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I recently installed a fairing and lowers from a 79F on my XJ.
Since my KLT got totalled, and my Bandit is for zooming around
on, I felt the need to turn my trusty bought-new-as-leftover
in 1986 XJ into a 2-wheel camping couch.
I had to shim it up a bit on the fairing support bracket (0.4 in)
because my pods were scraping on the bottom of the fairings
stereo. So far, so good.
With square lights on front now, and round in back, and the bags
just sitting in the garage, it was time to get busy, so I wheedled
Denny Zander into helping me finish the job of getting the bags and
square lights mounted on the back.
Many thanks to Denny for sharing a passion for what I call "farm
technology", (junkyard wars?) for making something really good
happen with some tools and some piles of scrap and a lot of
elbow grease and brainstorming.
The bags are by Krauser, and came with the bag bracket, but
there was no way to attach that bracket to the bike, so Denny
fabricated a small J-shaped gizmo to hold the front to an existing
frame mount point. We used stainless allen bolts to fasten
bracket to frame - pic shows drilling thru the hole that bolts to
the frame to make a hole to access the allen bolt. The other hole
is where the front of the bag bracket attaches.
You XJ owners will appreciate the XJ specific prob of clearing the
seat lock and seat release tabs, which kinda shows in a later pic
if you know what to look for.
Now, saw out a rear bracket support from 1/4" stock...
came out like this:
You can see I used a file to make a round hole square to mount
the turn signals, since we couldn't find the box of square drill
bits. My grab rail had a spacer between it and the frame, so the
bracket just took the place of the spacer. How convenient.
Now, we need an angle iron to standoff from the above bracket
to mate to the bag bracket.
Sure is nice to be able to weld aluminum!!! Notice the upper
surface of the angle iron - it has four tapped holes to match the
bag bracket. Here ready to tack the angle iron in place to check
fit before welding in the proper place (opposite side of angle
piece from the tack)
Came out like this:
It's a little hard to see, since the bag bracket is black, and we
rattle-canned the rear mounting bracket, but that's how it
worked. You can just see the flange that the bag locks onto
hiding behind the turn signal.
Looks like this:
After 12 hours, we decided enough was enough - but were not
pleased with that weird cross-brace under the reflector- it was
leftover from what came with. We want to do a 'nerf bar' thing,
also good for hooking bungees. Maybe a couple eye-bolts in the
angle irons too, for more bungee hooking places. And of course,
orange reflective tape yet to be applied.
So there ya go, an XJ w/ all square lights, and some nice bags.
I really dig how the rectangular rear signals match up with
the bag geometry!
Now if someone is impressed enough to bring over a perfect set
of stock pipes and clean and polish my whole engine for me, I
will paint everything.
Since my KLT got totalled, and my Bandit is for zooming around
on, I felt the need to turn my trusty bought-new-as-leftover
in 1986 XJ into a 2-wheel camping couch.
I had to shim it up a bit on the fairing support bracket (0.4 in)
because my pods were scraping on the bottom of the fairings
stereo. So far, so good.
With square lights on front now, and round in back, and the bags
just sitting in the garage, it was time to get busy, so I wheedled
Denny Zander into helping me finish the job of getting the bags and
square lights mounted on the back.
Many thanks to Denny for sharing a passion for what I call "farm
technology", (junkyard wars?) for making something really good
happen with some tools and some piles of scrap and a lot of
elbow grease and brainstorming.
The bags are by Krauser, and came with the bag bracket, but
there was no way to attach that bracket to the bike, so Denny
fabricated a small J-shaped gizmo to hold the front to an existing
frame mount point. We used stainless allen bolts to fasten
bracket to frame - pic shows drilling thru the hole that bolts to
the frame to make a hole to access the allen bolt. The other hole
is where the front of the bag bracket attaches.
You XJ owners will appreciate the XJ specific prob of clearing the
seat lock and seat release tabs, which kinda shows in a later pic
if you know what to look for.
Now, saw out a rear bracket support from 1/4" stock...
came out like this:
You can see I used a file to make a round hole square to mount
the turn signals, since we couldn't find the box of square drill
bits. My grab rail had a spacer between it and the frame, so the
bracket just took the place of the spacer. How convenient.
Now, we need an angle iron to standoff from the above bracket
to mate to the bag bracket.
Sure is nice to be able to weld aluminum!!! Notice the upper
surface of the angle iron - it has four tapped holes to match the
bag bracket. Here ready to tack the angle iron in place to check
fit before welding in the proper place (opposite side of angle
piece from the tack)
Came out like this:
It's a little hard to see, since the bag bracket is black, and we
rattle-canned the rear mounting bracket, but that's how it
worked. You can just see the flange that the bag locks onto
hiding behind the turn signal.
Looks like this:
After 12 hours, we decided enough was enough - but were not
pleased with that weird cross-brace under the reflector- it was
leftover from what came with. We want to do a 'nerf bar' thing,
also good for hooking bungees. Maybe a couple eye-bolts in the
angle irons too, for more bungee hooking places. And of course,
orange reflective tape yet to be applied.
So there ya go, an XJ w/ all square lights, and some nice bags.
I really dig how the rectangular rear signals match up with
the bag geometry!
Now if someone is impressed enough to bring over a perfect set
of stock pipes and clean and polish my whole engine for me, I
will paint everything.
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