Hard Panniers

Good day all.

I live just to the north of the beautiful city of York where the city fathers do not like motorist and one pays heavily to park a car not to mention the totally inadequate traffic system. For us bikers parking is free and traffic queues do not present a problem. I therefore use either my scooter or my ancient Silverwing with 105,000 on the clock. Both have stacks of luggage space. My beautiful newly acquired C800 is very lacking in that department. Looking at prices generally the cost of real leather panniers are some what over the top.
I do have in the garage a set of Honda Silverwing hard panniers from a scrap machine I purchased for the engine. I think these sprayed black would look very nice. This begs a few questions, 1/ Has any one actually done this modification ?  2/ Are there any insurance implications ? 3/ As this will involve a lot of time and work on my part are the any purpose built hard panniers for the C800 ?

I bought some cheapo hard panniers from ebay. They're a bit too small with hindsight but love the fact you can lock them and leave things like waterproofs, disc locks etc in there.

Mine came without brackets so I made some out of some flat steel bar from b&q.. Few coats of primer and satin black... Job done. They don't show when panniers are on, but I wanted to avoid rust.

If you do it the same way, you'll need longer bolts to go through the rear fender brackets. Watch out, one has a loose nut, the other goes into a tapped hole. Try and only change one bolt over at a time, or the fender may move out of line.

I drilled though the hard panniers and put a big rubber washer each side, and a big metal washer ("penny washer") next to that to spread the load and cushion the plastic.

If you need a rough sketch or anything, just shout,

Cheers

Hi Bigmal,
Thanks for the heads up on the taped and loose nuts. that is to be my first job to morrow. It will be a good time saver.

Another tip for fitting panniers, is to drill the threads out of the forward most rear fender bolts, then push the longer bolts through from the inside with a nut and washer on the outside to hold the fender in place before fitting the pannier brackets, It makes for easier removal of the panniers when necessary.

Good evening all,
I have spent to day adapting the pannier carrier frame and making templates. The panniers sit very neatly on the frame and look good. I will have the panniers professionally sprayed. Hopefully it will then be the bees knees. Will do before and after photos when the job is complete

Good evening Terence, I'll bet those will look pretty nice colour matched to your bike! Looking forward to the pics  

Will look forward to that Terence  

Well done Terence,if you feel like taking the panniers off frequently ie: when not in use all the time,a good tip is do as Simbo said and change your bolts so they fasten on the outside instead of the inside,then drill a hole in each one to accept a "R" clip,I have got Givi Hard panniers on mine,but change now and again to Leather ones,with the Givi being lockable I made brackets to take the weight at the bottom sitting on the pannier rails, and as you have done drilled holes to accept the rail bolts only back to front if you understand,and then the holes that take the "R" clip hold the panniers on,and give me the quick release option.I shall take a photo tomoz to show you.

Alfie,
Thank you for the information. The front of the pannier has an extension arm with a clip mechanism. I have modified and fitted to the rear foot rest bracket a plate to accept the clip mechanism. The pannier hangs on  a chrome rode and is secured by a lock and lever mechanism at the rear. Basically I have taken the Honda Silverwing system and made five simple modification to make it fit. Only time will tell if I have it right ! I do need it to look good.

" />This is the "R" clip which would be placed inside the pannier when fitted,just a quick and cheap mod for anybody to do.You must fasten the bolt to the frame first.

Hello again Alfie,
One minor problem I have not quite got my head around at the moment is that when the panniers are removed the extension arm can fold back. The securing mechanism has seen better days and I have several ideas to make it work. However looking at your photo if you don't mind I will borrow your idea, simple but very effective.

Cheers Terence,always pleased to help,believe me if there is a cheap way of doing something I will try and work it out.Once again thanks for your comment.

That's cleve Alfie, wouldn't have thought of that.  

Cheers Dave.