twowheeltom
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2012
- Messages
- 63
On June 25th I leave for a 16 day 6,000 mile adventure on my 2007 XB12S. I wanted hard panniers for the bike to help prevent theft, keep out weather, and increase storage. I wasn't happy with the price and long term reviews of the Hepco Becker OEM style cases for the X's. Even more important, I rode an S with the 31L panniers on and felt that they crowded the room in the cockpit - my heels hit them and my thighs sometimes rested on them. So I've tried something different.
Best case scenario is I come back in one piece with a sore back on my Buell. Worst case is I swing into a BMW dealership along the way and get a new bike. Either way it will be a great trip with some good friends.
There's not much information on panniers for the S series of bikes so I figured I'd post up what I had. My intent is to leave them on for trips, and take them off (along with the frames) for everyday riding. Here are the pictures;
I ordered the rack through Adventure Moto Stuff in Nevada.
http://www.amotostuff.com/
They are one of only 2 dealers in the US for HB products. The rack is not listed on their site, you need to call and special request it. It took 11 weeks to get it shipped to me directly from Germany. I'm not sure where the breakdown was with this, but because they quoted me 5 weeks they knocked 75.00 off the price so they came in at 395.00.
Install was painless and took about 30 min. All of the directions are in German, but the pictures are self explanatory and easy to follow. They do mount up with the Ventura rack. For this I kept the Ventura hardware (long bolts at the passenger pegs area). I also had to leave the upper support un bolted and lift up on it so I could get the last mounting bolt in for the HB rack. Once the last HB rack bolt was in I was able to tighten up the Ventura rack.
The lateral black bar that runs along the tail piece stays on when the rack is off. I'm not super happy with the look of the relocated turn signals on this piece, so I may choose to do something else in the long run. What, I'm not sure and it will have to wait until I get back. Included with the rack are plug-n-play extensions for your turn signals. I did have to re-wire the lic. plate light as it tore out of it's mount when I was trying to stuff the extensions through the rubber grommet. This was probably user error.
Once the rack was on, I took it back off just to see how long it would take - 10 min. This is accomplished first by loosening the Ventura rack top mount bolts and then the HB bolts. All of the big chrome bolts pictured are spring loaded 1/2 turn. So you literally turn a few bolts and take the entire thing off.
The panniers I went with are made by Muffin Top Industries.
http://www.muffintopindustries.com/
I ordered them custom sized to be the same dimensions as the HB Junior Flash that would normally go on the bike. Total cost for this was 310.00 with powder coating and shipping. Prices are reduced when dealing with these guys if you're not in a hurry and tell them so up front. Since it took 3 months to get the rack in, I was in no hurry. There are some good reviews on these panniers at ADVrider.com.
I'll mount them as far back as possible using Happy Trails pucks and drilling my own holes in the panniers. I'll post up a few more pictures when this is done.
Best case scenario is I come back in one piece with a sore back on my Buell. Worst case is I swing into a BMW dealership along the way and get a new bike. Either way it will be a great trip with some good friends.
There's not much information on panniers for the S series of bikes so I figured I'd post up what I had. My intent is to leave them on for trips, and take them off (along with the frames) for everyday riding. Here are the pictures;
I ordered the rack through Adventure Moto Stuff in Nevada.
http://www.amotostuff.com/
They are one of only 2 dealers in the US for HB products. The rack is not listed on their site, you need to call and special request it. It took 11 weeks to get it shipped to me directly from Germany. I'm not sure where the breakdown was with this, but because they quoted me 5 weeks they knocked 75.00 off the price so they came in at 395.00.
Install was painless and took about 30 min. All of the directions are in German, but the pictures are self explanatory and easy to follow. They do mount up with the Ventura rack. For this I kept the Ventura hardware (long bolts at the passenger pegs area). I also had to leave the upper support un bolted and lift up on it so I could get the last mounting bolt in for the HB rack. Once the last HB rack bolt was in I was able to tighten up the Ventura rack.
The lateral black bar that runs along the tail piece stays on when the rack is off. I'm not super happy with the look of the relocated turn signals on this piece, so I may choose to do something else in the long run. What, I'm not sure and it will have to wait until I get back. Included with the rack are plug-n-play extensions for your turn signals. I did have to re-wire the lic. plate light as it tore out of it's mount when I was trying to stuff the extensions through the rubber grommet. This was probably user error.
Once the rack was on, I took it back off just to see how long it would take - 10 min. This is accomplished first by loosening the Ventura rack top mount bolts and then the HB bolts. All of the big chrome bolts pictured are spring loaded 1/2 turn. So you literally turn a few bolts and take the entire thing off.
The panniers I went with are made by Muffin Top Industries.
http://www.muffintopindustries.com/
I ordered them custom sized to be the same dimensions as the HB Junior Flash that would normally go on the bike. Total cost for this was 310.00 with powder coating and shipping. Prices are reduced when dealing with these guys if you're not in a hurry and tell them so up front. Since it took 3 months to get the rack in, I was in no hurry. There are some good reviews on these panniers at ADVrider.com.
I'll mount them as far back as possible using Happy Trails pucks and drilling my own holes in the panniers. I'll post up a few more pictures when this is done.
