Crash Bars Panniers

[FoxBat]

I'm off round europe... etc etc next year


To balance the weight out on my Vara so that I can take the kitchen sink with me I've been thinking about building some smallish boxes to fit on my front crash bars.


Any advice if this is a good idea... anyone done somthing like this before? will it knock my machine completly off balance or cause problems that I haven't thought about.

Cheers
Paul

[Boris]

I've always been a little wary of fixing anything to the crash bar as if you drop the bike there is a good chance the item will rotate round the bar and punch a hole in whatever the bars were fitted to protect in the first place.

[Wigan Chris]

i think theres a number of soft pannier/bag solutions for hanging on the front of the bike.... im to lazy to find any of them... but the soft option seems to be the preferred route.

[tramp]

or as "phil in france" has , get some Bar ends off a mountain bike and attach to the crash bars down low.

aka easy rider style , looked real cool and great for the motorways but kinda dangerous on those uk roads .

still could always fix some "ball and chains" aka mace on them

[FoxBat]

Soft panniers looks like the easy option

But my plan is to store my netbook in one side and a rechargable battery system in the other so some sort of lockable hard case is needed.

I've had a look at ammo boxes but can't find the right size so thinking about making them myself out of ally.

[jasonbc]

I'm off round europe... etc etc next year


To balance the weight out on my Vara so that I can take the kitchen sink with me I've been thinking about building some smallish boxes to fit on my front crash bars.


Any advice if this is a good idea... anyone done somthing like this before? will it knock my machine completly off balance or cause problems that I haven't thought about.

Cheers
Paul

Don't do it the radiators are on the side you risk overheating if you block the radiators ups

[Dee Duble Yuh]

Even though one of my (rear) panniers has a special compartment for a laptop, I concede that it's better to store it further forward, near the CoG for a smoother ride. I've heard people recommend a tank bag for that - if you can find one large enough.

Unfortunately because the Vara has side-mounted radiators I think mounting anything larger than tiny soft bag on the side would cause problems, and endanger your rads in the event of a drop. ATs can get away with stuff like this... just!


I gather ammo boxes are really heavy.

[Austin]

i have a Kriega US-5 tail pack mounted on each crashbar. waterproof, very durable and loads of ways to mount em. I keep a few bit and bobs in them - a few tools, waterproofs, gaffer tape, first aid and stuff like that. No problems with overheating and small enough to hopefully not damage the fairing or rads if I dropped the bike.

[FoxBat]

Yeh... radiators have been a concern for me

I had convinced myself that the airflow would go down the centre of the bike and vent through the rads to the side vents so with the crash bars mounted a good few inches away from the fairing, it wouldn't cause too much of a problem.

But I wasn't sure.... so thought I'd see if anyone mentions the issue

May have to think about this one again... or get a bigger bike so I can carry more stuff

[Dee Duble Yuh]

... or travel light.