OEM saddlebag locking tabs - one is longer than the other...?

[mcatrophy]

I just made an interesting observation on my 2014, related to this tab length question, which I had never noticed before: If I watch the tab as I operate the latching handle the tab extends (to around 42mm as previously mentioned) and then just as the handle reaches fully down the tab actually retracts a hair, like maybe a mm or so. When mounting the bag on the bike I feel a slight resistance at the end of the latch handle's travel and then it snaps shut as it goes "over center". The bag is very secure with no slop in the mounting at all. My '05 never did that.

I suspect it did, but wasn't tight on the bike, so you didn't feel it go over-centre. As far as I am aware, the bag mechanism today is the same as it was back in 2001 when the earliest FJRs hit the road.

On my '06, where the bags weren't too firm, I stuck a thin piece of rubber (cut from an old inner tube) up into the slot where the tab goes to firm up the latching. Definitely enhanced that over-centre feel.

 

[Fred W]

I did the same with the '05, but with some felt weatherstripping. Next time I visit my old '05 (now my son's) I'll have to do a closer inspection.

I am suspicious that maybe that bike had already been indexed from the normal notch by the time I bought it (used)?

 

[HotRodZilla]

Fred, my bags do that retract thingy. Just barely, but the tabs move down a little as the handles reach full lock.

 

[Bill Lumberg]

Mine both have "slop". More reason to pin.

 

[Fred W]

Fred, my bags do that retract thingy. Just barely, but the tabs move down a little as the handles reach full lock.

I think that this is a good way to know that they are engaged with the drive gear correctly. If they have slipped a tooth they will not reach the retract point.