Racks, cases, and bags?
1 - 20 of 25 Posts
Joined
·
14 Posts
I'm very interested in luggage options; hard cases, ideally. But for the moment I'm trying to figure out how to use a set of soft bags my father-in-law had lying around. Any tips on holding them out of the way of the swing arm without actually creating a rack system would be appreciated.
Joined
·
508 Posts
Nice. I was wondering about that too. I don't want or need to maintain two up riding so some kind of saddlebags with enough structure would work for me. But I do need rain proof. Rain covers aren't great if you are using them all the time anyway.
Joined
·
14 Posts
I haven't seen any hard case options for the LiveWire, but I have seen concepts that 'should' work based on similar pillion/swing arm set ups. Shad makes a set for the Ducati Diavel, and I've also seen some Givi rack systems for Yamaha sport bikes that seem like they could work on an ELW. I reached out to both Givi and Shad and they both said they haven't made anything for the ELW and they don't advise putting their products on a bike that they weren't specifically designed for.
So - if nothing else comes along this season, I'm going to talk with a few local machinists/millwrights that fabricate all kinds of metal assemblies. Maybe we can come up with something open source that other ELW owners could use. I just don't want it to be butt-ugly since the bike itself is really gorgeous (in my opinion).
So - if nothing else comes along this season, I'm going to talk with a few local machinists/millwrights that fabricate all kinds of metal assemblies. Maybe we can come up with something open source that other ELW owners could use. I just don't want it to be butt-ugly since the bike itself is really gorgeous (in my opinion).
Joined
·
14 Posts
It probably was from the "Long way up" show - although I haven't watched that either. But every set of photos I see when I search for LiveWire baggage has one or two shots of Ewan and Charlie - and all of their luggage was soft - no permanent racks added to the bikes.
Joined
·
14 Posts
Wow! That had not occurred to me. What does the seat look like when you take the plate off? I do a bit of two-up riding with my wife, and the seat is already a bit small for her (plus no sissy bar or anything other than me to hold onto). I've considered getting a Corbin seat - in that case, the OEM seat could be used for a top case, as you have done here.
Joined
·
508 Posts
If you could snap a picture of it when you open it? Or do you just never do and just use the top case? Man I want the corbin seat but this solution seems great too. Maybe I should do the same. Alter the stock then eventually order the corbin.
You just punch through it and mount it on the padding?
You just punch through it and mount it on the padding?
Joined
·
4 Posts
I just drilled holes in the seat base. You can still open and close without any problems. You can see two of the bolts I used.
I would like some storage but I think saddlebags would just kill the already limited range. So a top box for me. I've done the passenger seat converted to top box on other bikes.
Works great in general but on a few bikes it was hard to swing my foot over. They had a much taller seat height than the ELW.
Works great in general but on a few bikes it was hard to swing my foot over. They had a much taller seat height than the ELW.
Joined
·
136 Posts
I own several of HD's onyx premium bags: 3 tail bags, 2 'side' bags, and a tank bag. It's not perfect, but after a 2500 mile tour, it held up well. If there's enough interest, I can make a video or post about my set up.
![Wheel Tire Vehicle Sky Helmet]()
Joined
·
14 Posts
I'm very interested in how you made the 'side' bags work. I just did an 850+km two day ride using a tank bag and tail bag, which worked but wasn't perfect. All soft, not lock-able, not water proof, etc. And although I was confident the tail bag wasn't going to fall off, it did keep shifting.
You know what would be perfect. Some sort of quick release setup that you could bolt to the seat like DaveVT did. So say you have the plate permanently bolted down like he did here, need your top box not problem it clips on, maybe you want to take a passenger and they need a backrest well pop off the top box and pop on a thick pillion pad and passenger backrest to the attached plate. Want to add hard bags well maybe they could quickly and easily just pop onto the side of the seat mounted plate as well. Prefer soft bags maybe some soft saddlebag supports could be slid on to keep the bags from flapping around. I feel like this wouldn't be that hard to design, maybe I will DIY something can't be that hard to do right 
1 - 20 of 25 Posts
