Cyclerack-Happy Trail Hard Cases

Matojo, First let me say, everyone has their own style of riding and risk factors. For me having that hard case so close behind my ankle is a threat to the 4 screws and a plate that I already have in the right leg. That said, I came very close to mounting a similar set of hard boxes on my TW, but eventually went for soft saddlebags (Tourmaster Nylon II).

I had purchased from a local welding shop the rack and boxes for the Royal Enfield. Photo follows.



Needless to say when something is based on WWII specs its probably heavier and stronger than today's models of comparable products. Here's the rack as temporarily rigged for my TW (needless to say for a permanent mount I'd do it differently).



The racks came with their own tail lights and the only major difference for the boxes is that they open with a hinge at the front and clip latch at the rear. Here's a view of the rack sans bike.



The steel boxes are still available from Royal Enfield dealers although quite pricey (but not relative to what Happy Trails is charging.

Boxes and racks are hanging in my garage. Drive to New Mexico and I would make you a sweet deal. BTW, the purpose of this message is 1. to suggest considering the dangers of hard boxes if you are going to drop the bike. and 2. to suggest that alternatives to the expensive stuff are available if you are will to fab a bit. Tom

Thanks for all the inside information, yes hard bags would not be a good idea in such small bike, I was thinking that could laid a big stack of gears across using the hard luggage as a plattaform. I gues was trying to setup the TW as my touring bicycle for long distance rides. I guess a rear rack with a big stack on top is what I gonna look like going down the road. Wish can put in The TW a rack like I got on my !980 Honda CT 110, have you guys see those racks? Any ways:



Thanks and "Happy New Year"

Matojo, Somehow we all manage to get a bunch of stuff on the bike with available racks, saddlebags and straps. Here's my admittedly conjured up setup. The top bag is a roller bag (perfect once reinforced because it has struts on the bottom, loops for tying on stuff, and with sleeping pad and tent against my back actually provides a back rest.





Whoops, I just realized that photo did not have the saddlebags so I'm tempted to add the following even tho the focus leaves something to be desired.





The first time I used it I attached it with heavy wires ties and had one or more break over a rough 150 miles. Now its bolted on with U bolts, and the struts are reinforced to the bag with a thin plywood liner instead of the few flimsy rivets provided for airline travel use. The wheels on one side detract from the purist status, but what the hay?

I love my Tourmaster bags and they stay on the bike at all times. The bike in non camping mode looks like this complete with the locking and moderately water and dust proof aluminum case.







BTW - please show us what you have for the CT110. I have one with the standard luggage rack, but no great carrying capacity.

Hodakaguy said:

I personally like hard bags for certain situations, long mostly road trips and using the bike around town. We've had our bike out to the desert several times now with the panniers installed and they work great, if we were woods riding I'd remove them and leave them at home.



Hodakaguy

Click to expand...

I tend to agree with Hodakaguy.



If you already have the CycleRack-Happy Trails has a kit that you can weld up and then you can install hard panniers -----that's what I did and then re-powder coated the rack. In the picture below you can see the tubes I welded onto the Cyclerack to hold the Pannier D rings. I use the Pannier attach points for lots of different things. In the picture below the mount installed is used to carry a 1.5 gallon fuel tank. Note the aft tube on the rear rack is beefy and the CycleRack has several re-enforcements because the rack also doubles as a trailer hitch.



I also modified the front CycleRack to carry soft front panniers as well.



(Sorry about the messy garage)











A better picture of the D ring







For off-road there are some really nice soft bag configurations that you might want to consider, (Hard bags have a tendency to munch when the bike is dropped).



Mike