November 18, 2004
LeatherLyke SaddleBags
Today is my birthday, Wendy surprised me with a large box containing a pair of LeatherLyke saddlebags for my Suzuki Savage. Like any 5-year-old boy I grabbed them without so much as a thankyou and ran outside to play. Took about three hours to mount -- would probably have been quicker to have removed the rear wheel to give easy access to the bolts inside the rear fender.
But they do look good (Click on images for huge versions):
Mounting involved removing the seats and rear fender rails, disconnecting and removing the rear turn signals. Mount the rear turn signals on the provided bracket, remove license plate and remount with the turn signal backet now attached tothe license plate bracket. Snake wires thru the center hole of the turn signal bracket, wraptie to tail light wires. Remove grommet, snake a thin wire alongside the taillight wires, attach to turn signal wires and pull back thru the same path as the tail light wires. Enlarge center hole of grommet and replace. Stretch tail light wires with provided wire/splices and reconnect. Test. Re-reconnect correctly (it's a 50-50 chance unless you label, and easier to reconnect than to label.)
The bags mount on a pair of studs (marked 1 & 2). The rear studs mount to the fender rails in place of the turn signals. The front studs replace one of the upper of the two forward rail mounting bolts. Once the fender rails are back on replace the seat, lube the studs with the supplied lube and slip the bags on. Lock the bags on with the clips on their leather retention straps. The bags rest against the rear springs with a nylon rub strip. The bags are rated for 20 pounds each.
Posted by at November 18, 2004 11:13 AM