This appeared after my last trip. The pannier is made of some sort of plastic and the crack is located at a stress point, obviously. How to repair this? Currently, I'm thinking of using JB Weld on both sides of the crack reinforced with some kind of rigid material. Is there some way to weld the crack?
It may be weldable depending on what kind of plastic it is. Look for a mark that tells you. A fair number of motorcycle shops can weld plastic.
+1 i.e. safety wire. Works friggin' awesome on seat tabs for dual seat bikes where only the rear is locked down and the tongue on the front one keeps it from falling off. Other than that, rivet on some doublers on at least one side.
Is that from your Connie? It doesn't look familiar to me. I punted one off when I pulled out around a car in a traffic jam, forgot how wide Connie's ass was. Broke the aluminum bracket off, bag went airborne, my nephew behind me cought it with one arm while riding his Suzuk with the other, lol Anywho, I'd vote for doublers as well, riveted and sealed.
If the plastic is ABS (which most bike parts are) the best glue type is a Methyl Methacrylate based adhesive. Permatex Permapoxy 5 min plastic weld, item 84115. It comes in a handy two part applicator and is reasonable. This welds/melts to the ABS and does not sit on top as JB Weld and other general epoxies and plastic adhesives do. It bonds to and forms part of the methacrylate in the ABS. Your neighborhood stores will not carry it as it is specialized. Buy it on-line. Follow the instructions - you only have 4 minutes set-up time. The Loctite equivalant is H3000 which is an industrial only packaging that needs special applicators. That together with some 'stitching' will make a very good bond. Its color is near opaque and will go yellowish in time. After full cure it is paintable with plastic type spray.
I see the Permatex on Amazon for less than 8.00. I watched a video of a repair made using this product and was impressed, though not by the price. http://www.urethanesupply.com/PlastiFix/ I don't need to be in a hurry to fix this so it's turning into another learning experience for me. There are some very interesting methods used. Also, it's looking like the Connie will be for sale before too long so the repair needs to look spiffy.
I've not done it but I have heard of folks taking abs grinding into a dust, mixing the dust with abs glue from the plumbing section. Using that as a glue past to both fill the crash and hold the parts together. Using abs sheet to back up the crack.
There are supposedly 2600+ types of plastics. Unless you get the specific adhesive for the plastic 'family' they dont really work - sit on top. General epoxies etc claim to adhere plastic, but they do not. If you dont want to 'stitch' it together as well, cut a V trough on the inside along the split line. Sand the area along V where you will apply the adhesive with 60 grit paper and apply the adhesive as a filler and 1/4" on either side. An $8.00 or less tube of spealized adhesive is a lot cheaper than new plastics.
I cracked the plastic fairing on my 05 Tri Sprint. Super glue made a good bond. I used the super glue and plastic beads that the nail techs use for manicures. Spent about $30 at Sally's Beauty Supply with plenty of left over for the next crash.
The stuff I bought to fix ABS doesn't work, so I guess it isn't ABS. There are no symbols on either bag indicating the type of plastic. It seems that plastic can be identified by testing it for buoyancy and burning it to detect certain odors. Meh. If the plastic is polypropylene, as I suspect, then welding is said to be the only reliable repair. Plastic welding can be done using hot air, direct heat, or an ultrasonic welder. There are direct heat welders that look a lot like soldering irons. Hot air is like a heat gun. Ultrasonic units look like big money investments. It's possible to buy welding rods of like plastics though some Youtube videos show welding without this. Drilling a stop at the end of the crack would be a good idea if it was to glued. It the weld is done correctly, there will no longer be a crack.
Once painted it looked OK. The back of the headlight isn't visable from the outside of the bike, so no harm. It has held well for 10K miles and over 2 years, nearly three. Saved me $800. Jim
After I got knocked off by a car on my '99 Connie both bags were split on the backside, far worse than yours. I 'welded' the cracks with a soldering iron. Started at the end of the split and worked backwards, drawing the iron back about 3-4 mm them pushing back about half as far to raise a small ridge and repeating hte process along the entire split without taking the iron away. Far easier to do than to explain. And best of all, its a free repair. The bags held up fine, including the around the one almost torn off mounting tab, for about 3 months of daily use before the other guys insurance finally decided to total it. I believe in my parts box I have one of the air deflectors that I repaired in the same way. Will try and remember to take a pic tomorrow and post up
$800 puts a lot of miles between you and where you live, its not a bad reason at all to take the Frankenstein approach.
The pros tell me that the plastic is some kind of bastardized mix of polypropylene and whatever and that welding is the only fix that might work. One of my soldering irons should do the trick and I'm hoping to find a chunk of the original luggage to use as filler. There's a lesson to be learned here when buying the factory luggage; can it be repaired?
