Link to all my Gen II mods
I store my lunch bag in my top case on the way to work and when I arrive, I store my riding gear there. Before I did this mod, I was constantly getting things pinched near the hinge point if I didn’t pack it just right. You name it - zippers, pull strings, glove fingers all would be a problem, so I decided to do something about it.
All it took to solve this one was a 2” high lip mounted at the front of the base. It doesn’t take away any space from your luggage volume and works perfectly. I simply drilled some holes in a very thin piece of metal plate and sandwiched it between the hinge backing plates and the case shell. To finish it off, I added some checkered flag tape and some edge trim. Finding ultra-thin material is the key, since there is not much extra screw length available. Of course, you could always install longer screws to allow thicker material to be used but they are a somewhat special type screwing into that plastic hinge and I chose not to replace them.
One other feature I added later was an extra hole in the plate to mount one of those spring clips. What do I use that for? Well, it’s a handy place to hang my disk lock key (or sometimes cable lock key) when the bike isn’t parked and locked. I store my disk lock on the bike (see other article) so I also store the key on the bike. When I need to use it (which is actually not very often) I simply pull the key from the case, install the lock and take the key with me. When I come back, the key and lock goes back into their storage spots. The advantage is this, most of the time I don’t need to carry that key - I already have too many of them on my key-ring. Even better, if you use some kind of quick-release thingy for your key fob, it stays connected to the rest of your keys when in your pocket.
I store my lunch bag in my top case on the way to work and when I arrive, I store my riding gear there. Before I did this mod, I was constantly getting things pinched near the hinge point if I didn’t pack it just right. You name it - zippers, pull strings, glove fingers all would be a problem, so I decided to do something about it.
All it took to solve this one was a 2” high lip mounted at the front of the base. It doesn’t take away any space from your luggage volume and works perfectly. I simply drilled some holes in a very thin piece of metal plate and sandwiched it between the hinge backing plates and the case shell. To finish it off, I added some checkered flag tape and some edge trim. Finding ultra-thin material is the key, since there is not much extra screw length available. Of course, you could always install longer screws to allow thicker material to be used but they are a somewhat special type screwing into that plastic hinge and I chose not to replace them.
One other feature I added later was an extra hole in the plate to mount one of those spring clips. What do I use that for? Well, it’s a handy place to hang my disk lock key (or sometimes cable lock key) when the bike isn’t parked and locked. I store my disk lock on the bike (see other article) so I also store the key on the bike. When I need to use it (which is actually not very often) I simply pull the key from the case, install the lock and take the key with me. When I come back, the key and lock goes back into their storage spots. The advantage is this, most of the time I don’t need to carry that key - I already have too many of them on my key-ring. Even better, if you use some kind of quick-release thingy for your key fob, it stays connected to the rest of your keys when in your pocket.
