lost a lid and my cool

[ScottLee]

Well it was just a matter of time i suppose but i'm no longer a saddle bag cover virgin.
Amazing how much air time it it got before gravity decided it belonged on the ground a 1/4 mile behind me.
Glad it ended up on the side of the road and not a speed bump in front of a tractor trailer at least. Its intact but that nice shiny paint job is history as expected.
Has anybody attempted to get a good body shop to color match up kawi factory paint?

[customsound79]

I see them on ebay all the time. You might get lucky and find the right color. Someone rigged some string to hooks to mine before I bought it. I'll post a pic later if I can. An ounce of prevention...

[customsound79]

[Mr Jensee]

I strongly encourage all Voyager XII owners to put tethers on their lids. A new one without the rubber gasket and the pocket lid cost me $400 last year. If you won't do tethers then put hinges on the lids. These bikes are getting old and parts are getting scarce. You can find paint for your year Voyager on Amazon.com.

[lockwoodjohn]

I have tethers on mine right now. I would like to hinge them. My question is If they were hinged would the lids open all the way being under the tourpac? Would the lids hit the bottom of the tourpac when you tried to open them? Thank you for any input

[Avidrider62]

Tour pack is in the way. My extra bike lids are hinged, no tour box.

[jre258 in SoDak]

Avidrider62,
What make is your backrest for the passenger and what model bike is it from?

I looked into hinging my saddlebag lids, but the Markland backrest mounts would interfere with opening them.
Jim

[Avidrider62]

Kawasaki VN1600 backrest., Kawasaki brand. I made aluminum brackets to adapt it to the mounting holes we have for the grab bars.

[ScottLee]

Mr Jensee has the right idea about tethering alrighty. Do it while your covers are still in good shape. I should have myself. I guess we will get to see how well my paint matching ability is soon enough. "Metallic Cremona olive" just sounds like trouble...

[voyager55]

http://www.colorrite.com/department/kawasaki-10020.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[aldosdad]

Where did you source the hinges?

[ScottLee]

http://www.colorrite.com/department/kawasaki-10020.cfm

Anybody have any experience using color rite products or any other paints claiming exact color match's? Thanks

[Avidrider62]

Scott Lee, paints are OEM color. But, paint changes slightly with thesun beating down on it. My 03 color for touch up was OK. I didn't buy thier clearcoat, went with Duplicolor clear. duplicolor clear was ok too. Hinges i got from ace hardware, Stainless steel ones. Used my own small screws to attach.

[VoyKimmer]

You don't need to use just colorite brand. Any good painter can match any color exactly. I got a used front fender. My body man went from Blue to 96 metalic red. Exact match. They have computers now. All you need is a good sample to match. He uses Dupont paint.

[krasmu]

Have my 90 xii with low 30,000 miles and clean paint for less than 2 months when I learned this hard lesson. Wish someone had told me about this sooner. I now keep them locked at all times. Will be looking into tethering them this winter.

[ScottLee]

I decided to go for a day trip with the wife the last weekend when after about a hour on the parkway we exited and stopped at the first red light when I heard something hit the ground. It was the lower half of my right front saddle bags latch. Talk about timing. I reached down grabbed it and pulled over to figure out what the heck was going on. It seems that the tiny little acorn nuts that hold the latch on onto the lower bag decided to loosen up and fall off inside the bag. Never even noticed them until then. The combination of the wifes leg and the wind kept it in place until we stopped and then gravity took over. No loss but very close. Unloaded both bags and located all the missing and loose nuts and tightened up the rest in both bags. The bottom part of the latchs are bolted but the tops on the lids are riveted so no worries there.
Fair warning... check those little acorn nuts now and again. Probably find a few loose and a couple laying in the bottom of your bags. A little locktite will keep that from ever happening again.

[Me Again]

I decided to go for a day trip with the wife the last weekend when after about a hour on the parkway we exited and stopped at the first red light when I heard something hit the ground. It was the lower half of my right front saddle bags latch. Talk about timing. I reached down grabbed it and pulled over to figure out what the heck was going on. It seems that the tiny little acorn nuts that hold the latch on onto the lower bag decided to loosen up and fall off inside the bag. The combination of the wifes leg and the wind kept it in place until we stopped and then gravity took over. No loss but very close. Unloaded both bags and located all the missing and loose nuts and tightened up the rest in both bags. The bottom part of the latchs are bolted but the tops on the lids are riveted so no worries there.
Fair warning... check those little acorn nuts now and again. Probably find a few loose and a couple laying in the bottom of your bags. A little locktite will keep that from ever happening again.

Bet your glad you have tethers on now

[cushman eagle]

I decided to go for a day trip with the wife the last weekend when after about a hour on the parkway we exited and stopped at the first red light when I heard something hit the ground. It was the lower half of my right front saddle bags latch. Talk about timing. I reached down grabbed it and pulled over to figure out what the heck was going on. It seems that the tiny little acorn nuts that hold the latch on onto the lower bag decided to loosen up and fall off inside the bag. Never even noticed them until then. The combination of the wifes leg and the wind kept it in place until we stopped and then gravity took over. No loss but very close. Unloaded both bags and located all the missing and loose nuts and tightened up the rest in both bags. The bottom part of the latchs are bolted but the tops on the lids are riveted so no worries there.
Fair warning... check those little acorn nuts now and again. Probably find a few loose and a couple laying in the bottom of your bags. A little locktite will keep that from ever happening again.

I just got back from an 880 mile trip [MAV] rally,read your post,checked my bike ,and found one of my acorn nuts off,and another almost off!Thank you for your post!

[HarryL]

Another lost lid today. I always thought they would be OK if I kept them locked---not so much. The left lid blew off today at about 70 mph and it was locked. I almost saved it but a large truck hammered it as I was standing there waiting for the traffic to clear to retrieve it. The memory will be with me a long time.

I just purchased a nice one on eBay today for $239 plus shipping. A local auto paint supplier said that they could match the color as long as I had at least a 1" by 1" sample. Unfortunately, I have lots of Pieces.

Now who is selling tethers?

Thanks for letting me vent!

HarryL

[Lucasind]

....So sorry to hear of your tragic saddle bag loss !...especially the part about you turning around to get it, then waiting for traffic to clear, you watched it get smashed ! Don't get no worse than that ! $239(plus shipping) makes it sting all the MORE ! that seems a bit high price ?.....Tony

*I think "chevyman" has pre-made tethers for sale,on this forum.