animal@ihlpa.UUCP (D. Starr) (08/24/85)
Grego Sanguinetti asks the musical question... > > Has anyone out there had any experience with the Bagman saddlebags?? > Yes, I have. I bought a set back in '82, when they were a fairly new product, tossed them over the back seat of my Soozy and headed for California. I swiched over to a Harley dresser, which has fiberglass bags, after that trip, so they haven't seen any really big cross-country trips since then. They have seen a lot of commuting to work and weekend trips on the Sportster, and they're going over the back of my wife's new bike in September when we hit the Blue Ridge (can't really see taking the dresser down there when I have a lighter bike). General comments: 1. They hold up pretty well. About the only things that can hurt them are dragging on the pavement or touching an exhaust pipe (nylon melts!) or wheel. 2. Even with the rain covers, they leak some. Keep your stuff in plastic bags (besides, plastic bags confine the stink of your week-old sweatsocks). 3. The internal separators (a little draw-string pocket) are extremely convenient on a long trip. 4. You can overstuff the hell out of these bags, and about all that happens is they start to look it and it gets hard to work the zippers. 5. Mounting is sometimes a problem. They tend to want to hang inward and kiss the wheel unless you are careful to align them over the rear shocks. On an Interceptor (Pro-Link (TM) suspension, right?) you may have to rig something to keep them out. The time-honored method is to attach a stainless steel plate to your swingarm somewhere. It's a rather ugly solution, but it works. You might also try hooking some kind of metal loop to the frame rails below the seat. Harley makes a very nice thing like this for their Softail (also TM), which has a similar problem. The saddlebag supports are a very nice, clean looking chrome thing which may solve your problem if you can stomach having Harley parts on your Honda. The crude solution, which worked for me in '82, is to hook a bungee to the bottom of each bag on the wheel side (there's a little grommet there), run these bungees around the outside of the bag, and hook them together atop the seat (this pulls the bottom corners of the bags outward). It works, but makes the bags hard to get into. 6. Company dependability: As I said, Bagman bags were fairly new when I bought mine, and it turns out they under-specified the zippers. I came back from the coast with a broken zipper on one bag, which Bagman repaired free, no questions asked, despite obvious evidence that I had massively overstuffed the bag and forced the zipper. Not too many companies will do that. Hope this helps. As I said, mine are three years and many, many miles old and they still work. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another pair. Dan Starr