Loose saddlebag fitment on bike

[ScorpioIM]

Hello all,

I purchased a 2014 in December, and have since put the Helibar plate on, FZ1 mirrors, SR357 rack, Givi 47L trunk, Sargent seat, and TechSpec grips on the tank.  I have the Tech spec for the saddlebag tops, which were going to be put on yesterday, BUT........I found that both saddlebags have plenty of wobble to them, while mounted on the bike.

Both locks are tight, no loose screws, both pieces of rubber are on the lower forward “ears” that the bags slide into, oriented correctly, yet after the locking handle is snapped down, there’s more wobble then I’d expect.

is this normal with FJR bags?  Are there supposed to be rubber inserts in the three places that the bag hooks grab?  
 

Thanks for any info,

John

 

[mcatrophy]

Can happen. On one of my bikes I glued rubber (cut from an old inner tube) up in the rectangular slot that the upper fixing of the bag goes into. This gave me that nice "over-centre" snap as the handled is closed. 

It is possible that the bag mechanism has jumped a tooth, but this is rare, very unlikely to be the case  in both bags.

 

[WBill]

Assuming that the latches and other hardware have all their screws and are not broken or misaligned, play in the pannier mounting is not a bad thing. It allows the panniers to absorb the impact from vibration and road bumps while still being easily removable. Mine have jiggled for more than 80,000 miles.  WBill

 

[ScorpioIM]

There was about 1/16”  gap between the lower forward ear and the mating surfaces on the saddlebag.  I cut a piece of inner tube and used rubber cement (from tire plug kit) and wrapped a piece over the top and down the sides of the factory rubber piece. On the top forward rectangular slots, I cemented four small pieces together, and glued them in on the seat side, using clear silicone caulk.  I cemented 2 small pieces together on the rear rectangular slots, siliconing those in, on the seat side.

This snugged everything up, yet allowed some “dampening”  with the small amount of give in the rubber.

Thanks for the replies. Being new to the FJR, I wasn’t sure if I was missing rubber inserts for the slots.  I couldn’t find anything about the bags in the FSM, or the owners manual. 

John

 

[mcatrophy]

I couldn’t find anything about the bags in the FSM, or the owners manual. 

Bags are an accessory fitted by the dealer. You can read the instructions for fitting them here, might be useful to you.