No riding for 2 months!

[ADVGD]

Finally, after 2 months of no riding and suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms, I have now completed the luggage system rebuild and I am good to go again :headbang:

Here are some pics of the custom built racks, fiberglass pannier boxes and top bag

http://www.adventureguide.co.nz/articles/12/241/images/drz400-pannier-racks-1.jpg

http://www.adventureguide.co.nz/articles/12/241/images/drz400-pannier-racks-8.jpg

http://www.adventureguide.co.nz/articles/12/241/images/drz400-pannier-boxes-8.jpg
The all important fly rod tubes

http://www.adventureguide.co.nz/articles/12/241/images/drz400-pannier-boxes-9.jpg
All assembled with the custom made top bag

Full build articles can be found here:

Building fiberglass pannier boxes (http://www.adventureguide.co.nz/articles/12/240/adventure-bike-panniers.php)

Building pannier racks for a DRZ400 (http://www.adventureguide.co.nz/articles/12/241/drz400-pannier-racks.php)

[dino3310]

looks awesome bro:clap::2thumbsup

[pomgolian]

They look very good, how strong in a fall do you think ? are you going to sell more of them & how much ?

Paul

[ADVGD]

looks awesome bro:clap::2thumbsup

Cheers dino :msn-wink:


They look very good, how strong in a fall do you think ? are you going to sell more of them & how much ?

Paul

Fiberglass, although not indestructible, is a very strong material, these are 3 ply 300gram chop strand mat. My next door neighbor produces fiberglass boats for a job and races them as a hobby so has a great deal of experience with fiberglass and high impact collisions. He believes they will hold up very well in general spills and that I'll be hard pushed to render the box unusable unless you are talking a mammoth high speed spill where any type of box will suffer. Time will tell as I can assure they will be crash tested in the very near future. The good thing about fiberglass is that it is easily reparable. My alloy pannier boxes were great, but once dinged up then panel beated out they looked like crap, fiberglass can be patched, painted again and made to look like new.

As to producing them, I created good moulds exactly for that reason. I need to do a calculation on material and time costs but to be totally honest, I have spent far too many days and nights in the garage recently, I'll be out riding for the next two months at least before I reenter the garage. I will be producing them, and I will post here when there are some up for sale, but for now I am unable to commit to a time frame, dirt roads and fish laden rivers and lakes are calling me :)

[Night Falcon]

Well done looks tidy. Go ride the wheels off it.

[JATZ]

looks awesome bro:clap::2thumbsup

What he said...minus the bro part,you to short to be related :D
Are the box's epoxy or polyester resin ?

[cooneyr]

Definitely look awesome. You have some serious skills with fibre glass.

One minor thing I noticed when reading your articles. Form my experience Velcro is crap when wrapped around a bar to hold things on. Frays very fast. Suggest that you sew the velcro to webbing then wrap the webbing/velcro combined around the bar.

Cheers R

[ADVGD]

Are the box's epoxy or polyester resin ?

Giday mate, hope you're healing well. Nuplex recommended a polyester resin for both the screen and boxes so I went on their advice. I'm of the understanding that epoxy has a more complex resin structure offering greater strength, but again, Nuplex advised that this is only a key factor at the higher engineered spectrum and that the polyester will offer similar strength for the impact the boxes will receive. Time will tell...


One minor thing I noticed when reading your articles. Form my experience Velcro is crap when wrapped around a bar to hold things on. Frays very fast. Suggest that you sew the velcro to webbing then wrap the webbing/velcro combined around the bar.
Cheers R

Hmmm, valid point Ryan, this is the first time I have designed a bag to attach in this manner, probably best I reenforce those straps with webbing for longevity, cheers for the info

[Padmei]

Ask your glassing mate what how he thinks putting a couple of layers of glass on the edges & under the Safari tank would go. I know they let gas thru etc but would be interesting to see if you could give them some added protection or if they'd just fall off.

[ADVGD]

Ask your glassing mate what how he thinks putting a couple of layers of glass on the edges & under the Safari tank would go. I know they let gas thru etc but would be interesting to see if you could give them some added protection or if they'd just fall off.

With the fuel vapours omitted from plastic tanks I am not sure it would be a long term solution. We all know stickers on plastic tanks last all of a few months.

The next mod is a tank crash bar integrated with engine protection for the water pump to solve both the tank protection issue and the fact the pronounced water pump on the DRZ400 is just asking to be taken out by a rock.