RCinNC
Well-Known Member
Back in 2022 I made a set of crash bar bags from some Rothco canvas shoulder bags.
I liked the way they came out; unfortunately, the Rothco canvas wasn’t really up to the rigors of life on a motorcycle that sees all kinds of riding conditions, and I knew I needed something more durable. My very first set of homemade crash bar bags were made from surplus M40 gas mask carriers, and after searching all over the internet for a bag of the correct size and shape, I ended up coming full circle back to the M40 bags. And since I was off the bike for two months after having surgery in May, it was a good time for a new project. I decided to incorporate some of the design choices from the Rothco bags into the new ones.
I bought a set of brand new M40 gas mask carriers from ebay, for $17.95 each. This is how they look in their unaltered state:
All of the polypropylene webbing, velcro, and the black ladder lock strap adjusters came from a company called Strapworks. The ABS sheet used for the internal packboards, the 550 paracord, and the rear attachment straps came from Amazon.
Like all projects, this one started with a plan designed on Inkscape. This is a sample of what the plan looks like on the computer:
Those plans are then used to create paper templates that can be attached to the raw materials of the project, so the pieces can be accurately cut out. Inkscape allows me to make sure that the holes in one part of the project will line up with the holes in another piece.
I don’t own a sewing machine, so any project I do like this has to be sewn with a needle and thread. Sewing through multiple layers of thick webbing by hand is a pretty tall order unless you have the Hulk’s fingers, so this is my solution to that:
It’s a Weller soldering iron with a special tip I devised. This is the tip:
It’s a piece of paper clip attached to the soldering iron with a hose clamp. Once it heats up, the heated paper clip easily melts holes through multiple layers of webbing. It makes it way easier to attach bag straps to bags.
This is an example of the job the soldering iron can do:
The piece on the left is a piece of heavyweight polypropylene webbing. In order to attach the template to the webbing, I put a piece of blue painter’s tape over the webbing, and then use a kid’s glue stick to attach the template over the tape. Once that’s done, you can easily melt the stitching holes through the webbing, even when it’s multiple layers thick.
I like to use internal packboards for bags like this. They help spread out the load in the bags so there isn’t as much stress on the bag material itself. They also help the bags keep their shape, which makes them easier to attach and load. Here’s the template for the packboard, which is spray glued to the 1/8” ABS sheet:
The template becomes a drilling and cutting guide, so I can drill all the holes that will match up to all the holes in the webbing attachments. That way, I can sew the webbing attachments through the bag and through the packboard, making for a very strong bond.
Here’s a completed packboard. It was then sewn into the gas mask bag, which looks like this:
You can see the stitching on the packboard; that’s where all of the attachment straps are sewn through the bag and packboard.
These photos show the attachment system on the rear of the bags. The velcro strips sewn to the rear of the bags are to increase the contact area for the black velcro straps, making for a more secure attachment of the bag to the crash bars.
This is the stuff I used to make the black velcro attachment straps:
This is the inside of the top flap on the bag:
I reinforced the high stress areas of the bag with polypropylene webbing. Cinching the straps tight when they’re loaded up can put a lot of stress on the areas of the bag where the straps are sewn, and the reinforcement is to keep the bags from being damaged. The point where the grab handles are attached is also reinforced.
Here’s one of the bags, loaded up with my raingear and a set of mini jumper cables. My partner gets her own bag for her raingear on the other side of the bike.
I like having handles on the bags. I decided to make them by braiding some 550 paracord, mainly because I liked the look.
I didn’t like the way the paracord shifted around on the metal D-rings I originally bought, so I made some trapezoid shaped ones that kept the braided handle in place. They were made from a quarter inch thick piece of ABS plastic.
Here are the completed bags.
Here they are attached to the bike, before we took off on a coffee run.
It was a fun project, and it kept me occupied for a miserable time when I couldn’t ride.
Do it yourself crashbar bags from Rothco shoulder bags
I always carry two sets of raingear on the bike (I often ride two-up). Since my bike is my main vehicle, I like to keep the panniers empty for things like grocery shopping, so I’ve gotten in the habit of carrying the rain gear in crash bar bags. For the past ten years and over 100,000 miles...
www.yamahasupertenere.com
I liked the way they came out; unfortunately, the Rothco canvas wasn’t really up to the rigors of life on a motorcycle that sees all kinds of riding conditions, and I knew I needed something more durable. My very first set of homemade crash bar bags were made from surplus M40 gas mask carriers, and after searching all over the internet for a bag of the correct size and shape, I ended up coming full circle back to the M40 bags. And since I was off the bike for two months after having surgery in May, it was a good time for a new project. I decided to incorporate some of the design choices from the Rothco bags into the new ones.
I bought a set of brand new M40 gas mask carriers from ebay, for $17.95 each. This is how they look in their unaltered state:
All of the polypropylene webbing, velcro, and the black ladder lock strap adjusters came from a company called Strapworks. The ABS sheet used for the internal packboards, the 550 paracord, and the rear attachment straps came from Amazon.
Like all projects, this one started with a plan designed on Inkscape. This is a sample of what the plan looks like on the computer:
Those plans are then used to create paper templates that can be attached to the raw materials of the project, so the pieces can be accurately cut out. Inkscape allows me to make sure that the holes in one part of the project will line up with the holes in another piece.
I don’t own a sewing machine, so any project I do like this has to be sewn with a needle and thread. Sewing through multiple layers of thick webbing by hand is a pretty tall order unless you have the Hulk’s fingers, so this is my solution to that:
It’s a Weller soldering iron with a special tip I devised. This is the tip:
It’s a piece of paper clip attached to the soldering iron with a hose clamp. Once it heats up, the heated paper clip easily melts holes through multiple layers of webbing. It makes it way easier to attach bag straps to bags.
This is an example of the job the soldering iron can do:
The piece on the left is a piece of heavyweight polypropylene webbing. In order to attach the template to the webbing, I put a piece of blue painter’s tape over the webbing, and then use a kid’s glue stick to attach the template over the tape. Once that’s done, you can easily melt the stitching holes through the webbing, even when it’s multiple layers thick.
I like to use internal packboards for bags like this. They help spread out the load in the bags so there isn’t as much stress on the bag material itself. They also help the bags keep their shape, which makes them easier to attach and load. Here’s the template for the packboard, which is spray glued to the 1/8” ABS sheet:
The template becomes a drilling and cutting guide, so I can drill all the holes that will match up to all the holes in the webbing attachments. That way, I can sew the webbing attachments through the bag and through the packboard, making for a very strong bond.
Here’s a completed packboard. It was then sewn into the gas mask bag, which looks like this:
You can see the stitching on the packboard; that’s where all of the attachment straps are sewn through the bag and packboard.
These photos show the attachment system on the rear of the bags. The velcro strips sewn to the rear of the bags are to increase the contact area for the black velcro straps, making for a more secure attachment of the bag to the crash bars.
This is the stuff I used to make the black velcro attachment straps:
This is the inside of the top flap on the bag:
I reinforced the high stress areas of the bag with polypropylene webbing. Cinching the straps tight when they’re loaded up can put a lot of stress on the areas of the bag where the straps are sewn, and the reinforcement is to keep the bags from being damaged. The point where the grab handles are attached is also reinforced.
Here’s one of the bags, loaded up with my raingear and a set of mini jumper cables. My partner gets her own bag for her raingear on the other side of the bike.
I like having handles on the bags. I decided to make them by braiding some 550 paracord, mainly because I liked the look.
I didn’t like the way the paracord shifted around on the metal D-rings I originally bought, so I made some trapezoid shaped ones that kept the braided handle in place. They were made from a quarter inch thick piece of ABS plastic.
Here are the completed bags.
Here they are attached to the bike, before we took off on a coffee run.
It was a fun project, and it kept me occupied for a miserable time when I couldn’t ride.
