Hard bags for dyna
 

So...I really want to put replace my leather bags with hard bags on my '01 FXDX. I want things to stay dry, I want bags that lock securely, and the Harley items happen to look fine, better than the aftermarket ones. Except: "Fits '96-later Dyna models (except '00-later FXDX and FXDXT). Fits with Detachable or rigid-mounted sissy bars and luggage racks."

No mention of WHY they don't fit my bike. Asked the dealer; he doesn't know. Wrote to H-D in Milwaukee, and got an uninformative -- and snippy -- response from a young lady whose last name was Harley (you think?).

Could they be thinking that FXDX and -T owners, who have adjustable rear suspensions, will want daily access to same? Is it something to do with the location of the taillights (which can be relocated)? I can't get an answer, but without one, it seems foolish to lay out hundreds of dollars only to find out the hard way.

Anyone have any information, or contact information for someone who would?

Do your shocks have a gas (?) reservoir on them? I can't remember if it was your modrl or the Sportster Sport.

???
 

Comparing pictures of the SuperGlide, and the LowRider on the H-D website, they appear to have identical rear fender struts, shock alignment, exhaust, tail lights, and swingarms......good question, but there must be a reason. I pulled out my accessory book, and it's says exactly what you said it did. You would think they would put a little *** at the bottom of the page to explain why fitment is not possible.
I would suggest calling several different "stealers", maybe one will have a very "heads up" parts guy, or gal that will know the answer.

By the way, Dynasport.....you didn't bother to say hello...(so I will :p )....welcome to "BikerForums", we have a good group here, pretty tame most of the time. But we do have a good time....hope you stick around, and make yourself at home.

FBR :cool:

Nachoed: nope, no remote reservoir; that was the Sportster Sport, as you suspected.

FatBoyRider: sorry, I hadn't picked up on the etiquette. Life has taught me that "there has to be a reason" is frequently wrong; there are an awful lot of arbitrary and capricious things out there. I asked all the questions in my letter to H-D: is it a shock clearance issue? I can get slightly longer Grade 8 bolts and some spacers, and move the bags outboard a bit. Is it the turn signals (since the FXDX and -T adopted the bullet-style turn signals earlier)? I can use different turn signals, or use some surface-mount turn signals on the rear surface of the bag itself. In essence, I asked H-D: "Tell me why, and I'll see if I can work around it." And their answer was: "There must be a reason."

Well, OK, maybe there is. But if THEY can't tell me what that reason is, who can? Methinks Ms. Harley was just a little lazy that day; a quick call to the product manager would have yielded an answer. She can make that call; I can't.

I can't imagine that this would not work somehow. I have adopted all different bags to different models at times.

I actually installed a set of Roadking Classic bags on a Softail once using Ghost brackets & I guaranty that HD doesn't think that's possible!!

-John

Dynasport,
I think if I were you I would get on the phone Tuesday and call every stealer in the country if I had to, until I could find a parts person that could tell me......someone has to know "WHY" :confused:

Good luck, let us know what you find out.....I think those Dyna hard bags look great ...

By the way, I have a co-worker that has a 2004 FXDX ordered, supposed to be here first of Feb. , He wants to get some leather bags for it, would you be interested in selling your leather ones....if so how much, and are they in good shape ?...shoot me an e-mail if interested...

FBR :cool:

FBR,

I recall reading that the new Dynas, with the longer gas tanks, accept (and require) a whole new generation of accessories -- seats, bars, bags, etc. I don't have my P&A catalog handy, but that was my recollection.

Someone ELSE riding an FXDX? I thought I was the only one. I've never seen another one on the road.

Let me correct myself somewhat: the online version of the P&A shows that a whole bunch of bags, mine included, fit the '96-'01 models, and then there's '02 and later. Oddly, the one exception seems to be the hard bags, which fit from '96 to the present, excepting, of course, MY BIKE. If you look at the newer Dynas, you see that the turn signal has moved to a short stalk coming off the fender struts; earlier ones were mounting on a long chrome bar coming off the taillight assembly. A glance at a picture of an '04 Dyna reveals that only the front strut bolt is visible; the rear is covered by the turn signal stalk.

The leather bags for the '01 and earlier Dynas mount to both the front and rear strut bolts. At a minimum, assuming the bolts are the same distance apart, using bags for older Dynas on newer models would involve turn signal relocation. And that also gives us some clue as to the hard bag mystery; the hard bags start with an assumption of signal relocation, and come with brackets to do so.

Maybe a simple solution would be to buy a tailight assembly for one of the earlier models...and relocate the turn signals. If that's all you need to do it should be an easy fix.....or check the J&P catalog, they have lots of options for relocating turn signals...

FBR :cool:

Exactly, but only IF I can find out in advance that that's why the P&A catalog warns me off. I mean, those bags are $950 from H-D, and the auctions on eBay for same always end north of $400. That's a big gamble to take without knowing in advance what kind of modification, if any, will make things right.

Speaking of taillights: anyone have a lead on some low-profile or flush units -- perhaps LEDs -- that meet FMVSS 108 standards for taillights? I looked at Kuryakyn, but didn't find what I was looking for. And while we're at it: one round 5.75" headlight does not a lighting system make. I've seen 7" headlight conversions, but they look wrong on the Dyna front end. However, following the lead of Triumph (and others), a PAIR of 5.75" lights would probably look interesting. Would anyone happen to have stumbled across a conversion kit along these lines?

I installed a set of Halogen passing lamps on my FatBoy...made a huge difference. More light is always safer at night, and even with the 7" light on the FatBoy it wasn't enough for me. ...maybe it has something to do with getting older and eyesight.....


FBR :cool:

An actual update on the hard bag quest: I got my hands on the installation sheets for the bags, and I'm almost certain that the whole reason these bags aren't approved for the FXDX is the rear turn signals. The mounting kit for the bags includes hardware for turn signal relocation, and out of the box probably only works with the older, larger-size turn signals (the FXDX got the Deuce bullet-style signals while the rest of the Dynas soldiered on with the earlier signal). As I was planning on doing something else entirely for turn signals, like getting Kuryakyn LED lights and frenching them into the rear of the bags themselves, I really don't care about this.

Anyway, after more than a year of trolling eBay for a good deal on the H-D hard bags, I won an auction for a set of brand-new bags being sold by an H-D dealer in Maryland. True, they're the wrong color, but that's easily rectified. I paid $400 plus shipping for what would have cost me $949 retail.

Here's a question for the crowd: my bike is black ("Vivid Black," if you buy Harley's contention that it's somehow a special black). Now, if it was any other color, there's no question that I would have the bags painted by whomever the dealer uses to get the proper color match, but this is a simple black gloss. I'm really, really tempted to just pop down to Home Depot and buy some aerosol cans, and just paint them myself.

Let's hear back: paint them myself or have them done professionally?

My Fatboy is also "Vivid Black"....and to me it just looks like plain old "gloss black" to me. If I were you I would sand them down real good...give it a few coats of gloss black, and a few coats of clear coat. If you take your time and do it right you can make "rattle can" paint look really good.

FBR :cool:

Hello and greetings from Europe.

Dynasport, have you been successful with your hard bags? Faced the same problem. How wide is your tail now?

I successfully acquired them, but we're only just now emerging from the dead of winter here in CT. I haven't had any opportunity to work on the bike, get the bags painted, etc., and it's just too damn cold to work for any length of time in my unheated garage. But compared to last year, when winter lasted until the second week of June (spring, incidentally, lasted from the morning of June 11 to the afternoon of the 12th, at which point we plunged into summer), I really can't complain.

I already have a set of H-D rigid leather bags on the bike, which are on the order of eight inches wide, so I don't expect that much of an increase in width. I'm just really looking forward to having something that locks securely and keeps the rain out.

Personally I would have them professionally painted.Either buy a pint of the actual harley paint for this or have your body man take a picture of your fender or tank with one of those cameras that will actually tell what pigments and amounts make up that color.I know black is black,but when it`s next to a black of a different variation it will stick out like a sore thumb!I bought a different hood for my truck and my bodyman had sample tabs of the color group in question and the color code listed in the truck didn`t match the sample,imagine that.Hence, the camera thing.My guy charged me $150 to paint a whole hood.I can`t imagine the bags could cost much more to paint.Toby

Argh!

So the weather changed, and I got my bike out of the darkest corner of a dark garage and into an outdoor motorcycle storage unit (hey, I'm an apartment dweller; I have to make do) which gives me a good chance to work on my bike in decent light, with all my tools handy. After a few rides, I set about working on installing the infamous hard bags, which, according to the Mother Ship, don't fit my bike.

Well, actually, yes, they do. The mounting of the support brackets was nothing, and the bags fit properly without fouling anything. As expected, the turnsignals, on a chrome crosspiece mounted just above the brake light, foul the top when trying to open it, but that's what the turn signal relocation brackets (included) are for. And the instruction sheet even offers two separate instructions for same, one for the older, larger (3") turn signals, and one for the newer bullet turnsignals like mine.

Well, ALMOST like mine. Turns out there's just ONE little thing needed for these bags to be certified for use with the FXDX, and unfortunately, it's not included. Unlike the front bullet turnsignals, and some other bullets used for rear turn signals, the ones on my bike don't have two holes, one for the wires, and one, threaded, for the mounting bolt (which is to say, they're not like the FRONT bullet turnsignals, which do have two holes). Instead, there is a single 5/16 x 18 threaded hole, through which the wires emerge. The original chrome crossbar to which they attach is hollow, and has threaded, hollow nipple at each end.

So, the complete and sum total of what is required to use my existing turn signals on the relo brackets is a pair of 5/16 x 18 x 1" threaded nipples. Which, incidentally, one cannot get at 4:30 pm on a Sunday. If I'm unable to get them at a good hardware store, I'll probably just check with my dealer to see whether he has some take-offs of a slightly different style that he wants to unload, or, failing that, there's always eBay.

Of course, H-D could have simply included a pair in a revised hardware assembly, which would have cost them all of 30 cents, but I guess I'm asking for too much. Sure, it means a SKU change, but it's not the end of the world.

I'm going to trying painting the bags myself first to see how they look before considering paying for them to be painted professionally. I mean, it's gloss black we're talking about here. I can't think of anything easier to match. And besides, I'm still unemployed, so money is money, y'know?

DynaSport, as I said in an earlier post on this thread....I've seen some "rattle can" paint jobs that looked super. If you take your time you can really have great results. The key is in the prep....sanding, priming, painting....then lightly sanding any small runs, or blemishes with very fine paper, then painting more. Finally a few coats of clear coat, and it can look really good. Also the Vivid Black of your bike should be easy to match.

Good luck....I want to see some pics when you get it finished :D

FBR :cool:

FatBoyRider,

OK, time to get to work on the painting. I'm running on the assumption that I don't need to go all the way back to priming, since I'm not starting with bare metal or rough fiberglass, etc. My bags are already painted, so my plan is to rough up the surface very slightly with 00 steel wool, my standard when refinishing already-painted (and in good condition) items.

One question: while I'll do the multiple coats of black at the interval specified on the can, how much time do you think should elapse before going with the clearcoat? Would you go for a full dry (e.g. 24 hours)? And would you do any additional surface prep between the black and the clearcoat?

I would ruff it up with 320 grit and lay 4 to 5 coats of base on it. waiting 15 min between coats use med coats to avoid runs it take 2 seconds to make a run but you have to wait till it dries to get rid of them so 10 light coats is better than 1 runny coat. Then I would wait 24 hrs and wetsand it with 1000, 1500, and 2000 that will get out the trash and because you have enough coats on you dont have to worry about sanding through them. I would wipe it clean with a dewaxer and degreaser or water and a tack rag wiping in one direction turning the rag each time not to wipe what you took off back on. Wait for it to dry paint looks for any reason to lift. Then clear coat using 4 to five coats and the last coat hold the can 2 feet away and mist the part and it will make for a better finish if your not going to color sand and buff the part.

Fatster,

Time for me to go buy some wet sandpaper. I stopped by at the paint shop that my H-D dealer recommended, and the guy said that he would charge $500 to paint the bags. WAY to rich for my taste.