[DanKearney]

Howdy All,

The Metal panniers and carrier rack that I purchased from the Canadian Royal Enfield distributor arrived today.  I've got them mounted now and ready for my first long weekend trip out to western Colorado on the 20th. of September.  Since I don't have any miles on them yet, I can only do a cursory review.



The dealer in Canada (http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.ca) was easy to deal with and know ledgable about the product.  He even suggested that I try to buy it through the U.S. distributorship first.  Kudos for him for both trying to save me shipping costs and to throw the business to the stateside distributor.  I did check with nfieldgear.com and they told me that they don't have the metal panniers in stock, nor do they sell any that would fit the 2012 Desert Storm.  So, I ordered them from RE Canada.  Shipping cost was a little high, but they arrived from Alberta in about 1 week.



First impressions:  Everything is black.  The carrier looks like sturdy tube steel.  I think they're painted with lacquer, but am not sure.  Typical rough Indian welding with some splatter and not so pretty welds, but fully functional.  No installation instructions were included, but it is dead obvious how they attach, so really no need.  The metal boxes are thin steel (I think) with welded seams and welded-on hinges.  They'll probably dent pretty easily when that time comes, but that's life.  Overall, I think they are quite worth the money they sell for.



Installation:  One has to remove the top bolt from the rear shocks and the bottom bolt from the rear fender stays as these are two of the three mounting points.  The third mounting point is a tab-and-flange with two bolts that slips over the rear fender stay.  I cut up a bit of old bicycle tire tube to wrap around the rear fend stay where the third mounting point contact is to protect the paint.  The mounting holes in the carrier frame are  oval to allow for some slop to make them easier to loosely mount before tightening everything down.  There is a metal tube brace that runs horizontally across the top, rear of the carrier rack that ties the rear of the two halve together.  Overall, took about 45 minutes to get everything in place and tightened down.  The result looks very sturdy, and I think I could pick up the rear of the bike using the rack.



A few things that could be better:  The nuts provided to secure the mounting bolts are standard, non-locking nuts.  For a vibrator like the Enfield, they should be either lock-nuts or nylock nuts.  I did replace them with nylocks.  The washers provided with the mounting bolts are too small and easily slip through the oval shaped mounting holes in the rack's rear horizontal cross brace.  I replaced them with larger washers and also used a few fender washers at the mounting points below.  Lastly, the hinged covers of the panniers have a padlock hasp on them to lock them shut, but they don't create a tight seal for the lid.  It is a bit loose and will require some sort of weather sealing around the top to make them (nearly) watertight.



I did notice that there are holes in the bottom of each pannier that correspond to the cross bars on the bottom of the carrier so one can use "U" bolts to secure the panniers to the frame.  I plan to just plug those holes with rubber plugs as I'd prefer to remove the panniers when traveling instead of unloading them.  Also, it's obvious that the panniers will rattle around very much inside the carriers while riding.  To prevent what would undoubtedly be annoying noise, I used some adhesive backed felt strips which I attached to the carrier bars to very snugly hold the panniers in place in the carriers.  This will protect the paint finish on the panniers also.



If I had one wish, I'd like the panniers to be two inches wider to accommodate more stuff.  I'll update this thread in a couple of weeks after I've used them for the first trip
 
Cheers,

Dan K.

[D the D]

Looks good!  The Black goes pretty well as is.
A couple of things I found are:
I had to bolt the can down to the frames because of the rattling noise.
The lids also rattled so bad that I put plastic seat edge strips on the back edges of mine.  Glued the strips down with GM Weatherstrip Adhesive.  Car Door Edging would work too.  Before I put the edge strips on I stuffed a piece of foam tape house weatherstrip between each lid and the can edge.  Didn't look so good and were a pain to keep putting back after opening the cans.  The edging looks like it's OEM.
D

[wildbill]

looks good.   i'd also like to see how it would look colour coded to the bike.
are these ony for the c5's

[JVS]

Nice. Goes well with the rest of the bike. Well done.

[High On Octane]

Looks good Dan, nice job!  If you're interested in painting the panniers and/or mounting frames to match the bike color my shop is just down the road from your work.  Just let me know.  And we still need to get together for ride.

Scottie


On a quick side note.....  How flooded did you guys get up in Black Hawk?  It was so horrible here in Aurora this morning.  It took an hour just to get to I-70.

[DanKearney]

Looks good!  The Black goes pretty well as is.
A couple of things I found are:
I had to bolt the can down to the frames because of the rattling noise.
The lids also rattled so bad that I put plastic seat edge strips on the back edges of mine.  Glued the strips down with GM Weatherstrip Adhesive.  Car Door Edging would work too.  Before I put the edge strips on I stuffed a piece of foam tape house weatherstrip between each lid and the can edge.  Didn't look so good and were a pain to keep putting back after opening the cans.  The edging looks like it's OEM.
D

Thanks for the ideas D.  I can see that something will definitely need to be done about sealing the lid.  I was thinking about maybe some small diameter rubber hose.  Maybe 3/15" o.d. or something.  I'll have to ponder it for a bit.  I haven't had it on the road yet, but in the garage, the felt strips I mounted seem like they should take away any kind of rattle.  The cans are in there pretty tightly.

Cheers,

Dan K.

[DanKearney]

looks good.   i'd also like to see how it would look colour coded to the bike.
are these ony for the c5's

I'd have preferred ones painted to match, but black was the only option.  I'm not sure if they have them for other models.  It would definitely be worth emailing those guys.  They answered my questions quickly.

Cheers,

Dan K.

[DanKearney]

Nice. Goes well with the rest of the bike. Well done.

Thanks JVS.  I wanted some that would be a good match style-wise.

Cheers,

Dan K.

[DanKearney]

Looks good Dan, nice job!  If you're interested in painting the panniers and/or mounting frames to match the bike color my shop is just down the road from your work.  Just let me know.  And we still need to get together for ride.

Scottie

On a quick side note.....  How flooded did you guys get up in Black Hawk?  It was so horrible here in Aurora this morning.  It took an hour just to get to I-70.

Scottie,

You have a paint shop?  I'd certainly be interested in eventually matching the colors.  The black doesn't look bad, but painted to match they'd look even better.

If you're up for riding, there is a good rally the weekend of the 20th.  I'm heading out that Friday morning with a buddy of mine with a good back-roads route planned from Golden to Hotchkiss.

No flooding anywhere near my house.  I'm about 9 miles north of Black Hawk on the side of a mountain.  No streams or running water anywhere close.  I can't believe the amount of rain we've had since Monday.  There were actual waterfalls in places I'd never, ever seen before while driving home up Golden Gate canyon this afternoon.  Lots of rock fall too.  I haven't ridden since last Sunday.  I'm Jones'in now.

Cheers,

Dan K.

[Ice]

Thanks for the ideas D.  I can see that something will definitely need to be done about sealing the lid. I was thinking about maybe some small diameter rubber hose.  Maybe 3/15" o.d. or something.  I'll have to ponder it for a bit.  I haven't had it on the road yet, but in the garage, the felt strips I mounted seem like they should take away any kind of rattle.  The cans are in there pretty tightly.

Cheers,

Dan K.

 That is precisely what I did with mine. One of the best low buck mods you can do.

 The panniers look fantastic.

BTW they also keep the bike off the ground when laying it on its side for the removal of the rear tire for flat repair.

[High On Octane]

Yes Dan, I am the lead body tech and painter for a shop on I-70 & Ward Rd. So I like I mentioned, I'm not far from you at all.  Being that the panniers are brand new and don't have any damage, it wouldn't take me long to get them back to you, nor terribly expensive to do it.  We may even be able to buy some factory paint from RE to do the job for an exact color match. 

Scottie