livingthedream
New Member
I am considering adding Pelican side cases to my 2016 Tenere 1200.
Does anybody have experience and photos of attaching Pelican cases?
Does anybody have experience and photos of attaching Pelican cases?
Pelican Cases
- Thread starter livingthedream
- Start date
RCinNC
Well-Known Member
I have quite a bit of experience at attaching a set of Pelican knockoff cases from China. It might offer you some ideas, depending on how much of a DIY guy you are...
Quick Release Pannier Attachment System for Happy Trails racks
Back in 2018 I designed and built a pannier quick release system to work with my Happy Trails pannier racks. After three years and about 40,000 miles, some design flaws became apparent; rather than repair the existing system, I decided to design and build a new one. If you want to see the...
www.yamahasupertenere.com
sheikyerbooty
Well-Known Member
I've used them on a few bikes. Just used wire rope clamps, 16mm from memory. Not quick release or as trick as RCs' works of art.
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livingthedream
New Member
I also don't have the fabrication skills that RCinNC has. Here are some photos of my simple arrangement to hold the Pelican Bags on my KLR650 685.
RCinNC
Well-Known Member
At one time Happy Trails sold a simple puck system to attach their aluminum panniers to their racks. Those pucks would also work on the flat sided Pelican cases.
www.happy-trail.com
They're made to work with square tubing HT racks.
Happy-Trails Pannier Puck Mount Kit Original Style
Our mount kits make it a cinch to take your panniers on and off. This kit will also work for Pelican cases or other types of luggage enabling quick and easy detachment. The kit consists of four pucks for each pannier (total of 8). The bottom 2 pucks on e
www.happy-trail.com
They're made to work with square tubing HT racks.
RCinNC
Well-Known Member
Here's an attachment system I made over a decade ago when I still had my Suzuki. It's a lot simpler than the one I posted above. You can get everything for it at a decent hardware store except for the ABS sheet plastic, which is available on Amazon.
Apologies for the picture quality; I wasn't as diligent about taking good photos back in those days.
These are the lower pannier supports that sit on the bottom rail of the racks. It's made from a piece of 3/4" square aluminum tubing and some 1/8" flat aluminum bar stock. The components make a flange that holds the bottom of the case to the pannier rack. The square tubing is cut so that it fits just between the upright parts of the pannier rack; this keeps the pannier from shifting fore and aft on the rack.
These are the sliding top clamps. They're made from 4 layers of 1/4" thick ABS sheet plastic, glued together with Weld-On liquid cement. The slots in them were made by drilling a hole at the end of each slot and then joining the holes with a coping saw. The slots allow the block of plastic to slide up and down when you loosen it. When you slide it down on top the top rail of the pannier rack and tighten it, it locks the top part of the pannier to the racks. When you loosen it and move it up, you can pull the pannier off the rack.
Here's the case showing the bolts sticking through. The bolts attach all the components to the pannier. Those three small silver rectangular pieces are small blocks of aluminum bar stock. They act as keys, and fit into some slots that were in the Happy Trails racks. These keys, when they're in the slots on the rack, prevent the panniers from being knocked loose if they take an impact from below.
This is what the inside of the pannier looks like. The hardware doesn't protrude very much into the pannier, so it doesn't get in the way.
Here's the outside of the pannier with all the hardware attached.
This is my HT rack. You can see those three horizontal slots in the rack; that's where those aluminum keys fit into.
Here's the pannier being attached. The lower flange in sitting on the lower part of the rack, and the top clamp in in the "up" position.
Here's the top clamp in the "down" position. It sits on top of the top rail of the rack, and the flange on the top clamp locks the clamp onto the top rail when you tighten those two knobs on the clamp.
Here's how the cases look on the bike.
It's a pretty simple design that doesn't require much more than simple hand tools (drill, hacksaw, coping saw, a file, and some clamps to hold the sheet plastic together while the glue dries). It gives you the ability to easily remove the cases to do maintenance on the bike.
I can't provide any measurements; this attachment system, and the bike it was on, are long gone, as are the plans I drew up for it. If you wanted to go even simpler, the top clamp could be replaced by a piece of U-channel aluminum. The channel would go around the top tube of the pannier rack, and you could use a locking pin through both legs of the U-channel to hold the pannier to the rack.
Apologies for the picture quality; I wasn't as diligent about taking good photos back in those days.
These are the lower pannier supports that sit on the bottom rail of the racks. It's made from a piece of 3/4" square aluminum tubing and some 1/8" flat aluminum bar stock. The components make a flange that holds the bottom of the case to the pannier rack. The square tubing is cut so that it fits just between the upright parts of the pannier rack; this keeps the pannier from shifting fore and aft on the rack.
These are the sliding top clamps. They're made from 4 layers of 1/4" thick ABS sheet plastic, glued together with Weld-On liquid cement. The slots in them were made by drilling a hole at the end of each slot and then joining the holes with a coping saw. The slots allow the block of plastic to slide up and down when you loosen it. When you slide it down on top the top rail of the pannier rack and tighten it, it locks the top part of the pannier to the racks. When you loosen it and move it up, you can pull the pannier off the rack.
Here's the case showing the bolts sticking through. The bolts attach all the components to the pannier. Those three small silver rectangular pieces are small blocks of aluminum bar stock. They act as keys, and fit into some slots that were in the Happy Trails racks. These keys, when they're in the slots on the rack, prevent the panniers from being knocked loose if they take an impact from below.
This is what the inside of the pannier looks like. The hardware doesn't protrude very much into the pannier, so it doesn't get in the way.
Here's the outside of the pannier with all the hardware attached.
This is my HT rack. You can see those three horizontal slots in the rack; that's where those aluminum keys fit into.
Here's the pannier being attached. The lower flange in sitting on the lower part of the rack, and the top clamp in in the "up" position.
Here's the top clamp in the "down" position. It sits on top of the top rail of the rack, and the flange on the top clamp locks the clamp onto the top rail when you tighten those two knobs on the clamp.
Here's how the cases look on the bike.
It's a pretty simple design that doesn't require much more than simple hand tools (drill, hacksaw, coping saw, a file, and some clamps to hold the sheet plastic together while the glue dries). It gives you the ability to easily remove the cases to do maintenance on the bike.
I can't provide any measurements; this attachment system, and the bike it was on, are long gone, as are the plans I drew up for it. If you wanted to go even simpler, the top clamp could be replaced by a piece of U-channel aluminum. The channel would go around the top tube of the pannier rack, and you could use a locking pin through both legs of the U-channel to hold the pannier to the rack.
livingthedream
New Member
Nice and simple...Thanks!