Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Cheap is expensive


Decent shovelhead-era Harley saddlebags are expensive. I bought a pair of fiberglass copies from a guy on the JJ whose friend took a mold from an original pair and made some copies. Cheap.


No hardware, and no predrilled holes to tell me where the hardware goes. I scoured the internet, my service manual, fellow lovers of 50 weight, and intuition.


The V-Twin reproduction hardware kits weren't cheap. I had to use a shitload of 6-32 screws and nuts to hold it all together because I lacked the proper rivet tool. I had to space the frames out on the brake side because the later shovelheads had their bags indented to clear the brake hardware - unlike these. I might have broken even financially on these (as opposed to buying a very nice set of swap meet bags) if my time was worth minimum wage. Pay no attention to the weird looking brace I made from scrap aluminum. I'm cheap, you see...


1 comment:

  1. Don't want to spoil the soup, but make sure you have some type of weatherstripping/foam on the lids and watch out for jumping lids. They have a way of vibrating off, even with the locks.

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