Mounting Saddle Bags on a Silver Wing

A work in progress

I've spent many hours trying to find someone who would make me some brackets to mount a pair of Givi Saddlebags on my Silver Wing Scooter. So far my search has been fruitless and, in addition, everyone I spoke with told me having the brackets made would cost me several hundred dollars since there would be a lot of effort involved not only to make them but also to design them. Even when I advised that probably at least 6 sets of brackets would be ordered (fellow owners from the Silver Wing Yahoo Group expressed interest in having a set) no one was interested in a project with such a limited run.

So, Necessity being the mother of invention, I went about thinking of a way to mount the bags myself. Givi's brackets (for other bikes) incorporates a very nice mounting system that allows the bags to be easily removed much like the Givi top cases are removed. A very nice feature but one I would do without if needed. I didn't think I would be taking the bags on and off all that much. The Givi bags are waterproof and, if possible I wanted to keep them that way so the idea of drilling into them was something I didn't want to do if I could avoid it. But, after a lot of thought and design, I came to the conclusion, one can't have everything one wants and, I wasn't going to spend $250 to have brackets made so I could mount bags that cost $155. I'd do what I had to do.

So, with no further ado, here are the 2 methods I came up with to mount the bags.

First, here's what the side of the bag looks like before I worked on it:

  Click on any photo for a HUGE version. I didn't bother to compress any photos.

The Givi system allows the bags to hang from the bracket using the 2 slots at the bottom and a "tongue" from the bracket inserts into the opening below the red tab and locks the bag on. Then, when you want to remove the bag you simply push the red button on top next to the key. It's a very clever system that works quite well.

What I did was go to the hardware store and buy some supplies

I bought some pipe straps, rivets, backing washers and 2 hose clamps (I already had 2 hose clamps at home so only needed 2 more).  Using my pop rivet tool, I put the pipe straps on the bag like so

inside they look like so

Note the backing washers are needed so the rivet doesn't pull thru and to extend the area that is supporting the bag.

Next I used the hose clamps to mount the bag to the hand rail.

Note the screw heads face upwards only because I was still testing. In actual use I would slide the clamps around and tighten them from the bottom so as to make removal by others more difficult.

Some more shots of the bags mounted -

OK, at this point the bags were mounted and, surprisingly, they were quite secure. Because the pipe clamps were rivited to the bag and tightly clamped to the hand rail, they barely moved at all. They hung from the hand rail and the lower portion of the bag came up against the Silver Wing logo. No part of the bag touches the painted surface of the side of the scoot.  It was/is my intention to put the loop portion of some hook and loop (Velcro) material on the bag where it contacts the Silver Wing logo to reduce any where/tear on the logo or the bag. In any event, I assume (always bad) that harder plastic of the Silver Wing logo would wear into the softer plastic of the saddle bag thus preventing any damage to the scooter.

I had to make a run to see a friend so I hopped on and took a run down the highway for 50 miles reaching back every few minutes to see if I still had both bags. They worked perfectly all the way down and back, at speeds up to 75 mph and on the side roads hitting bumps and pot holes galore. When I got home I inspected the bags and all was good except one of the rivets hadn't been set properly. I removed that one and the other from that clamp and replaced them with bolts.

So - the bags were solidly and securely mounted and, because of the rivets, probably still water proof. My intention was to replace all the rivets with bolts since my pop rivet skills seemed to be less than optimal and, then to cover the rivets with silicon caulk to assure total waterproof ness. (Is that a word?) 

This system worked quite well.   Downside - I really wasn't happy with the look of the setup though' my friend said she thought it looked nice. Also, the bags wern't be easily removable.   I decided to go further.

I wanted the bags to be removable so I came up with a bracket that would allow that. This is what I came up with

I bought some aluminum stock, cut a piece about 14" long and made a 90 degree bend 2" from each end. I mounted that to the hand rail. Measured where the bends contacted the saddlebags and cut 2 slots to allow the stock to go into the bags. Next, I took a marker and marked the stock inside the bag so I knew how much stock I really needed. I drilled holes in the stock just inside the markings, cut off the excess and rounded off the edges. Here's some photos

The bracket is very simple. I used Aluminum because it is easy to bend, cut and drill and wouldn't need painting. Though' it's not the strongest metal, the brackets don't really need to be that strong. If someone wants to steal the saddlebags, no matter how they are mounted, they can be stolen. They best we can hope for is to make casual theft difficult and to make sure the bags stay on securely during normal use.

Here's the bracket mounted to the hand rail.

Note the position of the screw heads in the photo below. When the bag is mounted, the bag prevents anyone from getting to the screw head and loosening the hose clamp.

Here's the bracket along the bag.

Once the bracket goes thru the saddlebag, it is held on with carabineers  (The clip on one side is just till more carabineers are purchased.)

Removing the Carabineers the saddlebags slip right off.

The full install from above

This install IMHO looks a lot better than the hose clamps and, now it is easily removable. The downside is the openings cut for the bracket to go into the bag leaves a place for water to enter. I can't simply use silicon caulk to seal it since that would prevent the brackets from coming out. I'll have to see how much water actually enters and work on reducing water enter as much as possible.

Well, that's my work so far. Hopefully it will give others ideas. If anyone comes up with a better method, please take photos and send me a write up and I'll add it here.

Ride safe

DOC