I really enjoy riding my KLR650 and use the panniers all the time for carrying camera bits & pieces, wet gear, hiking shoes and anything else I need. My problem is I just do not like the standard Kawasaki panniers that came with the bike when I purchased it. The panniers are made of cheap and nasty plastic that feels really flimsy to use and they are also really skinny which makes it hard to carry anything even a little bit large in them. They have to go! I have an old pair of DriRider throw over soft bags that I used years ago on a trip down the Birdsville Track so the plan is to install those instead. They are not waterproof but I can at least fit some gear in them.
As with most jobs, it didn’t turn out to be the simple, five minute, one set off and another set on task I had planned for. After removing the solid panniers I threw the old DriRider bags on. As soon as they were placed on the bike there were two stand out problems.
- The straps that hold them together were not long enough to reach across the seat and join together.
- The original pannier mounting frame did not support the soft bags very well and allowed them to rest on the exhaust. The backing frame was not large enough to support the back of the bags properly and there were very few locations I could attach the bags to the frame.
I had an old set of pannier frames that came with a Gen 2 KLR I picked up second hand a few years back lying around that that had a better frame to provide the support I wanted. After rummaging around in my container I finally found them, dragged them out and went to fit them. Mounting the right side was a piece of cake as all the mounting points lined up. I had to take a trip to the hardware store for a couple of longer mounting bolts to make it work but that was no drama. Move over to the left hand side and Kawasaki have modified the location of the rear footpeg mount which is where the bottom of pannier frame bolted up to. Bugger! I should have known it wasn’t going to to be that easy.
Found an old piece of 30mm flat bar so I made a mounting extension bracket from it and welded it to the pannier frame so the mounting holes would line up. Next problem is the rear footpeg has a metal backing plate that extends up and back from the pegs and this interfered with the pannier frame. Out with the grinder and hack enough off the bracket to allow fitting and it finally looked like it would come together. Now it all lines up I had to prep and paint the pannier frame modifications and the cut bracket on the bike. Gave it a bit of time to dry and then bolted everything up.
Next job was to fit the bags. I wanted to run the support straps under the seat but as they were not long enough to reach each other I put a couple of holes in the webbing and joined them with a piece of small chain to support the bags. Once they were all lined up I used some cable ties to secure the bags to the pannier frame so they didn’t flap around in the wind. Starting to take shape now.
Talking about shape, the bags were missing the stiffener pads that hold the sides apart and give them their shape. I found a couple of old, large plastic flower pots and cut a couple of stiffeners out of them which were fitted to the bags. Stood back to view the work and am pretty happy with the result as it should be a lot more practical and functional to support my requirements. A little later on I will pick up a pair of Nelson Rigg trail Bags to take their place but these will do fine for now.