Luggage Hard Side + Racks - Options (Cheap?)

[David Allaband]

Hi everyone! I'm looking around for hard luggage for my 1993 FJ1200. I have soft bags but I use the bike to go out of town and often leave it in sketchy neighborhoods (my neighborhood) with the bags on. Everyone under age 20 carries a razor blade in my neighborhood so everyone has the key to my soft bags. I need a hard bag option so I don't have to strip the bike of all bags every time I need to walk away from the bike. Since I use the bike for touring large cases would be nice. I don't need anything fancy, just locking hard cases. Any ideas? Any frames I can use?

Thanks!

[Dan Filetti]

Hi everyone! I'm looking around for hard luggage for my 1993 FJ1200... Everyone under age 20 carries a razor blade in my neighborhood so everyone has the key to my soft bags.

Locks are for honest people.  Every kid under 20 likely has a screw driver too, which is a similar 'key' to most any plastic hard bag you may buy.

However, these might give the little punks pause.

You'd have to find them for sale somewhere, and almost certainly, no one makes mounting brackets for the FJ -you'd have to devise something.  Still, this may not be a bad option.  Ultimately though, you may find it's just better to take the bags with you when you leave the bike.  -a la New Your City style "No Radio in the Car" sign in the windshield.

Good luck,

Dan

[FJFAN]

I INSTALLED DUCATI ST2 (OR ST3/4) HARD SADDLEBAGS.  GOT BOTH SADDLEBAGS AND HARDWARE ON EBAY A YEAR AGO.....SIMPLE BRACKET MODIFICATIONS.....AND THEY LOOK GREAT (WILL HOLD FULL FACE HELMET,ALSO).

[E Double]

Hi everyone! I'm looking around for hard luggage for my 1993 FJ1200... Everyone under age 20 carries a razor blade in my neighborhood so everyone has the key to my soft bags.

Locks are for honest people.  Every kid under 20 likely has a screw driver too, which is a similar 'key' to most any plastic hard bag you may buy.

However, these might give the little punks pause.

You'd have to find them for sale somewhere, and almost certainly, no one makes mounting brackets for the FJ -you'd have to devise something.  Still, this may not be a bad option.  Ultimately though, you may find it's just better to take the bags with you when you leave the bike.  -a la New Your City style "No Radio in the Car" sign in the windshield.

Good luck,

Dan

The FJ/FJR UK site sells their version of the Y204 fit kit Givi used to make for our bikes.  Hopefully they're made better than the crap Givi made, or the membership fee to the site and the shipping will surely not make it worth your while.  I had to do a lot of modification to the Givi fit kit to get it where it could even hold up empty cases on the wingrack without exploding, so to pay extra money to mod the already expensive UK version would be silly.

[AustinFJ]

The FJ/FJR UK site sells their version of the Y204 fit kit Givi used to make for our bikes.  Hopefully they're made better than the crap Givi made, or the membership fee to the site and the shipping will surely not make it worth your while.  I had to do a lot of modification to the Givi fit kit to get it where it could even hold up empty cases on the wingrack without exploding, so to pay extra money to mod the already expensive UK version would be silly.

I've had both kits and the only real difference is the front brackets going to the rear foot peg hangers.  The UK site kit make these out of strap steel while the original Givi pieces are tubes, so a bit stiffer.  Both are very useful if the WingRacks are your goal.  I have the WingRacks on mine currently (for the past 3 years) and it IS very nice to be able to lock things away in a hard case.  And even though the can certainly be broken into (like many locks) with a screwdriver, they are more secure than the zipper on my tankbags.
Others have various experiences with the Givi kit, but I have not had any issues since installation.  I mainly use the Business Cases as my side bags (no longer available, apparently) and a V460 as my topcase.  I also have a Givi Voyager Roll-around computer bag that I attach regularly (daily commute for 6 months now).   
If you are after the Givi WingRacks, you might need to get the UK kit as the original kit only shows up rarely.  The nice side of things  is the racks fit a large number of cases and they can be removed and/or reconfigured very easily.  The bad side is if you load them to capacity on a regular basis, the mounts might be sub-par. 

I hope you find the configuration that will help you out.