moosenator
Guest
Hey Fellow GSers,
Recently traded my Yamaha FJR1300 and XTZ660 for a 2007 BMW R1200GS Adventure with very low K's. The bike came without luggage racks or panniers. As we (Adventurists) know you have to have some sort of luggage system if you wanna call yourself some sort of Adventure rider. So with those thought in mind I started looking at this accessory for my new beastie. After a small heart-attack and reality check caused by the cost of this stuff....I pondered with the idea of making my very own Aluminium Panniers.
I'm very of fortunate that I have access to all the equipment required to build these boxes (Australian Airforce). In the mean time my friend (Pete) jumped on board with the project. He also bought a GSA without panniers. He's since made boxes to fit his Hepco & Becker frames (16mm). Mine are based on the original BMW GSA frames (18mm).
We used 2mm thick (0.080") 5005 Aluminium alloy sheet for the construction of our boxes. Here are some pictures of the finished product(s).
These are the plans for the back of the boxes. We made two sections per box and rivited the halves together with Sikaflex and Cherry-Max countersunk rivets.
The boxes are based on the Touratech Zega Cases (35 Litres per side).
The fronts complete with exhaust cut-outs.
Fitted to my bike using standard Beemer racks.
I made some bogus Touratech decals for each box...note that it now reads " TOURABOUT" with small print that reads: "Selbstgemachte Motorrad-Korbe" which is Zie German for: Homemade Motorcycle Panniers. I think it looks pretty cool...and if you can Sprekken zie Deuts funny too!
We use the fittings from Lachlan Campbell at MPE products at the Sunshine Coast here in Queensland (Australia). He manufactures very nice stuff if you're interested please have a look at his website (free plug) here: http://www.mtdtours.com/
The white stuff stuck on the box is "Teflon Tape" to limit chaffing on the Aluminium cases...We'll see how that holds up with dirt, mud and water over time.
To prevent too much heat build up from the Akro pipe on mine and Remus on Pete's, I build in a 10mm gap for extra cooling. Here is the 10mm spacer fitted to the box........I hope you guys buy that crock of shit! I stuffed up on the folder and made the cut-out 10mm too big. It turns out that it helps cooling anyway, thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
Pretty snazzy boxes hey? Just like the bought ones....only cheaper! Lots cheaper!
The boxes were put together using Sikaflex Polyurethane sealant, rivited and welded on the 10mm safe edge up top. They are rock solid and very strong. The welds on top are blended and scotch-brited. The insides were seam-sealed to make them water-tight.
The lids are also welded on the corners and blended/conditioned. The lids house the self-adhesive foam/rubber seals (6.5mm x 17mm). You can also see here that the latch catches are solid rivited on the lids using countersunk solid aluminium rivets.
I think I speak for both Pete & myself when I say that we're very happy with the final results. They look fantastic on the bikes. As for costs;
$149 for sheet of 2mm x 1200mm x 2400mm Aluminium, Welding cost a carton of Cokes ($20), all the fittings and mount kits (2 sets) $400 for the lot. So per set of boxes cost us $280 each. I know...these aren't the originals....but I still have around $1900 left to get over that! That buys a lot of fuel, beer and camping gear to go and test them out.
We've decided to leave them in raw aluminium to maximise their practibility and get that Off-road credit with all their battle scars and scrapes.(little ones for me thanks). I will coat them with some acrylic clear coat once the scotchbriting is all done.
There ya go guys, I hope you enjoy my write up!
Happy travels....
Moose
__________________
Recently traded my Yamaha FJR1300 and XTZ660 for a 2007 BMW R1200GS Adventure with very low K's. The bike came without luggage racks or panniers. As we (Adventurists) know you have to have some sort of luggage system if you wanna call yourself some sort of Adventure rider. So with those thought in mind I started looking at this accessory for my new beastie. After a small heart-attack and reality check caused by the cost of this stuff....I pondered with the idea of making my very own Aluminium Panniers.
I'm very of fortunate that I have access to all the equipment required to build these boxes (Australian Airforce). In the mean time my friend (Pete) jumped on board with the project. He also bought a GSA without panniers. He's since made boxes to fit his Hepco & Becker frames (16mm). Mine are based on the original BMW GSA frames (18mm).
We used 2mm thick (0.080") 5005 Aluminium alloy sheet for the construction of our boxes. Here are some pictures of the finished product(s).
These are the plans for the back of the boxes. We made two sections per box and rivited the halves together with Sikaflex and Cherry-Max countersunk rivets.
The boxes are based on the Touratech Zega Cases (35 Litres per side).
The fronts complete with exhaust cut-outs.
Fitted to my bike using standard Beemer racks.
I made some bogus Touratech decals for each box...note that it now reads " TOURABOUT" with small print that reads: "Selbstgemachte Motorrad-Korbe" which is Zie German for: Homemade Motorcycle Panniers. I think it looks pretty cool...and if you can Sprekken zie Deuts funny too!
We use the fittings from Lachlan Campbell at MPE products at the Sunshine Coast here in Queensland (Australia). He manufactures very nice stuff if you're interested please have a look at his website (free plug) here: http://www.mtdtours.com/
The white stuff stuck on the box is "Teflon Tape" to limit chaffing on the Aluminium cases...We'll see how that holds up with dirt, mud and water over time.
To prevent too much heat build up from the Akro pipe on mine and Remus on Pete's, I build in a 10mm gap for extra cooling. Here is the 10mm spacer fitted to the box........I hope you guys buy that crock of shit! I stuffed up on the folder and made the cut-out 10mm too big. It turns out that it helps cooling anyway, thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
Pretty snazzy boxes hey? Just like the bought ones....only cheaper! Lots cheaper!
The boxes were put together using Sikaflex Polyurethane sealant, rivited and welded on the 10mm safe edge up top. They are rock solid and very strong. The welds on top are blended and scotch-brited. The insides were seam-sealed to make them water-tight.
The lids are also welded on the corners and blended/conditioned. The lids house the self-adhesive foam/rubber seals (6.5mm x 17mm). You can also see here that the latch catches are solid rivited on the lids using countersunk solid aluminium rivets.
I think I speak for both Pete & myself when I say that we're very happy with the final results. They look fantastic on the bikes. As for costs;
$149 for sheet of 2mm x 1200mm x 2400mm Aluminium, Welding cost a carton of Cokes ($20), all the fittings and mount kits (2 sets) $400 for the lot. So per set of boxes cost us $280 each. I know...these aren't the originals....but I still have around $1900 left to get over that! That buys a lot of fuel, beer and camping gear to go and test them out.
We've decided to leave them in raw aluminium to maximise their practibility and get that Off-road credit with all their battle scars and scrapes.(little ones for me thanks). I will coat them with some acrylic clear coat once the scotchbriting is all done.
There ya go guys, I hope you enjoy my write up!
Happy travels....
Moose
__________________
