My 2-case luggage rack and Legacy Valk bags mod

[pago cruiser]

Finally got a chance to work on porting my Legacy Valk 2-case Luggage Rack (so named as it will carry 2 cases of your favorite canned beverage) to the 2014 Valk.  Only works with a solo seat; would also work as a mount for a relatively large tail rack, if someone wanted to.  

Dropping it off at the welders tomorrow.

While this method (purchase 2 racks, cut them apart, cut off the old mounts, make round and rectangular inserts for the tubes, weld the tubes, fair the tubes, powder coat the works) is definitely the hard way, I am going to ask the shop I take it to how much they would charge to bend the perimeter tube (nominal 20mm) and weld on the rectangular members.  I'll post back their response.

Anybody interested?   Wish I knew someone in China who bends steel... in quantities less than 1000...  This model is really pretty simple.

[hubcapsc]

Great work on the attachment brackets... I'm imagining something
similar, using this vintage Harley fender rack as a model:



... attaching to brackets like yours somehow. In my imagination
there's also a place to attach my Utopia backrest...

-Mike

[Bill Havins]

That’s fun, Mitch!  It ought to work very well. 

[pago cruiser]

Back from the welders. Time for clean-up.







Last weekend it was in the 70's, and I had to work - 60 f'ing hours this week, on salary...
This weekend I'm off, and it's 40% showers today, windy, drops to 22F tonight, high in the 50's tomorrow... 

Anyhow... when I picked this up from the welder yesterday afternoon, had another stop over at the NC machinist.  Picked up some smog port covers for the Magnum Valk Project... Asked him about literally milling an aluminum version of this rack for that project.  I have about $200 into this in material, and $150 in welding labor, not counting about 6 hours of my fab time.  Still have maybe $100 in brazing time to smooth things out prior to powdercoating. 

We figured we could mill this for about $500 - about the same, but a lot less steps.  Start with a 3/4" slab of 6061 (about $50 remnant price from our local supply house), then literally lay the steel rack on paper, trace it, scan it, clean it up, make a jig for the 6061 chunk, assign tools, and let her rip.  A shaping bit takes care of making the square corners round, and milling the back inside pieces down to about 1/2" makes this a one piece assemply, ready for polishing or powder. 

I'm prolly going to do the next one like this, as it seems about the same cost.  While you don't see many aluminum racks, thats because most racks are smaller diameter tubing - and steel always has and always will be stronger.  But a 3/4" perimeter solid 6061 is about the same strength as 1/2" thinwall steel tubing.  Plus, with this all as one piece, and radiused corners (instead of stress risers at welded connections) it it becomes much better and distributing stresses. 

[pago cruiser]

Final draft - Luggage Rack combined with Legacy Valk Saddlebags.  Tomorrow its off to the powder coaters.   

Provided some pics of the mounting frames as well in case someone wants to duplicate the system. WTF Honda???

Loaded all the saddlebag steel into the Legacy Valk Saddlebags - Only problem is that it is supposed to get down to 18F tonight - which is about what it will be when I leave at 0530 to ride to work...  That's about the functional limit for the electric gloves and vest at 80 mph...

[hubcapsc]

You're making the saddlebags look easy. I don't see how the front
attachment point works, and the part that goes behind the wheel
that connects the two saddlebags is important for rigidity, I guess
you're going to make something to go there?

-Mike

[bscrive]

Mike,
You can see in the first picture that the frame is attached.

Mitch,
I do agree with Mike that the rear of the rack needs to be attached to something.  They will sway too much otherwise.  That is why I put on the rear struts on mine.

[Bill Havins]

Nice job, Mitch!

Regarding the aluminum rack - if this was a "twin cylinder" it would fatigue and fall off in about a year.  On the Valkyrie it should be fine.

And I think you'll appreciate the capacity of the "old Valk" panniers.  My Corbins are just too small.

Cheers!

Bill

[bscrive]

Mitch,

It looks like you still need to do the signal light relocate.  Here is mine.  The idea came from another member on here.

[pago cruiser]

It is easy - well, it ain't hard - just time consuming.  Besides, keeps me out of the bars on weekends...


Yep, the bags are attached in the front lower - and the stock plastic frame cover still fits.

You can see the stock rear stay on the ground - still need to do some custom metal work to adapt it - but everything else was done so I figured I'd get the completed stuff to powder coat.  Besides, I'm still not sure how to do it yet... Think I want to incorporate it into the rear fender somehow.

Love the Legacy Valk bags size and shape - hard to improve upon them.

For lights, going to do what I did on my Solo and the Hack Legacy Valk:



And then (don't hate me!!) maybe do something to clean up the license tag mounting.  IMHO, it looks like it was just added on as an afterthought - everything else on the bike flows well from one element to the other, then it was... "Dang, look at the time!  Just make a plastic bracket and hang it off the fender...".



 

[pago cruiser]

Almost done.
Paint and powder sure looks purdy. Painted the side covers as well, as it just looked...wrong.  Now the paint flows from front fender to tank to side covers to rear fender...  and all is right with my little corner of the world...







Spent the better part of the weekend adjusting and ...adjusting and adjusting.  The welding of the Saddlebags Mounts kind of pretzled/ (tweaked)  the steel - nothing lined up - heat stresses.  So I beat back into shape, test fit, and sent to the powdercoaters. Which pretzled things again...  Then in measuring left/right, this way, that way, could not get things to be dimensionally identical  Lots closer, but just...not.. right..  Blew all day on this yesterday.

Then today I was checking air in the Legacy Valk tires, and looked at the Saddlebag mounts.  Same...frickin...thing I am seeing on the 2014.  Apparently the Legacy Valk mounts are off just a bit (about 3/16:) as well 
Not the first time I have been chasing ghosts...  Jeeze.

Also did a test of cleaning up the license mount (still need to finalize the trim piece sticking down from the LED tail light - its some ratty aluminum I had just covered in tape right now), then have to get the rear saddlebag stay welded up, and will prolly rattle can it until I do another round of powdercoat (as well as the aluminum rack spacers).  Then mount lights and wire (per the yellow Valk Hack) and I'm good to go.     

[Bill Havins]

That paint looks pretty good from here. 

And the helo pad turned out well.

I think the devil lives in pannier hardware.  It's a funny place to want to make your home.  But I can't think of any other reason that pannier hardware could be so hard to get to mirror on either side of a bike.  It has to be the devil - ain't no other explanation.

Nice work!

Bill

[_Sheffjs_]

This looks all to familiar.   

[bscrive]

I just saw this Mitch.  That looks really freakin awesome. 
 
I love the fact that you painted the side covers.  It made a world of difference in the look of the bike when I did mine. 

[Crabballs]

Awesome job on the bags!!!  Paint looks factory.  Do you have specs/brand of paint you used that you wouldn't mind posting so we can duplicate what you did when we get to that point?  Thanks.

[pago cruiser]

The paint is really, really close.  From a couple feet away it is indistinguishable from stock.
From 6" away, in the right light, at the right angle, looking at 2 adjacent pieces, the stock paint has a bit more... purple in it. Different pearl shade apparently.

I found and gave the Honda paint number to my painter, and he took it from there. 
Colorite makes a paint to match, but my guy has a pretty complete shop, and I think it's a point of honor among painters that they make their own.  Don't know if the Colorite would have been closer or not.

Did take him a couple tries to get it this close. I'm happy.  But if I was to do anything else that requires paint (like a fairing...  ), I think I'd 'd repaint everything at one time and eliminate the matching issues. Sometime being a perfectionist has it's problems...

[Robert]

Really great work on the bag mounting and the rack, I took some pics of your setup since one of my friends was trying to figure out how to setup something like you have. I gave him the board url and we will see if he comes on here. Good job it looks great.