OK, am in the middle of prepping one of my FZ6's into a decent, practical touring steed, getting ready for a big summer of touring, later this year, and early next year.
As part of this, i bought some decent soft pannier cases, to accompany my Yamaha top case rack & top case.
Now my new soft panniers are great, but in reality, no soft case is going to sit straight on the rear of a bike, they ae always going to "sag" inwards, and down...So, if you want them to work properly, i reckon you have 2 choices, 1. Go buy some aftermarket soft luggage racks from Givi, or the like, or get smart, and cheap, and make your own "rack", "bracket", "support", whatever you want to call it....but something that ultimately prevents the soft panniers from pulling down, and sagging inwards, towards the sides of your rear wheel....
So after lots of research, and finding a thread on here, where another FZ6 forum member had done something very similar, if not identical, to what i am about to share with you, i decided to work with this idea, and make my own soft pannier bars.
Ok, after a fair bit of standing around thinking about exactly how i was going to do it, followed by a trip to the local hardware shop, for some more thinking, i came up with the following....
A $6 piece of 8mm round bar, bent in the bench vice, threaded with an 8mm x 1.25mm thread, with the ol' tap & dye set....mount on bike...including measuring, it took 2 beers to do, from start to finish....bout an hour, for those of you that are not drunks!!!
Photo 1....The pannier bars installed! Still need to be painted with some black killrust.
View attachment 29805
Photo's 2&3...How i mounted them....at the rear, normal nut on the outside, with washer, which i can adjust inwards, or outwards as i desire for differeing width. On the inside side of the rear fender, a Nylock nut, to fasten. At the front, simple nut and Exhaust washer set up....
View attachment 29806
View attachment 29807
Photo's 4,5, &6....with the panniers mounted on ther bike. As you can see, i made the racks as "narrow" as possible, with the inside edge of the panniers being flush with the OEM rear indicators, as i wanted to reduce total width as much as possible...whilst the cases are flush with the indicators, there is no way they can push inwards on the indicators, because of the new bars, but regardless, i will be changing my rear indicators from OEM, to some shorter LED indicators, before i go touring...as you can see in photo 6.
View attachment 29808
View attachment 29809
View attachment 29810
Photo 7...you can see where the case sits hard up against the bar, later after i took these photo's, i used a decent size cable tie on each of the clips on the cases at each end to secure the cases to the bar...this not only secured them, but it also lifted up the caes slightly, and completed the installation, giving a very secure and firm fit.
View attachment 29811
So, all i have to do now, is paint the bars wirth killrust, and fit the smaller indicators, and the job is complete....beats paying hundreds of dollars for aftermarket racks, with the added advantage of being able to remove, or re-fit the bars in about 5 minutes, when desired.
parts needed...
1. about 1.5metres of 8mm steel bar
2. Tap & Dye set, to make 8mm thread for securing the bars to the bike.
3. Some exhaust washers, and a couple of normal 8mm washers.
4. a can of killrust.
5. 8mm nut's, both normal, and nylock.
6. a drill.
7. a decent bench vise.
8. a hammer.
9. a measuring tape.
10. hacksaw.
11. bench grinder.
12. beer!
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
As part of this, i bought some decent soft pannier cases, to accompany my Yamaha top case rack & top case.
Now my new soft panniers are great, but in reality, no soft case is going to sit straight on the rear of a bike, they ae always going to "sag" inwards, and down...So, if you want them to work properly, i reckon you have 2 choices, 1. Go buy some aftermarket soft luggage racks from Givi, or the like, or get smart, and cheap, and make your own "rack", "bracket", "support", whatever you want to call it....but something that ultimately prevents the soft panniers from pulling down, and sagging inwards, towards the sides of your rear wheel....
So after lots of research, and finding a thread on here, where another FZ6 forum member had done something very similar, if not identical, to what i am about to share with you, i decided to work with this idea, and make my own soft pannier bars.
Ok, after a fair bit of standing around thinking about exactly how i was going to do it, followed by a trip to the local hardware shop, for some more thinking, i came up with the following....
A $6 piece of 8mm round bar, bent in the bench vice, threaded with an 8mm x 1.25mm thread, with the ol' tap & dye set....mount on bike...including measuring, it took 2 beers to do, from start to finish....bout an hour, for those of you that are not drunks!!!
Photo 1....The pannier bars installed! Still need to be painted with some black killrust.
View attachment 29805
Photo's 2&3...How i mounted them....at the rear, normal nut on the outside, with washer, which i can adjust inwards, or outwards as i desire for differeing width. On the inside side of the rear fender, a Nylock nut, to fasten. At the front, simple nut and Exhaust washer set up....
View attachment 29806
View attachment 29807
Photo's 4,5, &6....with the panniers mounted on ther bike. As you can see, i made the racks as "narrow" as possible, with the inside edge of the panniers being flush with the OEM rear indicators, as i wanted to reduce total width as much as possible...whilst the cases are flush with the indicators, there is no way they can push inwards on the indicators, because of the new bars, but regardless, i will be changing my rear indicators from OEM, to some shorter LED indicators, before i go touring...as you can see in photo 6.
View attachment 29808
View attachment 29809
View attachment 29810
Photo 7...you can see where the case sits hard up against the bar, later after i took these photo's, i used a decent size cable tie on each of the clips on the cases at each end to secure the cases to the bar...this not only secured them, but it also lifted up the caes slightly, and completed the installation, giving a very secure and firm fit.
View attachment 29811
So, all i have to do now, is paint the bars wirth killrust, and fit the smaller indicators, and the job is complete....beats paying hundreds of dollars for aftermarket racks, with the added advantage of being able to remove, or re-fit the bars in about 5 minutes, when desired.
parts needed...
1. about 1.5metres of 8mm steel bar
2. Tap & Dye set, to make 8mm thread for securing the bars to the bike.
3. Some exhaust washers, and a couple of normal 8mm washers.
4. a can of killrust.
5. 8mm nut's, both normal, and nylock.
6. a drill.
7. a decent bench vise.
8. a hammer.
9. a measuring tape.
10. hacksaw.
11. bench grinder.
12. beer!
:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
