Homemade aluminium panniers

[moose660]

Hey Adventurists,

Recently traded my Yamaha FJR1300 and XTZ660 for a 2007 BMW R1200GS Adventure with very low K's. The bike came without luggage racks or panniers. As we (Adventurists) know you have to have some sort of luggage system if you wanna call yourself some sort of ADV rider. So with those thought in mind I started looking at this accessory for my new beastie. After a small heart-attack and reality check caused by the cost of this stuff....I pondered with the idea of making my very own Aluminium Panniers.
I'm sort of fortunate that I have access to all the equipment required to build these boxes. In the mean time my friend (Beemer Buddy) jumped on board with the project. He also bought a GSA without panniers. He's since made boxes to fit the Hepco & Becker frames. Mine are based on the original BMW GSA frames.

We used 2mm thick (0.080") 5005 Aluminium alloy sheet for the construction of our boxes. Here are some pictures of the finished product(s).



These are the plans for the back of the boxes. We made two sections per box and rivited the halves together with Sikaflex and Cherry-Max countersunk rivets.




The boxes are based on the Touratech Zega Cases (35 Litres per side).




The fronts complete with exhaust cut-outs.




Fitted to my bike using standard Beemer racks.




I made some bogus Touratech decals for each box...note that it now reads " TOURABOUT" with small print that reads: "Selbstgemachte Motorrad-Korbe" which is Zie German for: Homemade Motorcycle Panniers. I think it looks pretty cool...and if you can Sprekken zie Deuts funny too!




We use the fittings from Lachlan Campbell at MPE products at the Sunshine Coast here in Queensland. He manufactures very nice stuff if you're interested. Have a look at his website (free plug) here: http://www.mtdtours.com/




The white stuff stuck on the box is "Teflon Tape" to limit chaffing on the Aluminium cases...We'll see how that holds up with dirt, mud and water over time.




To prevent too much heat build up from the Akro pipe on mine and Remus on Pete's, I build in a 10mm gap for extra cooling. Here is the 10mm spacer fitted to the box........I hope you guys buy that crock of shit! I stuffed up on the folder and made the cut-out 10mm too big. It turns out that it helps cooling anyway, thats my story and I'm sticking to it.



Pretty snazzy boxes hey? Just like the bought ones....only cheaper! Lots cheaper!




The boxes were put together using Sikaflex Polyurethane sealant, rivited and welded on the 10mm safe edge up top. They are rock solid and very strong. The welds on top are blended and scotch-brited. The insides were seam-sealed to make them water-tight.




The lids are also welded on the corners and blended/conditioned. The lids house the self-adhesive foam/rubber seals (6.5mm x 17mm). You can also see here that the latch catches are solid rivited on the lids using countersunk solid aluminium rivets.

I think I speak for both Pete & myself when I say that we're very happy with the final results. They look fantastic on the bikes. As for costs;
$149 for sheet of 2mm x 1200mm x 2400mm Aluminium, Welding cost a carton of Cokes ($20), all the fittings and mount kits (2 sets) $400 for the lot. So per set of boxes cost us $280 each. I know...these aren't the originals....but I still have around $1900 left to get over that! That buys a lot of fuel, beer and camping gear to go and test them out.

We've decided to leave them in raw aluminium to maximise their practibility and get that Off-road credit with all their battle scars and scrapes.(little ones for me thanks).

There ya go!

Moose

[alexgg]

Hi,
Awesome. Could you share your panniers plans with me, please?

[moose660]

That's all there is mate. All the measurements are on the sheets/drawings. If you need more info let me know mate, glad to help out mate.

Moose

[Jason1202GStime!]

Well done!!! Beautiful panniers!!!

[stealthpilot313]

Fantastic job and I think when it's so personal, I am certain it could even be better than the "originals". Respect to you, my talented fellow ADV biker friends.

Must say I am totally impressed.

Now, may I help you take some orders?

[alexgg]

are there only rivets? Lids look like welded... by the way, where are their plans (i mean lids)?

[Dirt2Oil]

WOW Great Job. When do you plan on opening the business?

[alexgg]

however without a Tig there is no way to weld em.

[moose660]

First I manufactured the boxes. Then I used the boxes to measure out the lids. Very simple...measure 25mm around the box and cut the 4 corners off (90 degree cuts on these). Then fold and weld the corners. Plenty of manufacturing places can tig weld for you. You can also buy case corners from Bunnings or the likes and Rivet the corners together...The sky is the limit. I only welded because I have access to this type of gear, otherwise I would have used the case corners for the lids.

Make it up as you go along. Big tip Don't use sealants on your boxes if you're going to powder-coat them. The sealant will run and spoil your job when it's bakes at around 200 degrees celcius! The man at the powder-coaters told us so. Besides...I like that rough aluminium look.

Thanks for all the compliments too guys!

Moose

[Jason1202GStime!]

Hi Mate!

Maybe u can consider putting some gasket all around the corners of the top lip to prevent water from going in!

[EvilClown]

Nice!

You might post them over here as well.

[Gezerbike]

Originally Posted by Jason1202GStime!

Hi Mate!

Maybe u can consider putting some gasket all around the corners of the top lip to prevent water from going in!

" The lids house the self-adhesive foam/rubber seals (6.5mm x 17mm). "

[funhouse]

I must admit to opening this link expecting the too-frequent sequence of pictures of a dog's breakfast in aluminum -- some of the 'home made' solutions that have shown up on this site over the years make you wonder what the owner was thinking......Congrat's on a very nice job....Bruce

[DADODIRT]

Nice job.

[Disco Dean]

Very very cool - I always feel better when I build something for myself...

Especially when it turns out as cool as yours has...

Dean