Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Saddle Bag Recomendations

I'm looking to put saddle bags on my 05 TBA, Any recomendations??

i have saddlemen drifter large slants. the bags are good quality and fit but a bit small. i would recommend the jumbos.

i have the jumbos on easy brackets, for the money i dont think you can get a bag that nice for that price

Frank

all i did was use a piece of plexi glass and it seems to work just fine

Frank

For the money, you can't beat Saddleman Drifters. I have the large, hard mounted to permanent brackets. The large holds a jacket with liner in each side, but would be a little small for touring. I like how the buckles lock and mine have been virtually watertight.

I don't think anyone has beat these folks on prices:
Accessories International Saddlmen Bags

I've had Willie&Max compact slants (look good but waaay too small).
3 sets of Saddlemen Jumbo Slant Drifters. The warranty is excellent (3 sets so I speak from experience). The backs are plastic, plain and simple, and mine cracked in 8-10 months enough to make them unuseable.
Am now using Tourmaster Cruiser IIs. They are way more substantial than the Saddlemen. I got the regular box, not the slants, since it just seems that the regular box makes more room.

I use the bags to carry stuff. Rain gear, extra gas, tools and that sort of thing. The bags that cracked weren't worked more than I would have expected, but maybe I expect too much. There are a couple of other guys who've had Saddlemen fail in a big way.

But they do look good!

K-Drive's... look great, come with permanant lockable mounts instead of having to buy a seperate system and customise things, and slightly more spacious than the saddlemen jumbos. Brent sells them.

Wllie and Max just came out with a new line called the Condor series. Look pretty cool. Also the Tourmaster Cruiser Liner II look pretty good.

I have the Leather Works leather saddle bags and their great. There are not fake leather. They are like a real saddlebag, popular with the Harley crowd. I got the easy brackets and they are great. They are nice thick leather, not that fake stuff. Try
www.leatherworks.com

Woops thats the wrong link. LOL

The leatherworks bags are really nice, especially with the easy brackets, here's the right link:

www.leatherworksinc.com

I vote for Willie & Max as well.

You will find the Willie & Max bags to be very affordable, and the materials carry a "Life of the Biker" warranty. They are synthetic, not real leather - like the Saddlemen, and Tourmaster bags. That is a good thing, because if you are going to ride much and use the bags, they will get abused. Real leather bags will require a lot of maintenance, and they will cost a lot more $$$$. They may look and feel better, but honestly - when you look at other bikes - on the road or in a parking lot - do you really notice who has leather bags and who doesn't? If they stay on the bike, they are going to get dirty and wet. And if you like to ride more than clean, then save your $$$ for shiny bits, and go with the faux leather bags.

Bigger is always better, and we have seen some 16-18" bags mounted successfully on these machines, although some support modification may be required.

K-Drives seem to have a very large bag with a removable mounting system.

I have large W&M Touring bags on EasyBrackets, and would highly recommend a removable mounting system for cleaning and chain maintenance reasons. The EasyBrackets allow the bags to be removed and the pegs on the fender struts look natural, like a stock part, when the bags are off. The K-Drives' mounting bracket will remain on the bike when bag removed, so it is obvious then that something is "missing". If you use the standard support brackets from Triumph, or the Honda Magna brackets as many have used, they are less expensive, but also remain on the bike when the bags are removed. If you choose to simply throw the bags over (or under) the rear seat, you definitely need a support bracket of some kind to keep the bags off the rear wheel, chain, exhaust,etc., and then you will need to tie the bags to the brackets to keep them in place, a consideration should you ever want to take the bags off the bike.

I think the corrugated plastic liner that Willie and Max uses may be superior to whatever Saddlemen uses in their bags. I have overloaded and abused my W&M bags for this past year, and see no sign of the material failing. It bends, and flexes, but has not yet cracked or broken, so I am pleased with that. If they do eventually fail, because of the mounting to the EasyBrackets, I am not sure whether or not Willie and Max will warrant them, but they are inexpensive enough so that it does not matter.

There are a lot of choices out there, and a lot of threads on this site covering the subject.

This is another good example of an organizational opportunity to lump all related threads on this topic into a "VAULT", where one could easily find all the related threads. Maybe it's already there, and this thread will soon wind up there. I have not yet looked.