Well I've taken the advice and gone for round tubing, but I've been looking again at the "legs' that attach it to the bike. A lot of commercial ones are flat steel - despite what people have said on here, and I can see loads of advantages to it, it's easy to weld it to round tubing, and it gives a flat surface to bolt through.

So is it that bad?

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Well, I reckon you have been given duff advice.

Round us stronger than square under TORSION
Square is stronger than round under BEND
Flat is just pants imho.

Make the racks so that the bottom is a cradle to sit the pannier in. Like the Overland Solutions racks.
Making the racks from square will also simplify the attachment of a mechanism to lock the pannier in place

My 2 bobs...

John

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Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

Jesse makes the rack of square tubing and they brake all the time, I have round tubing now and will not go back:

Ah-ha... but that aint your average diameter of rack tube, nor the crap mount points they usually have. Self made?

John

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Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

Sadly I’m not able to weld, I just took part in the design-process.

Looks good. Panniers bolted through the back?

I use a Tesch rack, (square), that's had bits "added", like a small cradle to sit the pannier on and then use a couple of stainless wing-bolts with 50mm stainless washers on them that screw into "rivnuts" (if you know what they are), that are mounted onto a brace in the corners of the frame.
I'm not particularly interested in "Quick Detachable" as it also equates to "Quickly Stolen

John

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Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

Thanks!

Yes the panniers are bolted, you can see the two holes for the bolts high up at left and right side. The panniers rests on the two “steel-mushrooms“ at the bottom and four rubber parts kill the vibration.

I have also tested various “Quick Detachable” solutions and have found them to be rather “Auto Detachable”. For me it’s not a problem to unscrew the two bolts to get the pannier of, I seldom do it anyway.

I used 20x20x2.5 SHS, and I think 30x6 flat black, and a bit of weld-mesh.
Powdercoated satin black.

Just in the nick of time too. I'll still have the burns from welding when I leave, RTW with a bit of luck.

Bike is a Honda XR650L 2008.

Also made the aluminium panniers shown in last photo. This pannier & frame project was a HUGE undertaking, mostly because of the way I wanted to do it.

Total width of the bike/panniers is now 990mm, which is only about 40mm wider each side, compared to the bars.

I'm in the process of doing a website, which will detail the whole bike prep project.

While in Laos, I was having a problem with a sagging duffle bag, so I made my own rack for super cheap. Here is an illustration.

I just bought a cheap metal shelf (has plastic coating) for about $5, then I used some zip ties to secure it to the bike's back rack. This worked well! Preferably I'd have found some bolts with some thick rubber washers and some wide metal washers. Next time..



Hope this helps. I have more junk like this on my website.

Chris
Chris' Trans-Continental Motorcycle Adventures

Was just think (i know its not good) what about getting a shopping trolley and cutting it up to make the rack. It means you get a mesh that will stop your soft panniers from folding in and would also then allow you a load of points to hook your bungee cords to. Also if you plan on taking hard panniers, your rack plate also has a load of differnt places to connect on to.

Also at most its gonna cost you a pound for the trolley which im sure you could get back some how.

Posted this recently in the Suzuki Tech section. The hardest part, IMO, of making pannier frames is fabricating the loops, hence us buying a set of used Givi frames which I then used as a starting point. I didn't have a tube bender, instead I bent the tubes around the MiG welder gas bottle in the vice. I've not been taught to weld (& don't consider myself good at it) but am able to securely join a few pieces of steel together. Cheap MiG's are easily available, I'd recommend that anyone buy one & have a go, just remember to wear the appropriate gear: welding gloves, mask (auto-darkening mask makes things so easy), coveralls & decent footwear (having dropped weld splatter on to my partners sandal wearing foot, this is a must ). Also expose as little skin area to the UV light as possible unless you're in to instant suntans. If welding anything that's zinc plated, remove the zinc first, the fumes are not pleasant if you don't. Make sure you buy a MiG with a non-live torch i.e. it's only live when you pull the trigger.

"Just finished building these pannier frames for my partners DRZ in preparation for her trip to South America starting mid-August:









Few more here: DRZ PANNIER FRAMES - Steve's Photos

Started with the Suzuki rear rack and a pair of Givi pannier racks for an airhead GS:



Once I removed all the bracketry, I wrapped some 3mm x 25mm steel bar around the 5 litre fuel can before welding. Once I'd mounted the right hand loop, I lined up the left hand loop before mounting it. I could have kept the width down by locating the frames more rearwards but wanted to keep the centre of the frames in line with the rear wheel spindle. The two main mounts on each side are made from steel tube, 16mm OD with a 1.5mm wall thickness with 10mm stainless capheads passing through, secured with Nylocs. I then turned down some steel bar to match the internal diameter of the 16mm tube & then drilled 8mm holes through. In to 20mm sections of tube, I welded 5mm lengths of drill steel bar. Four of these provided the mountings for the mounts on the footpegs & the frame on to which I'd already welded a 6mm thick lug. By mounting to the frame itself, I've used the pannier frames to brace the subframe. Stainless 8mm capheads slid easily in to the front mounts.

I also incorporated a Tooltube for Tyre Levers etc, a bolt through the cap plus an O'ring will prevent the cap coming loose. The final part was the rear brace, 16mm tube used once again in conjunction with 10mm stainless capheads.

The Givi frames cost £50 & I reckon I spent another £50 on 3 metres of steel tube, flat bar, welding gas & wire plus stainless bolts. So far I've spent between 30 & 35 hours on them, they still need to be removed, blasted & powdercoated. They'll be fitted with waterproof Ortlieb panniers. Total width is very slightly wider than I'd like but the weight distribution is much better for it. She'll be riding away from the cities, mainly in Argentina & Chile so width is not that big a deal as she won't be filtering through heavy traffic.

We'll be fitting blue bodywork from the other DRZ plus a Clarke tank, rad guards, Wolfman tankpanniers & tankbag plus a front mudguard brace. I've already fitted Talon lowering links & 'bar risers to allow the forks to be pushed through by 20mm. Rear preload is on max at present which is why it doesn't look that low. Once new chain & sprockets, pads & more suitable tyres are fitted, it will be pretty much ready to go.

Thanks to Louisdut for the idea for the additional can."

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My photos: www.possu.smugmug.com

Hi Steve,

I've just got myself a set of Hepco & Becker mounts, from a Bandit, to persuade to fit my XT225.

I really like the idea of the 5 litre fuel cell. Where did you source it?

Regards

Reggie

Thats how I did it. Use 2,5 mm Alloy plate. Remove orginal rack to take new 3 cm down and get better center of gravity. Use pillon peg as a one support point to get better center of gravity.



An that how it look's on "Shake down"

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...You know it's a bit windy when you get passed by your own dust...

Hi Capo Sakke,

what an interesting idea.

Regards

Reggie

Here you go:

Ocean Slim Tank - Fuel, General Chandlery | Mailspeed Marine

They also do a cheaper version in white for water only. Cap's aren't lockable, we might just roll some duct tape around it to keep it secure on bumpy roads.

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My photos: www.possu.smugmug.com