Install Buco saddlebags - The Iron Sportster and K-model site · · 2015-07-08Install Buco saddlebags ... satisfying from a structural and safety point of view. ... What I didn't

Install Buco saddlebags

Build custom struts to mount antique Bucosaddlebags on an old Sportster.

Youngsters might makefun of baggers, but theolder you get, the moreyou love saddlebags. Ifyou want to make yourmotorcycle prime orcentral transportation,you need to carrygroceries every week.

The other nice thingsabout saddlebags isyou can carry a fewtools, and maybe somebrake fluid or even aquart of oil. I carry afew of those plastic-laminated maps as well.Bah humbug on GPS.

Leather saddlebags areOK, I have them on acouple bikes, but hardbags seem so muchnicer. I have had to sewseams on old leatherbags, no such problemwith these.

http://www.open-sport.org/Customization/3/ Open-Sport.org Install Buco saddlebags - Customization

This is my '62 Sportster. Since I use mybikes for daily transportation I needsaddlebags for all the various "stuff" ofmodern life. You can see the tiny leatherbags I was sporting. They would justbarely hold the mail from my PO Box.

They were good in that they didn'toverwhelm the bikes attributes. On theother hand, they did nothing special toenhance the bike either. My friend Karenwas given a set of old Buco aftermarkethard bags by a friend. She wouldn't partwith her's but in a modern miracle, I founda set on e-Bay the same day I saw hers.

If you want professional results act like aprofessional. Bring the tools to the bike orvice-versa. Why do you think they call it a"roll around" anyway?

You should make every effort to "work outof the box" which means you replace toolsright after using them. That way you'llknow where to find it as opposed to sittingin a little pile of tools scattered all aroundyou like 5 year old in a sandbox. Leaving a120-dollar Snap-On wrench in the cowlarea of a customer's car cured me ofleaving tools laying around. I would watchthe big dollar Porsche mechanics on theother side of the shop. They put every toolback immediately after they used it. I said"But your going to use it two secondslater". Tim said "Yep, and I know rightwhere it will be."

First thing is to get the old bags off. Theyare captivated by the luggage rack so Ineed ot whip off the ultra-cool bungee-nutsto get the rack up far enough to get the oldbags out.


"Cogitatin' and Calculatin" takes far longerthen the cutting and sawing and welding.The bags came with mounts that were fora 60's vintage Honda Dream. You shouldconsider if you can adapt the old mountsin some way. A pair of these bracketscame with the old mounts and I amnoticing how they would space the bagsout just about right to clear the chain-guard. I never did use them though.

I couldn't use either of the existingmounting holes. I need to move the bagsan inch and a half forward for two reasons:1) they would look better snuggled upagainst the shocks.

2) The inch-and-a-half would move thebag to where the forward bolt in the strutwould go through the flat part at the frontof the bag. It would still miss the littlemetal reinforcing plate.

A nice profile view of the bag. It was aninexpensive aftermarket bag in the 60'sbut I think that it looks really cool with theart-deco styling. The twin taillights areanother bonus, especially to a guy like mewith a broken collarbone from being hitfrom behind while stopped at a light.

About this time I had got it-- "TheInspiration". I figured I wanted space thebags out 2 inches from the fender strutsand have the holes line up with the strutholes so the same bolts went through thefender, strut and saddlebags. Verysatisfying from a structural and safetypoint of view. The inspiration was to gointo my parts stash and get a couple used,beat up struts to cut up and mount to thebag. Then I could weld the strap you seeto the strut to mount the crash bar thatgoes around the bag. The flat strap camewith the bags and was part of the originalmounting to the Honda. I ended uptrashing it and using another piece of strut.


With the strut as a template it was easy tomark the holes. In retrospect I should havemoved them down a quarter of an inch tomake the internal backing plate i made fitbetter. I am drilling a pilot hole with asmaller drill. I than follow with the 5/16drill. You can see the forward hole isalready done.

Here we see the bag mounted with it'snew holes. I checked out that there wouldbe room for the crash bar between theshock and the bag and that thechain-guard would clear the bag evenwhen the swing arm was fully up from aheavy load or a big bump. You can see thefront bolt misses the reinforcing plate butwe'll fix that in a bit.

Time to make the left bag like the rightone. It's pretty easy to match the two sidesup when you lay them out opening-to-opening. Same deal-- a small pilot holethat you can keep on location as you drillfollowed by a 5/16 slow and gentle to notrip up the fiberglass.

With the bags all eyeballed and in properposition it's time for the hard work-- cuttingup the struts. I am sawing it off well beforethe forward fender bolt hole where the bagwill mount. You'll see why in a minute. Thestrut is just starting to bend up (outwardwhen on the bike) where I am cutting it sothe piece I will be left with will be straight.


Same as with the bags, it's easier to makethe other side at the same time. Using thefirst one as a measuring stick I cut thesecond one to the identical length. Notethe rust and chrome peeling around boltholes. This is a perfect use for thesebars-- they aren't pretty enough to run butno one will see the rust where I will mountthem.

Now for the nice touch and theexplanation of why I cut the struts longerthen needed. I found a big spacer aboutthe right size to draw a semicircle aroundthe forward bolt hole. This is the niceround shape I want the strut to have in thefront.

Now take the struts over to the trusty JetTaiwan bandsaw and cut up the semicirclebut do not cut all the way through theflange. Stop when the blade hits theflange.

Cut the triangle out leaving the flangeintact.

The other side of the semicircle being cutout.


The trusty Jet Taiwan bandsaw comes intoplay again as you cut the triangle out,leaving the flange intact. You can barleysee the first flange because it is reflectingthe bandsaw surface but it's there.

A bandsaw is a faster way to removemetal then grinding or sanding or evenmilling. Use it wherever possible. Here Iam taking another pass at the piece thathas to be removed to get the semicircularshape we need. After this cut I flip itaround and take another cut to get evencloser to the semicircle. You could use a39-dollar sabre or jigsaw if you have nobandsaw.

The right-angle grinder takes off the lastbit of metal to get a perfect semicircle. Thebandsaw was especially useful to cut rightdown to where the semicircle meets theside flange. Po folk can use a file. Don'tdespair, it builds character and creates thelust for power tools that makes you a goodAmerican.

See, I'm po' too. A file is used to get thatsemicircle perfect. Like painting a car orhouse, the preparation really pays off. It'sjust as important to grind or file the sideflanges flat and true, which is what I amdoing here.


I keep the welding bench and thebandsaw right next to the sink. Constantlycool the parts off-- you will burn yourselfand burns on your fingers are a realhandicap.

A tangential safety-first discourse:I prefer to not use gloves when I workbecause my first co-op job at GeneralMotors was in the safety department. Theyhad a rule: No gloves around rotatingmachinery. The old timers loved freakingout the new kid by letting me look throughthe file photos. One was of a thumbhanging from a drill press chuck. Thetendon wound up spindle for an especiallygruesome effect. The guy had gloves onand was in a hurry. He had turned off thedrill and grabbed the chuck to slow it down(like I do all the time). This chuck had acouple little square Allen head set-screws.If he was not wearing gloves he would justhave gotten a minor laceration. As it was,the set-screw had the glove to dig into andhis thumb got ripped off. I don't even weargloves when I weld, which is equallystupid. At least it keeps me in the habit ofcooling off the parts every time.

I tried hammering over the flange cold andit didn't bend right. With a torch you canheat the flange where you want it to bendand give a couple gentle taps with thehammer, then heat a little further up theflange and repeat. It wants to wrap aroundthe semicircle on one side but I did haveto take a pair of needle nose pliers to getthe open side of the flange to lay right.

Still glowing red from the heat, this is whatthe strut looks like with the flanges bent.What I didn't show was using the bandsawto trim the first flange to the centerline ofthe strut after is was bent around thesemicircle. Then I bent the other flangeuntil it touched the first one then used thebandsaw to get it cut so it would mate upperfect with the first one.


Here they are, welded up and sanded witha belt sander. If you po folk haverecovered from the melancholy of nothaving an oxyacetylene torch what till yourealize the quality of life hit you suffer bynot having a belt grinder. Hell with foodstamp, we should have tool stamps. Teacha man to grind an you feed him for life yaknow? In the mean time you can still getgreat results with hand-sanding.

I mounted the bag with the cut-up strut inposition. The luggage rack is sandwichedbetween the struts and bag is far enoughout to miss the chain-gaurd (it's really thebrake lever that's closest). The greatestthing about this is how the cut-up strut fillsthe gap and makes the installation moreintegrated. I am pointing the nice face ofthe cut strut inward but I will be changingthat in a few pictures.

Here's the bag from the side. It bugs methat the crash bar angle does not matchup with the angle of the bags so.....

Time to true up and form the crash bars.They had been scraped up pretty bad buthere is a time honored principle: Eventhough they are a little rough, take thetime to make them fit and mount them.There are millions (literally millions) ofprojects sitting in the garage waiting forthe time to make new crash bars or paintthis or modify that. It is far better to dosomething a little rough and have it donethen to never get around to doing it.


I heat up the corner of the bars so I canbend them a little so they match the angleof the bags. Bad move, it turns out,because someone had done the exactsame thing previously. The bend had acrack in it that was filled with brazing. Thismelted out and left a big hole. This wasimportant because I would use these barsas the template to make the mounts thatwill weld up to my cut-up struts.

I needed a mount for the crash bar in therear as well as mounting a plate that holdsthe bags at the bottom rear. The originalmount was a flat strap. I didn't want to runa plain flat strap down for this mount. So Iused a bolt in this big-bike strut so I couldsnap the boss out. I then cut that strut upfor raw material.

This is going to look so good. Better yet,the strut will give side to side structurewhich the bags need down low. Not onlythat, but the big bike struts have a 3/8 holein the end that is the exact size of the studin the crash bars. Life is good.

There was a ton of eyeballin' and cogitatin'to get the length of the strut right. I amcutting off the flange where this strut willmate to the first struts I built. I hope yourdad told you the carpenter's motto:"Measure twice, cut once, you can't makea board longer." Fortunately we can weld astrut longer but why do it ?


OK, I cut the flange off where the otherstrut will mate to it.

I can't remember what I was marking hereso if you ever have to mount a set of Bucosaddlebags to a 1962 Sportster please callme up and refresh my memory. I'm surethis is a critical operation and I think it mayinvolve figuring out the angle this strut willmate to the original one.

This is pretty straightforward. Theright-angle grinder is used to get the insideface of the strut flat. This will lay upagainst the original strut so it must be flat.

I do remember this part. This is where Iconvinced myself the flanges were toolong for the angle they were supposed tomate at. Here I am holding both the leftand right big-bike struts marked fortrimming. This was a mistake. With thefollowing pictures you can see the hugegap just about this long.


Here I am clamping the big-bike strut onthe left to my modified strut on the right.Having the big flat surface of the big-bikeflange go over the mounting hole iscomforting. This meant it will not just be aweld that holds the struts together-- themounting bolt will go through both so evenif all the welds break the lower mount willstill dangle from the bolt. I then ran an arcweld from the edge of the flange you seeto the face of the sporty strut.

Before I could evaluate if the length andangle were correct I had to drill the flangeof the big-bike strut where it covered thehole in the sporty strut. The sporty strut isthe perfect pilot for the 5/16 drill.

Here is the big-bike strut welded to theSporty strut. I had to take this picture afterthe whole job was finished to replace abad shot so you can see the little bracketalready welded on to hold the bags at thebottom. Pretend it isn't there-- you arelooking into the future.

All my fretting must have paid off. Thestrut lined up perfectly. Here I am weldingup all the places where I can join the twostruts. You can see the arc weldergrounding clamp in the background. I arcwelded most of the joints. I used the torchto weld the flanges up. When sanded onthe belt sander it looks like one part. Iused this part as a template for the lefthand mount. I bolted the left and rightstruts together and welded away.


A rear view of the big-bike strut welded tothe sporty strut. A little weld spatter butthat automatic helmet that darkens whenyou strike the arc makes it a lot easier toweld. Those auto-darkening helmets wereinvented for fighter jet pilots so they wouldnot be blinded by nuclear blasts. The coldwar making your welding tasks easier.

What about the front mount for the crashbars? Well, I had two little pieces of bigbike strut left over and the flatter part yousee on the far side of the bandsaw bladelooked perfect for the job.

Because this flange is wide I decided tocut the flanges short and bend the mainweb over to cap off the end.

A lot more cogitatin' and measuring and Idrill the hole to mount the front mount ofthe crash bars. You can see the flanges onthe left splayed out and ready to weld tothe sporty strut. The existing hole in thebig bike strut was almost cut in half whenwe made the other piece that mounts thebags at the rear, but this partial hole linesup with the front mounting hole of theSportster strut. Once again, the welds canbreak and the part will still be attached.


Here is the piece of big-bike strut weldedto the Sporty strut. The hole is partially cutthrough but it is still better then nothing. Iconsidered welding a flat plate betweenthe two mounting holes so the Sporty strutwould press against the saddlebags thewhole length of the mount but I figured itwasn't really necessary.

This is the big-bike strut welded to theSporty strut from behind. I melted throughthe Sporty strut flange a little but no onewill see since it is now on the inside. Theround off the big end of the Sporty strut iscovered by this new piece. The angle ofthe end of the big-bike strut was cut so itwould match the angle of the shocks whenmounted on the bike.

The final magilla with the crash barmounted. Another shot taken after themounts were done so the little bracket tomount the bags at the bottom rear isalready on. Another look into the future.Note also that I have flipped around theway the Sporty strut mounts to the bag.

At the beginning of this adventure I hadthe open part of the strut pressing upagainst the bag. When I started cogitatin'on the front crashbar mount it becameevident that it would be better to have toclosed side of the flange mounted towardsthe bags so that the big-bike pieces wouldboth be welded onto the Sporty strut in thesame fashion.

It will look a little worse mounted on thebike because you will be able to see theopen side of the rear big bike struts if youpeer in between the bags way down lowbut it makes fabricating the mount a loteasier. The swicheroo was easy-- what Ihad intended to be the right mount wasnow the left one and vice versa. Then Iwelded on the little piece of the big bikestrut in the front and the little bracket topmount the bags at the bottom rear and Iwas in business.


The last thing was to weld up was the littlebracket that holds the bags at the bottom.It had a right angle bend on it that I cut offat the right length to space the bag awayfrom the mount. I used the bag as atemplate to position it. It lines up perfectlynow. Tack it on with the bag in place andthen pull the bag and weld it up nice onboth sides.

You can see the little bracket welded onthe bottom rear to mount the bags. Thecrash bar is torn up pretty bad but I can'tstress enough that it is better to getsomething torn up mounted and runningthen to let it sit in your garage for tenyears while you mean to get to it. Thesetorn up bars will serve as a great templateto make a new set.

Now you can put the bags into place andwork the long bolts through the mountingholes. The bags are already screwed tothe little bracket at the bottom. It's a littledifficult but you can just get your handbehind the shock and fender to push thefront bolt through. It's a little easier to runyour hand up the tire from behind to pushthe rear bolt through.

One last piece was need to support thebags from the inside. This piece came withthe original mounts. It was used on theoutside but hey, good steel is good steel.The fact that it was chromed was anadded bonus. The hole at the left wasready to go. The peice was too long so Ihad to cut off a few slots on the right. Irounded that end a little and had to file alittle slot where the mounting bolt would goin the right most slot. This was so the platewon't interfere with a ridge in the bags.This is why I lamented not drilling the bagsa little lower.


Here the plate is flipped around and put inplace. I put the hole in the front becausethe front hole in the saddle bags just goesthrough the fiberglass The rear slot is overthe original riveted-in metal plate on thebags so I figured the slot would not causeproblems there since the metal platewould spread the load. I used a longer boltin the rear so I could use a flat-washerover the slot as well as a lock washer. Imight put a jam nut on too. Having yoursaddlebags fall off is definitelyembarrassing.

Here I am at that happy happy time whereall the fabrication is done and and I amreally mounting up the bags. A nice newlock washer every time insures the bagswill stay on

Here's the bike with the bags mounted. Ialso switched to the '59 tank and the rarevalenced front fender. Yeah yeah, nothingmatches color and all that noise. But youknow what? I'll be driving my baby aroundtonight. This way I can shake out anyproblems right away. If the tank leaks I canfix it now without ruining the new paint.The front fender rubbed on the tire on oneside. Thank god it wasn't painted while Ipried on it with a crowbar.

You can see the crash bar doesn't seem tomatch the bags on this side. Since the leftand right mounts were bolted together andmatched as they were made this meansthe problem is in the crash bar. I needs tobe straightened out and the anglechanged like on the right side one. Oneday, for now I need to go to Albertson'sand buy groceries so I can try out my newbags.


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Install Buco saddlebags - The Iron Sportster and K-model site · · 2015-07-08Install Buco saddlebags ... satisfying from a structural and safety point of view. ... What I didn't