounting system. Nothing touches my paint, the bags are attached directly to the bracket on each side, plus they are very secure.

OK, my upholsterer dood stopped by today after I fixed his puter, we had a few, smoked a few, told a few lies...he says.."hell, gimme em, I'll fix em, you made the puter work, I'll make the bags work. May not be pretty though...". he's a hard core HD dood by the way, and my bestest bud.
so he has the bags, said they may be ready next week, if not he said to just use my revpak, ha ha, burp, ha ha burp some more. (I guess ya hadda be here..)
So maybe they will be fixed, maybe not, we'll see. If anyone can fixum, Ray can. he's da man when it comes to upholstery.

I'm completely out of my element here because I don't have/never had saddlebags... but you might want to think about backing them up with some thin Lexan rather than aluminum. Plexiglass, ya know??? The stuff can be rounded off so there's no sharp edges to wear into the bags and it can flex til the cows come home...
Just a thought for all you baggy people out there...

Great idea Grump; think I'll find a sheet of Lexan to back up my new Saddlemen bags - easier to work with and lightweight to boot. Good call.