Look what found its way into my garage

[goodtimes]

Jim, not to start a debate or anything (afterall, I have Jesse's panniers on my beemer), but be careful with hard bags off road. It is very easy to get your leg in trouble if you need to dab a foot at anything over crawling speed. I did it once, and it darn near pulled me under....and I wasn't moving very fast.

In case you (or anyone else) isn't aware of the problem....once your foot hits the ground, it and your leg stops moving relative to the bike. It only takes a split second for the pannier to catch up to your leg. As the pannier pushes forward on the back of your leg, it basically wedges your leg/foot between the pannier and ground....often resulting in a broken leg, you getting pulled off the bike, or both!

On the street and semi-maintained roads, I'm quite happy with the Jesse's. As you mentioned, they are a great "trunk". Perfect to hold lunch and your laptop on the morning commute...or the books on the way to school....or a couple days worth of food on the way back from the grocery store....

 

[Sleeping Dog]

Point well taken

Jim, not to start a debate or anything (afterall, I have Jesse's panniers on my beemer), but be careful with hard bags off road. It is very easy to get your leg in trouble if you need to dab a foot at anything over crawling speed. I did it once, and it darn near pulled me under....and I wasn't moving very fast.

In case you (or anyone else) isn't aware of the problem....once your foot hits the ground, it and your leg stops moving relative to the bike. It only takes a split second for the pannier to catch up to your leg. As the pannier pushes forward on the back of your leg, it basically wedges your leg/foot between the pannier and ground....often resulting in a broken leg, you getting pulled off the bike, or both!

On the street and semi-maintained roads, I'm quite happy with the Jesse's. As you mentioned, they are a great "trunk". Perfect to hold lunch and your laptop on the morning commute...or the books on the way to school....or a couple days worth of food on the way back from the grocery store....

Good point. Mostly I'm exploring small roads some paved some not so much. Off road for me will mostly be forest roads and logging access. When I get the inevitable hair brained idea to try a single track I'll leave the bags in the garage.

Jim

 

[Sleeping Dog]

Penny-tech Top Case & Tank Bag

I like having a top case for carrying miscellaneous item, spare pair of gloves, extra face shield, binoculars etc., but I prefer that it not be too large - 20-25 liters is a good size. Eventually I'll mount a Pelican 1450, but for now this marine toolbox will suffice, it is a bit smaller than I'd like, but for $12 I couldn't go wrong.

The basic tank bag on my K-bike is about 25l and with the insert grows to about 35. The insert long ago found its way into storage and the tank bag has proven to be more than adequate. My first thought was to adapt that bag to the Dakar, but it is too long, so I began looking.

The faux tank on the Dakar is fairly small and additionally I wanted a tank bag that wouldn't interfere when standing on the pegs. The BMW bag is nice but pricey as is the Touratech/Wunderlich Dakar bag.

On the K-bike bag, the largest item always carried was the rain cover, which could use up a significant amount of space in a small bag, so the idea of a waterproof tank bag had appeal.

Conveniently the Wolfman, Small Expedition bag fit the bill.

To this point I haven't ridden in the rain with it so the test of waterproofness is still to come, but otherwise I like it. A couple of quibbles, the universal mounting straps do what they are supposed to do but like anything universal it can be better. Most likely dump the straps and use 3M Dual Lock fasteners to hold the bag on, simplifying removal. The other is that the map pocket is just too small, it barely holds a folded map. Wolfman and others offer larger map covers so I'll replace the stock one fixing that problem.

So far I love the bike and will be heading for the UP in a few weeks to play with a friend. We'll eventually make it to the BMWRA rally in Houghton, so if you see a Dakar with NH plates, an orange top case and yellow tank bag, say hello.

Jim

 

[Sleeping Dog]

Packed...

and leaving for the UP in the morning. :roost:

Meeting up with a long time riding buddy and exploring scratchy little lines on the map. But as much as I wish it were not true, those two pallets of tile will still be their when I return.

Jim
:camping:

 

[Christophe Noel]

In case you (or anyone else) isn't aware of the problem....once your foot hits the ground, it and your leg stops moving relative to the bike. It only takes a split second for the pannier to catch up to your leg. As the pannier pushes forward on the back of your leg, it basically wedges your leg/foot between the pannier and ground....often resulting in a broken leg, you getting pulled off the bike, or both!

....

I did that with my Honda Africa Twin 750. To make matters worse, I did it in front of my apartment building in Paris as I tried to ride up a curb. Not exactly an adventuring accident. I think I would have rather busted my leg than endure the giggling stare from the two hot French girls sitting at the cafe across the street.

 

[ntsqd]

I did that with my Honda Africa Twin 750. To make matters worse, I did it in front of my apartment building in Paris as I tried to ride up a curb. Not exactly an adventuring accident. I think I would have rather busted my leg than endure the giggling stare from the two hot French girls sitting at the cafe across the street.

You obviously needed nursing and they failed to heed the call?
tsk, tsk....

 

[Icewalker]

and leaving for the UP in the morning. :roost:

Meeting up with a long time riding buddy and exploring scratchy little lines on the map. But as much as I wish it were not true, those two pallets of tile will still be their when I return.

Jim
:camping:

I just noticed that we not only share bikes ... I've got a 650 Dakar as well ... but we are also New Hampshirites :clapsmile

 

[flyingwil]

Nice bike!

 

[Sleeping Dog]

Of Bazookas and Hookups

So much for good intentions. I planned to keep updating this thread when modifications were made and didn't, so we'll do a little housekeeping and mention a few changes.

Tour-a-tech rear master cylinder guard, the (relatively) inexpensive one not the chi-chi carbon fiber model.

Hooking up

Where to put the helmet when off the bike is frequently a problem. Particularly a place where it doesn't roll off and crash to the ground. So stealing an idea from my friend Doug...

An 'S' hook bent 90 degrees and held on by the license plate screw.

It's also easy to use a cable lock to keep the helmet from growing legs if the bikes left for a while.

Bazookas

On the F650 single, box shaped panniers leave a protected, open area below the muffler and cat. A great place for anti tailgater weaponry.

Actually tool carriers. These contain a tool roll, tube patch kit, mini air pump and few other items. Simply 4" PVC pipe with one end plugged, hung by 1/2" pipe hangers to the pannier frame painted silver. The red cap is normally used to close off work in progress or in pressure testing the waste system. The wing nut expands a gasket that holds the cover on and provides a water proof seal. But what gets the most comments is...

 

[teotwaki]

Sorry, right in that first post I really wanted to see a picture of it in your garage!! :elkgrin:

 

[trailsurfer]

Your bike looks great.

 

[Sleeping Dog]

Your bike looks great.

Thanks, Crisco is a work in progress.

Over the winter I have a few other things to do, get rid of the possum scraper, install the secondary fuse panel that's been on the shelf for a year and add a battery/charging system monitoring gauge. I'm considering some auxiliary lights, probably the Piaa Cross County's or an equivalent. I don't ride much at night so adding lights hasn't been a priority, but the added visibility during the day would be nice. I also want to add at least one more accessory socket in a more convenient location and prewire for electrifying the topcase, when I finally get a larger one. At the Chain Gang, I saw a neat modification that allows the seat to be removed with out accessing the space under the rack, which for me requires unscrewing the topcase, I'll implement that also.

I need to look more into these, http://www.webbikeworld.com/lights/bikevis-led-lights/ as +or- $25 a set is cheap and drilling holes in the body panels doesn't bother me. While I replaced the stock tail light with an LED flashing model, I still like add additional LEDs to the back of the bike perhaps even changing incandescent bulbs in the turns signals to LEDs and have them glow red when not signaling a turn. Frankly I worry more about getting hit from behind then from the left turning cage.

Jim

 

[Sleeping Dog]

Updates and Additions for the Riding Season

When I put the bike away late last fall I had a list of farkles I wanted to add. Plenty of time till spring I thought and then the remodeling projects started around the house leaving me scrambling to get everything done as riding season begins.

First is was a possum-scraperectomy.

Possum Scraper aka mud guard.

To be replaced with a Tour-a-tech fender extension.

I considered the TT chain guard, but I don't know how it would be better than the stock so I got out my trusty coping saw and trimmed the scraper support off.

The accessory socket on the Dakar is attached to a frame rail next to the cylinder and awkward to reach on or off the bike, so I added a second socket on the dash.

While working around the dash, I also added a volt meter, as the Dakar's alternator can be marginal with heated gear and driving lights

With the plan to add driving lights and a Steibel horn, adding an auxiliary fuse box made sense with along with a relay so its only powered when the key is on.

On the Dakar, the seat release is in the tail compartment, a PIA if you have a top case or rack. So I snaked a wire under the tail lamp that releases the seat.

Back together and ready to ride.

Jim

 

[alfio]

The accessory socket on the Dakar is attached to a frame rail next to the cylinder and awkward to reach on or off the bike, so I added a second socket on the dash.

nice bike - any details on that accessory socket? i'm looking for something with a sturdy, waterproof lid. that one looks pretty good

 

[Sleeping Dog]

Powerlet http://www.powerlet.com. If you are installing on an F650 single and in the same place I did, use the plug that has a 90 degree bend for the wires.

Jim