Side Bag Safety Farkle (Toecutter solution)

As new owners ask about what farkles they should consider, the side bag safety farkle (brought to you by Toecutter iirc Reference Clicky ) should be very high on the list!

I struggle to find the original post, so here's a how-to with photos.

[SIZE=8pt]Search terms: side saddle bags saddlebags safe at any speed hitch-pin hitch pins wire lock pins wire d-pins d-locks no bags left behind[/SIZE]

Here's some pictures, as I don't think there's been a how-to, but this will give anyone with a drill motor and some drill bits enough information on how to do it.

If you search, you will find issues with dealers not loc-titing the 2 small screws that hold the latch mechanism on the locks on the side bags. If these vibrate loose -- there is nothing holding the handle down, and a bump can cause the entire side bag to tumble down the road.

Solution: Drill a hole through forward mount, and install a 3" wire lock pin:

Wire Lock Pins look like this:



Most any farm store, Lowes, Home Depot will have them. I covered the wire lock with shrink sleeve tubing to protect any chafing.

Location on the bike is where the forward locating flange is:



Measure the diameter of your wire lock pin, select a drill bit, and carefully drill a hole through the flanges on the back (both sides, and just under the rubber bumper on the mount. If you are careful -- you will only be drilling the plastic on the side bags. If you don't get the hole low enough, you will remove some metal from the mount area.

Hole Drilled:



(note: wire lock pin laying on the passenger peg with shring wrap around the wire lock/bail

Stick in the pin:



Close the wire lock/bail:





Done:



a 10 minute job, about $3.00 -- a great inexpensive and often forgotten excellent farkle!

While the "No bag left behind" method sounds great in theory, I'm not sure I would do this mod.

Back in 2005 when my bike was but a mere 8 months old I managed to clip a deer during a rally. The impact speed was about 50 mph, and was on the right side of the bike. While the bike managed to stay upright, that forest rat managed to break every (and I mean every) piece of plastic on the right side of the bike. The impact also managed to crack the cast piece that the foot peg mounts to.

The side bag was ripped off of the bike, and broke one of the top mounting tabs and the rear tab that locks the side bag on the bike. It seemed to have broken in these places specifically for a situation like this.

I'm honestly not sure if the bike would have stayed upright if I had attached it with this type of pin. The case would not have flown off of the bike the way it did, and the force of the impact may have landed me on the asphalt.

Remember, no one plans on hitting a deer, it just kinda happens.

And of course YMMV, take this with a grain of salt, opinions are like assholes, etc, etc...

:huh: Considering.... Mmmmmm, nah. I know how to properly install the bags. No offense to toe, but he does have special needs and all.

:lol:

vectervp1 said:

Remember, no one plans on hitting a dear, it just kinda happens.

Click to expand...

I don't know. I plan on 'hitting' my dear on a regular basis, if ya know what I mean :wub: ....but the spontaneous encounters are fun as well!

twowheelnut said:

No offense to toe, but he does have special needs and all.

Click to expand...

I don't think my needs are much more special than anyone else's, although the one who takes care of them is pretty special :wub:

FWIW, I learned about this trick over on another FJR-based board and posted it with pictures over here. It wasn't my idea. And if you are mindful about attaching your pods and have thread-locked the lock cylinder mounting screws, there should be no problems leaving the pins out.

I did the same to my faster blue '05 after seeing the mod on toecutter's slower cerulean bike.

IF I hit a deer, I expect it to be a bit like me shooting pool, where putting the forest rat in the side pocket with a cut shot would be difficult, and mostly a matter of unknown but slim probabilities.

all good points.

exskibum said:

I did the same to my faster blue '05 after seeing the mod on toecutter's slower cerulean bike.
IF I hit a deer, I expect it to be a bit like me shooting pool, where putting the forest rat in the side pocket with a cut shot would be difficult, and mostly a matter of unknown but slim probabilities.

Click to expand...

Your absolutely correct, its all a matter of luck. The way I look at it is that bag is suppose to come off if I clip something. I want that bag to come off at that time and I don't want to be dragged down to the asphalt because of a pin holding that bag on the bike.

edited:

There are 4 mounting points: 2 top hooks, the lever actuated lower 'latch' and the forward flange (the part shown being pinned in this post)

IMHO a force great enough to shear or break off the saddlebag from the motorcycle would be enough force to break the plastic away from the pin.

vectervp1 said:

Your absolutely correct, its all a matter of luck.

Click to expand...

Luck huh? You mean sorta like when you roll up on a UT Beehive-mobile at rally nominal speeds, flash your HID's at him and yet your conversation manages to end with "watch out for deer this time of year..."?

Yeah, I'd say you're pretty lucky.

GunMD said:

vectervp1 said:

Your absolutely correct, its all a matter of luck.

Click to expand...

Luck huh? You mean sorta like when you roll up on a UT Beehive-mobile at rally nominal speeds, flash your HID's at him and yet your conversation manages to end with "watch out for deer this time of year..."?

Yeah, I'd say you're pretty lucky.

Click to expand...

:lol:

Ahh... good times, good times... :drinks:

Rickster said:

edited: There are 4 mounting points: 2 top hooks, the lever actuated lower 'latch' and the forward flange (the part shown being pinned in this post)

IMHO a force great enough to shear or break off the saddlebag from the motorcycle would be enough force to break the plastic away from the pin.

Click to expand...

+1

I'm inclined to just check the locks and screws for tightness every few rides as I check all visible bolts and screws. But if I were to do this mod, I might consider a small cotter pin on the inside end. Think that would be overkill?

Yes it is a very old thread.

Just wanted to say thanks for the post and I got this done today. Ace Hardware 2.24 each. No issues at all doing it. Blue taped the side cases, used a drill bit extension and no issues. Took a rat tail file to it and cleaned all edges. Left it pretty tight. I also used shrink wrap and it look as in the pictures already posted so I did not.

As to the debate of the designed safety feature of break away bags, this is not going to stop that in any significant way, only plastic is holding anything, and if your crashing that hard you side bags are not going to be your biggest worry.

So a nice mod and I thank the poster and also to the guy who did it first.

Works great with pinning the Givi trunk at the same time.

vectervp1 said:

While the "No bag left behind" method sounds great in theory, I'm not sure I would do this mod.

Back in 2005 when my bike was but a mere 8 months old I managed to clip a deer during a rally. The impact speed was about 50 mph, and was on the right side of the bike. While the bike managed to stay upright, that forest rat managed to break every (and I mean every) piece of plastic on the right side of the bike. The impact also managed to crack the cast piece that the foot peg mounts to.

The side bag was ripped off of the bike, and broke one of the top mounting tabs and the rear tab that locks the side bag on the bike. It seemed to have broken in these places specifically for a situation like this.

I'm honestly not sure if the bike would have stayed upright if I had attached it with this type of pin. The case would not have flown off of the bike the way it did, and the force of the impact may have landed me on the asphalt.

Remember, no one plans on hitting a deer, it just kinda happens.

And of course YMMV, take this with a grain of salt, opinions are like assholes, etc, etc...

Click to expand...

The exact same thing happened to me a couple of years ago but on the left side. The deer's noggin went between the bag and pipe. Bag popped off, went 20 feet in the air and I stopped uneventfully on the shoulder of the road. I think the bags are designed to be break away in some impact situations. I'm glad mine did. I still proudly show my "Deer Dent" in the pipe.

Resurrecting another Zombie thread because I was looking to do the saddle bag pin mod. During the Ruben Run I was hit from behind by another bike, which ejected the left saddlebag. The front wheel and fender of the bike behind ran right between the left muffler and the tire. Neither of us fell, but damage to the saddlebag, muffler, rear fender cowling and bag retaining stay on the subframe. I wonder if having the bag eject was actually what allow us to remain upright. Anyway, with the pin in place, the bag is able to be kept on the bike, even though the latching bar is sheared off. The bag was tied to the bike with a ROK strap, so it never hit the ground, but it did dent the muffler. The paint still looks very good except for some small vertical scratches on the lower rear cover.

twowheelnut said:

:huh: Considering.... Mmmmmm, nah. I know how to properly install the bags. No offense to toe, but he does have special needs and all.

:lol:

Click to expand...

Just made me smile.

vectervp1 said:

While the "No bag left behind" method sounds great in theory, I'm not sure I would do this mod.

Back in 2005 when my bike was but a mere 8 months old I managed to clip a deer during a rally. The impact speed was about 50 mph, and was on the right side of the bike. While the bike managed to stay upright, that forest rat managed to break every (and I mean every) piece of plastic on the right side of the bike. The impact also managed to crack the cast piece that the foot peg mounts to.

The side bag was ripped off of the bike, and broke one of the top mounting tabs and the rear tab that locks the side bag on the bike. It seemed to have broken in these places specifically for a situation like this.

I'm honestly not sure if the bike would have stayed upright if I had attached it with this type of pin. The case would not have flown off of the bike the way it did, and the force of the impact may have landed me on the asphalt.

Remember, no one plans on hitting a deer, it just kinda happens.

And of course YMMV, take this with a grain of salt, opinions are like assholes, etc, etc...

Click to expand...

I suppose if you're worried about deer, you could just tie a rope around the handle so if they fall off you don't lose them.

Niehart said:

twowheelnut said:

:huh: Considering.... Mmmmmm, nah. I know how to properly install the bags. No offense to toe, but he does have special needs and all.

:lol:

Click to expand...

Just made me smile.

Click to expand...

Me too Dave..

This is a good mod though. Before I did the mod I had the bags dislodge themselves from the forward mount even though they were locked on correctly. Happened when I jumped a small curb into a driveway. Both bags rode up off the mount, one sat on the mount and the other fell in front. The only thing keeping them on was the locking bar at the top rear. Word!

mferriter said:

vectervp1 said:

While the "No bag left behind" method sounds great in theory, I'm not sure I would do this mod.

Back in 2005 when my bike was but a mere 8 months old I managed to clip a deer during a rally. The impact speed was about 50 mph, and was on the right side of the bike. While the bike managed to stay upright, that forest rat managed to break every (and I mean every) piece of plastic on the right side of the bike. The impact also managed to crack the cast piece that the foot peg mounts to.

The side bag was ripped off of the bike, and broke one of the top mounting tabs and the rear tab that locks the side bag on the bike. It seemed to have broken in these places specifically for a situation like this.

I'm honestly not sure if the bike would have stayed upright if I had attached it with this type of pin. The case would not have flown off of the bike the way it did, and the force of the impact may have landed me on the asphalt.

Remember, no one plans on hitting a deer, it just kinda happens.

And of course YMMV, take this with a grain of salt, opinions are like assholes, etc, etc...

Click to expand...

I suppose if you're worried about deer, you could just tie a rope around the handle so if they fall off you don't lose them.

Click to expand...

I have (unfortunately) experienced a similar forest rat encounter, except mine was on the LHS. My bag was forcefully similarly, forcefully detached from my FJR, snapping off the mounts, breaking the rear faring and fender. I am convinced that had the bag been more permanently affixed to the bike the impact would have resulted in my pavement surfing.

In the 145,000 (pretty hard) miles the ONLY time a bag came off was when the damn forest rat hit it.