wolfman saddlebags

[high dangler]

pretty good idea sonoran !

[sonoran]

Originally Posted by Bonsai Elephant

1. Lovely set up on that 990!



2. With so many people making the same criticism, and spending time and money engineering solutions, it's almost like Wolfman might find it worth their while to either change their product or explain why it's done that way.

1. Thank you!

2. I agree. If those butterfly stiffeners can be made a bit beefier and laminated into the bag material I think it would be a great improvement.

[MTG]

Has anybody tried the WM bags on the side with a Giant loop bag on top?

[sonoran]

Originally Posted by MTG

Has anybody tried the WM bags on the side with a Giant loop bag on top?

Yes it fits fine.

I keep my wolfman's on for daily use, the GL Great Basin goes on for extended trips.

[Tonopah]

Sonoran:

"It's a tight fit. All of the buckles need to be undone to get it in there"

Once the plastice container is in there, can the buckles be hooked up or do you have to leave them undone permanently?

[sonoran]

Originally Posted by Tonopah

Sonoran:

"It's a tight fit. All of the buckles need to be undone to get it in there"

Once the plastice container is in there, can the buckles be hooked up or do you have to leave them undone permanently?

No you can adjust the straps and reconnect the buckles. There is plenty of length to accomodate the container.

[fbj913]

Originally Posted by sonoran

I love my expedition bags but the flimsy internal butterfly stiffeners were really pissing me off. Inspired by fbj913's garbage can trick I decided to follow suit. Visiting Walmart I came across these plastic garbage pails. The base is slightly smaller than the wolfman bag and it tapers slightly outward towards the top. They are also nice and stout.





I cut them down to 11 1/2 inches tall using a hacksaw blade, filed the edges to remove burrs and drilled a small hole in the bottom to allow air to escape when inserting them into the saddlebags.

It's a tight fit. All of the buckles need to be undone to get it in there.

The result:





No more saggy bags! Plus since the inside is white I can actually see the contents.

Last step, toss the originals into the trash.

I'm glad it worked out. It's so nice to have something you can actually use around town. Yours probably looks better than mine because I used a pocket knife in the walmart parking lot when I made mine.

[Tonopah]

Sonoran: Thanks for the tip. I picked up two of the 5.2 gallon Sterilite containers from Walmart -- cut them to 11.5 inches -- drilled the hole in the bottom to expel air -- and shoved them into the Wolfman bags. VERY tight fit but once inside, EXCELLENT. Sort of the benefits of a soft bag and a hard bag without the downsides of either.

[kitsapian]

Originally Posted by Tonopah

Sonoran: Thanks for the tip. I picked up two of the 5.2 gallon Sterilite containers from Walmart -- cut them to 11.5 inches -- drilled the hole in the bottom to expel air -- and shoved them into the Wolfman bags. VERY tight fit but once inside, EXCELLENT. Sort of the benefits of a soft bag and a hard bag without the downsides of either.

That is a pretty sweet idea. I ditched the stiffeners after a few months and have just been going without. I'll probably give this a shot although I do like being able to collapse the bags when they're not full.

[fbj913]

Where you guys been? I posted the same thing months ago.

Originally Posted by fbj913

I have the happy trails racks with the Wolfman Expedition bags... I wanted to keep my bags on my bike all the time. The problem with the bags is they have no form to them without anything in them. So I wanted to add something to inside of them to add some form to the bags. I chose a 5 gallon plastic trash can to do the job. Description and pics below. So far I am happy with the set up!

I cut the top off and cut a slit down the side so I could fit them inside the bags.



I left trash cans inside the bags for a few days and realized the sharp edges were somewhat showing through on the bags so I added duck tape to the edges to get rid of the sharp edges.


Final product.

[Tonopah]

fbj913: you absolutely deserve credit for the idea. Sonoran refined it some.
Both methods get rid of the crappy stiffeners and make the bags much easier to use.

[wolfmanluggage]

Hi Guys
Eric with Wolfman.
I am really liking this discussion about the "Wings" as we call them.
I can talk about the purpose etc. and the design behind them if you wish. They are a bit fussy, I find using the EX-T Stuff never give me an issue.
The design of the wings is to allow the bags to expand and contract depending on the load so the load can be compressed and stabilized when mounted to the racks. If a ridged non-flexible liner is put in the load will never be tight unless the bags are stuffed full. Since these are Radio Frequency Welded their are no real good places to attach the "Wings" inside the bags. Also the lie flat so our shipping is less -Especially for export. So I decided to "Float the Liners. I am looking into a White or Natural plastic for internal visability.
that is the design behind the wings.
I like where this is going though. I really like suggestions.
PM me any time I'll try to respond in a timely manner, I do get busy.
Thank You

Eric/Wolfy

[fbj913]

Originally Posted by wolfmanluggage

Hi Guys
Eric with Wolfman.
I am really liking this discussion about the "Wings" as we call them.
I can talk about the purpose etc. and the design behind them if you wish. They are a bit fussy, I find using the EX-T Stuff never give me an issue.
The design of the wings is to allow the bags to expand and contract depending on the load so the load can be compressed and stabilized when mounted to the racks. If a ridged non-flexible liner is put in the load will never be tight unless the bags are stuffed full. Since these are Radio Frequency Welded their are no real good places to attach the "Wings" inside the bags. Also the lie flat so our shipping is less -Especially for export. So I decided to "Float the Liners. I am looking into a White or Natural plastic for internal visability.
that is the design behind the wings.
I like where this is going though. I really like suggestions.
PM me any time I'll try to respond in a timely manner, I do get busy.
Thank You

Eric/Wolfy

Thanks Eric. I only use the plastic trash cans for around town so I can just throw a few items in and not have to fuss with it. On long trips I take them out to compress and stabilize just like you explained. I don't think the wings are a bad idea. I cut a slit in the side of my trash can insert so that I could still compress a little bit and so it would flex a little.

[Tonopah]

Hello Eric: With the flexible butterfly stiffeners, the bag will expand or contract around the load thereby keeping things stable. Also, from a shipping standpoint, the stiffeners lie flat.

Your comments make perfect sense.

A criticism I have read many times from customers of the Expedition bags is that they are "fiddly" -- which means not suffiently user friendly. The modification of the bags by inserting the cut down Sterilite 5.2 gallon containers (or similar) addresses several issues. Once the container is in and the straps are cinched up -- that is the end of it in that the user really never has to deal with the compression straps again. Also, the useable space inside the bag is maximized -- the bags are far easier to load -- and the white color of the container makes it much easier to see what is going on in there. Using stuff sacks (like those you sell) for items to be placed in the bags does pretty much eliminate the issue of the load shifting around inside the bag.

I think you should leave things well enough alone though and if the end user (like me) wants to make the change to insert the white container -- we can always do so.

BTW, I have a number of Wolfman products for several bikes and all Wolfman products are high quality and well designed. Thank you all for that.

[wolfmanluggage]

Tonopah Would you be willing to try out an idea??
If so please pm with phone etc I have some ideas.

woof
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