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I'm done fitting the panniers!
It doesn't look like many people are in the same situation but still I'm going to go over the list of difficulties I met.
First of all, I purchased the panniers used.
The lowest price for a 2 box kit here in the US is $977.55.
I got them for $425 (so far so good).
Yet they came with only half of the mounting kit.
The pieces I got were the racks where the locks are used to secure the boxes to the motorcycle, along with the stops that attach to the passenger foot-pegs and make sure the boxes will not move back and forth.
I was missing the 4 brackets that connect these racks to the motorcycle frame, along with the rubber stops and the piece of steel reinforcement that goes behind the rear mud guard.
Also most of the nuts and bolts were missing.
The brackets alone amounted to $155 and I had to buy a couple of expensive sleeves at $6 each for a small piece of copper.
All in all I had to add $240 to complete my kit. So I still paid "only" 68% of the full price but I got 6 years old bags with a couple of scratches and some new parts matched with slightly rusty ones.
The bottom-line is that the GIVI kit would have cost me the same price with the added value of being able to reuse the gabs on other motorcycles and higher storage capacity on the right side.
Now let's move on to the installation of the kit.
I didn't get any instructions with the parts so I used the pictures posted here plus I brought my digital camera to the dealership and took a couple of pictures there (mainly the inside of the rear fender was what I missed, no offense but the pictures were more effective on a brand new machine as you can imagine).
Also be aware that some common M8 bolts aren't sold by Triumph so I had to go to a hardware store. While you are there try getting the nuts too because they'll be cheaper than what Triumph will charge you for them.
I did things in the following order:
- Installing rear pegs rubber stops (you'll need the boxes in place to adjust them so don't fasten them too tight yet)
- Installing front brackets. The hard part was having the brackets AND the rubber thing that protects the bike from metal to metal scratching and I guess vibrations. I hammered the brackets down and shortened the plastic "belt" to protect only the square section of the frame, not the rounded one.
Also the mounting kit states that some washers need to be used, but then there were a number of options. Since I couldn't seem these on the new bike at the dealership I assumed they had to go in the innermost part of the assembly.
- Figuring that installing rear brackets requires removal of the rear rack, removing screw covers with corkscrew (new ones cost less than $1, so it's not worth scratching the paint since you can't fix that!), buying tool to remove screws (8mm in a recess with need for some leverage). Removing rack, hammering brackets into place.
- Then I put the rack back into place (see next point as this had some consequences) as I needed to go for a ride.
I had previously installed the rubber round inserts on the brackets.
- Next step was to install the "lock racks" using the brackets. This time I had to do things differently than what the pictures suggested.
On the right side, you would need to install the rack at the same time as the brackets, because the bolts are supposed to be mounted upside down, but because of the exhaust pipe there is no way you can do this after the brackets have been attached to the frame!
I mounted them upright, so there was room enough for the nuts above the exhaust. The advantage of my setting is that I can consider removing the racks if I'm not going to use the boxes for a long time and keep them protected from the rust.
- At that point you can try to see how the boxes fit and adjust the foot-pegs rubber stops. My boxes had the location of the rear fender rubber stops "stamped" onto them so you could use this to figure out where to drill the rear fender.
- Last part was drilling 3 holes in the rear fender. I didn't bother to use the marks from the boxes, relying on the picture I had taken on the new bike instead. It turned out fine but not perfects as the rubber stops are very close to the edge of the boxes. Also it was a surprisingly time consuming thing. I took me some time to figure out that the $6 flanged sleeves are meant to strengthen the plastic of the rear fender. Bottom line is you're going to need to drill 2 side holes that are bigger than the diameter of the bolts. Then I found out it was difficult to screw the bolts, specially the last one, I had to bend the rear fender slightly and hold it while I was screwing. It's easier if you first adjust the flanges by installing the screws without the actual rubber stops.
All in all I split the work over 3 days, mainly because of a lack of tools or parts but I think it was a good idea since the thing can get pretty intense for a DIY beginner like me. I guess I worked more than 6 hours not counting the trips to the dealership.
[ This message was edited by: Tintin74 on 2007-04-25 15:37 ]
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