Kitting out the Suzuki VZ800

It's gunna be an expensive hobby this Tim !

Just got insurance money back from last bike, but still need to keep the costs down.
Can see yours is nicelly kitted up. Just looked up the Givi Panniers and seriously thinking about going for them. Way Cheaper! Wanted some hard ones anyway. Do they get in the way of the pillion at all?

Any suggestions on security or sissy bar?

Cheers

Hi Tim I have both hard (givi21)and soft luggage,you can make them interchangable easily with home made brackets,if you want secure(lockable) then go for hard luggage,keep loking on ebay.You place the luggage on your bike with a pillion sitting in situ,then work the brackets out.Also with hard luggage you will not have to get saddle bag supports as the fact that it is hard luggage tells you it will not get in your rear wheels way.What a lot of people do (I have done it) Is reverse the two top bolts in your rear fender,the one nearest the tank has the nut welded on the inside just take it out and drill the nut a little bigger the size of the bolts are 8mm /80mm I think.This then makes it easier to make your brackets,and easier to take luggage on and off as you feel,when I get chance I will photogragh the idea for you.Hope this helps a little bit and good luck on your retest.

[img:c466]https://www.suzuki800.com/[/img][img:c466]https://www.suzuki800.com/[/img]Here are the pics showing the ends of the m8 bolts,as you can see when the bags are not on, if you use the domed nuts they will look better and protect your pillions clothing.The bolts are held on between the rear fender and the sissy bar by a lock nut.

That's a levers impale but clever idea to spin the bolts cause they are real bitches and once bitten is twice shy with th in the right way

Thanks for all that, will give it a go and shout if I run into problems.

Just found Ursus Panniers.

http://ursusmoto.com/ursuscruiser.php

So going to have to be one of those!

Still a third of the price of the leather ones I was looking at.

Love the hard cases you found and what an excellent price, If I didnt already have my leather bags I would be seriously thinking of buying those

I have a Datatool but a much dearer one, to be honest the alarm you are looking at is a very basic alarm and for the limited features that it has at that cost, I would be looking at buying a much cheaper alternative. Don't get me wrong if I had my money again I would never spend the £300 that I spent on my alarm, I would by a cheap movement sensor & power draw detector alarm for £40 or so. I somebody really wants your bike they are going to get it no matter what, the best deterrent will always be chain or alternative.

Agree... those cases are beautiful! Hmmmm...... wonder how easy they'd be to paint, especially now we know where to get colour matched paint from:

here

ps......... now we know why Mr I is the man - today's posts made 5am onwards!

Hi Tim sound looking luggage,one thing to bear in mind,clearance, make sure you have the clearance when getting your bike out of resricted places.As Dave stated alarms are not as good as made out,a good chain is defenatley worth the money,and always try and chain your bike to an immovable object to make it harder for thieves.Thanks for putting the link up for others to see.

I have never been the greatest fan of top boxes but had many over the years because I needed them but I have just been on their site again and spotted the top boxes & I reckon the hard bags would look great with their top boxes fitted as well.

Mal One day I may have a job that starts and ends like most others but for the time being and for the last 25 years I have been a Diesel Gypsy (Tramper) so my rest period starts and ends at different times everyday

Agreed well worth looking at.

alfie92 wrote:

Agreed well worth looking at.

100% agree as well, the bags with the box would look realy good and the price is unbelievable for what you would be getting

found these from over the pond on ebay.com

LINK

They would seem to be the exact same ones that were posted by TimothyDB83 so,,,,,,,
After actually seeing them on a bike I would say they are probably to small to look right and the bigger size is what would look right but they are twice the price but thats still a reasonable price.
The ones at the bottom of the page LINK

I've just put some of the smaller ones on my bike (i'm only gonna carry a flask and waterproofs in them) , I thought the bigger ones were a little wide for me and would add another 8 inches to the width of the bike,

They dont look out of proportion at all. Very nice job,

The only way to ever tell what they will ever really look like is when they are on the bike and they look nice

Looking good Sim

They look really good Simbo, as much like OE as you could get i reckon

Hey Sim
Just been re-reading this thread, and seen your panniers fitted, which look great.

I've just got some which look very similar on Fleabay. Bargain price, but no mounting hardware, other than rubber grommets, metal sleeves etc to go through panniers.

So I'm going to have to fabricate (ie bodge) something! How complicated a set up is the hidden bit 'behind the pannier'? I already have chrome saddlebag supports from the floppy leather numbers ( a bit like this....)





And can't decide whether I'm best to fix a bracket to this, or take this off and start from scratch.


Any advice gratefully received!

Hi Mal, Cheers, I like the panniers and they were very easy to fit, the brackets that came with them are quite sturdy, they're made from
30mm wide by 5mm thick metal painted black (difficult to see on a photo) I've taken some photo's of the brackets off the instructions, so you should get some idea from those,they're very basic and I would have thought easy to make.


The panniers came with a pre drilled hole near the top , then you attach them on the mudguard holder and get them in the right position before drilling the bottom holes,
Hope this helps ? if you need any more info or photo's let me know and i'll take them off to get some pictures.

That's a massive help mate thanks .... and cheers for such a quick reply. I can visualise exactly what I need to do now.

Hi Mal if you have not already made your brackets the easiest way for you would be.

1: place your exsisting brackets were you want them to sit on the panniers,and mark were the two holes go.

2: drill the panniers with the corresponding marks and fit them.You can place a metal plate across the top of the pannier in the inside were the bolts come through to spread the weight.

They best thing to do with the the m8 bolts is take them out and turn them round,if you get 80 x m8 with domed nuts you will find it much easier.this way you can take the panniers off when not required a lot easier,and the domed nuts are in the panniers and not inside the wheelarch.I have found this the best way as I am always experimenting with different panniers,soft and hard.Hope this helps,good luck.

Nice one! Yep those fender bolts are a pig aren't they... quite a struggle to line up having taken them out, so you're right, reversing them would make pannier removal easier. My new panniers were uber cheap & didn't come with brackets, so keeping my eyes open for something to recycle. They also have LED lights, so I've had a quick look tonight at wiring, but didn't get too far. Need to sus out best way of tapping into wiring at back end. There's what looks like a spare connector in the battery box - maybe....

thanks again for info