Pannier Repair


The pannier system is from Caribou with 35 liter Pelican cases that straddle a steel, powder-coated frame. This is an older design compared to Caribou's latest offerings, but still features lockable cases and lockable quick-release systems for case removal. The system is expensive, and factored heavily into my decision to purchase this particular KLR. 

I've been working with Pelican cases sine they came on to the market. They're a mainstay in film production and photography and I've had at least dozen in various sizes to contain delicate and expensive film gear, handled by the world's worst airline baggage tossers, bellmen, shipping companies and failed tie-down straps at freeway speeds. Despite all the abuse, the cases never failed and their contents were never compromised. 

The Caribou system has been engineered to have the cases break away in the event of a collision since they're more stout than the frame upon which they're mounted. This system has been beaten up considerably, with bent cleats and a locking mechanism that barely engages on both sides. I was lucky to get everything home on my initial ride back from buying the bike. 

On further inspection, I found the cleats to be sprung out and the quick-release mechanism barely engaging. The fix included bending the steel cleats back into round and modifying the adjustable quarter-inch bolt that engages the levered quick-release. 
Seen above, disengaged, the locking mechanism pulls up away from the frame, lowering a compression arm below, attached to which is the adjustable bolt. The existing bolts were at their thread's extent and couldn't be adjusted any farther. I replaced both sides with longer bolts and fastened a large fender washer with a locking nut to the top of the bolt that screws into the level and locks with a second bolt. I bent the washer to hug the frame when it's engaged.
Now there's ample compression against the frame with no more rattling around.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Progressive 465 Series Monotube Shock

Image
The original plan was to swap out the stock spring and go with a Top Gun 8kg spring upgrade to handle the load. That all changed when a) thinking all along that the adjustable stock spring was at its highest setting, but was in fact bottomed out with a broken pre-load adjuster, and b) when I tried to compress the Top Gun shock with a set of Tusk spring compressors for the install. This is what FUBAR looks like. I figured if the pre-load was busted at its highest setting - 5 - I could live with that being a fixed value, as long as the Top Gun spring compensated that stock spring's shortcomings. But, the Tusk compressors slipped because I didn't tape the spring where they mounted, and because there was no way in bloody hell they were going to compress that spring far enough because they weren't long enough to grab enough spring for the compression in the first place. I was leaving the following afternoon for a 900-mile weekend ride. I ordered a Progressive 465 Series ...
Read more

Naked

Image
Forrest Gump would have something to say about buying a used motorcycle, much like a box of chocolates. Unless you're kicking tires with an 8mm socket in your pocket and the the owner's permission to disrobe the bike, you never know what you've got until you've got it home and have it unclad. I posted earlier about an initial teardown, leaving the headlight/instrument cluster faring still in tact along with the LH radiator shroud. It all came off this past weekend to prep and paint all the plastics. A couple of notes: Large wood screws are no substitute for proper, specified and engineered hardware. There's one instance of these beasts force-threaded into the embedded nuts on the rear frame crossmember to which the rack is attached. This kind of quick and dirty fixing gives me the shivers. And it pisses me off. A trip to the hardware store would have taken care of the problem, even if it were a roadside repair (which, I can't imagine it was). Always a...
Read more

Gone ADV

Image
There's been a motorcycle shaped hole in my life ever since I sold the Blackbird three years ago. It was the last of a string of Hondas, starting with a CL 175, a Nighthawk 450, a CB 750 Custom, a Valkyrie Interstate,  and the CBR1100XX Super Blackbird. I gave up the Blackbird after I snapped off my right biceps tendon, which happened about a year after I snapped off the left one. After ten years of ownership, the Bird was spending more time in the garage than on the road while I was recovering, and somehow I came under the spell of some crazy notion that I was done with motorcycles. So I turned my attention to overlanding. Built a Montero, and an H3 and have been enjoying the adventure ever since. But at 14mpg in the little Hummer, adventuring on my own was overkill and having it as my daily driver was gouging the budget, so about six months ago I started my research on ADVenture motorcycles. Think The Long Way Around. The search was narrowed by a lo...
Read more