Thursday, June 02, 2011

Filthy Air Filter! and Hybrid Tank Bag Mounting?

In further preparation for next weekends trip, I've started a few projects.

I changed the air filter in the Zx-14. Holy Crap! was that thing dirty. I had pulled it out last year while in Sturgis and knocked a few bugs off of it, but this was bad.



Old and Skanky



New and Fresh









I won't be neglecting that project again. That's 2 seasons and 18000 miles.



I'm also working on modifying a Cortech tank bag mount. I really like the 21 liter bag I have. It works great with the magnetic mount on the FJR. It has very strong magnets and I've never had it move on me. The Zx has a lot more plastic near the tank, so I have to use a strap mount with the bag. The strap mount isn't very stable in a cross wind. The bag wants to flip over. I know it won't go anywhere, but it's very distracting. Kind of like the rope ladder at a Carnival.
I thought I could improve upon the Cortech strap mount base by adding 2 "flaps" with strong magnets in them like on the magnetic mount base.

Here's the strap mount base.

And here's the magnetic one.

My idea was to cut the 2 flaps off the magnetic mount and sew them to the strap mount. There's just enough steel from the gas tank near the middle section of the mount. There's no way our sewing machine could sew through the heavy nylon layers, so I contacted Two Rivers Canvas and Upholstery. I rode over and showed Natalie what I was thinking. She was positive she could help me out with my project. I'm going to go back over there next week with the strap base mounted to the bike in the correct position and let her mark the pieces and cut and sew. I hate to cut up a good magnetic mount base, and the Cortech 21 liter bag has been discontinued, but a replacement magnetic mount is still available. The same base also works for the Cortech Tri-bag. I also have that one, but it's HUGE.

This is the the Cortech Tri-bag on the big Ninja.