Motorcycle Thoughts

Saddlebags showed up today.Oh boy, Oh boy.

Couldn’t wait to put them on but wanted to make sure I documented the installation.

Started off with the box, opened it and there were two smaller boxes in the larger box.

The saddlebags were packed individually, pretty heavy box.

The first that I opened was the left side. Looked inside the saddlebag there was the support bar wrapped in foam, but no hardware… Uh oh! Opened the box marked ‘right side’ pulled out the saddlebag, a bit heavier. Opened up the bag, and pulled out the right support bar, bag of hardware, instructions, and a container of Leather dressing.

Laid them all out for a picture.

The saddlebags are hard bags covered with leather, they hinge from the outboard of the bike, not much room in there. Looked over the instructions and got to work. First thing I noticed was the bags will not work with the ‘Screaming Eagle’ exhaust and gives a part number. Uh oh!

Decided to start on the right side despite the instructions insistence to start on the left.


Apparently, Harley-Davidson made a change to the exhaust bracket on the 2007 Softail Deluxe, a lot easier to install the support bracket, simply installs on the exhaust bracket with some nuts, bolts, and spacer. Here is a hint: The instructions say “don’t tighten yet”, don’t tighten yet, nothing. The left side is a piece of cake (relatively). Remove the bolt that holds the passenger peg on, using the longer bolt in the kit, put the peg back on, tighten the bolt down, then from the back add the saddlebag support, and the supplied nut, again, don’t tighten anything.

Now for the saddlebags, one side at a time to keep the fender in place. Remove the second from the front and the last Torx bolts that connect the support to the fender. Pick the large Hex head bolts and a set of washers, carefully hold the saddlebag in place, and thread the bolt into the fender, front and rear. Repeat for the other side, don’t tighten, in fact, keep them quite loose. Four allen head shoulder bolts are in the hardware. Them and the foam pads are needed next. Get on the ground thread the shoulder bolts through the saddlebag support, through the foam pad, and into the bottom of the saddlebag. There are two sets of holes in the bottom of the saddlebags, use the outboard set, I imagine the inboard set are for use when the docking hardware is used for the sissy bar. Thread those shoulder bolts in, again loosely. On the right hand side I found that a standard allen wrench (not one on a tool) was necessary and I really had to loosen up both the saddlebag and support to get at the bolt, too close to the exhaust.

Now tighten up the Saddlebags to the fender I torqued them to 25 lb/ft with my trusty craftsman wrench. Next tighten up the support to saddlebag shoulder bolts, I just snugged them, they were supplied with a dab of loctite. Finally, I tightened up the support bracket bolts connecting to the bike, Torqued to 20 lb/ft. Had to dig around for the key, found just one, will need to get another made.

They definitely do not hold much, but I believe they will increase the utility of the bike. Being able to take a few things along will be nice. I also do not believe that the axle nut dress ups will be needed, nor will the bolts that dress up the pulley. I believe that I would still like to have the chrome belt guard. I will still like to have the swing arm bolt cover. Overall, I believe that I like these bags a lot, they really make the bike look a bit more finished.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 6:45 pm and is filed under The SofTail Deluxe. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.