please show how you attache "Pelican" bags to you bike

A few years back I had a discussion with the Pelican people about the likelyhood of a box cracking at a drilled hole. They basically agreed with my assesment that it would not crack, although obviously they need to protect themselves in the event it did happen.
The plastic is very soft which is excellent for not cracking, that combined with the feature of those little pockets with thicker material around them, it's like they were meant to be drilled. I would rather drill and take my chance than have 40 lbs of framework surrounding the pannier.
As a further precaution you can do what I used to do,....use 1" fender washers, with 1" rubber washers underneath on the inside of box,....on the outside of box, custom cut a thick rubber washer to fit in that recessed area and then a plastic spacer. The whole surface is surrounded by rubber, very little weight hanging on the bolt holes this way. I usually used 1/4" or 6mm fasteners for these.
If you attach lid to rack, instead of main compartment, you have just created a hard to use pannier. In fact one really nice feature of a Pelican box is that the lid is shallow, so gear can stay relatively in place when the lid is opened. Even Original factory luggage has the useless feature of opening clamshell style in the middle. OEM luggage is also thinner and cracks easy compared to Pelican. So it is a worthy project to mount Pelican boxes, if one ever did crack as a result of a crash, the $70 Pelican is still cheaper than buying a replacement Aluminum pannier.
If Pelican made that 1420 in a larger size it would be superior to Aluminum luggage in almost every way.

If you mount the Pelicans the way you described, common sense says there's no way those babies are ever going to crack.

Especially if the mounts are designed to release with sufficient force. The intent of this is to save the rack and/or bike but just as easily could protect the Pelicans as well.

I am sitting on the fence regarding installing larger bags on my 1150GS for two up touring. What size are those pelicans on your 1100GS and what could be the largest practical size if you wanted to go larger without affecting the pillion position?

I used the Mt Sun mount... he sells it with the bags for $900! I just used the mounts and bought my own bags as they are $90 a piece...
I will have better pictures... I like them because the bags will fly off when the bike is dumped! They are "Kinetic bags"
www.bags2go.com

This picture is a little better... but I will post the detailled mounts maybe tomorrow...

The rear bag is a Pelican... hope Champ is now enjoying it!!!

That is the plate the bags mount on with clips and a bungee system which i have to admit is very clever...

another one...

I like the way that is mounted. Which one did you use? I have been looking at the 1620. I bought a set of 1520's from Azabeemerboy mounted on Hepco Becker frames/pucks. Works great! See next post for pic.

I bought those from Azabeemeboy and they are 1520's. You might get 1550's on there but the would be wider than the bike and hang off the back quite a bit. Not really a problem, but I like the 1520's. I don't know if they have more interior room than the stock BMW bags but they are rectangular and offer at least the same space if not more. I know for sure that they have more room than the bags on the RT with city lids. The link below has them the cheapest I've found w/out foam.

pelicans

When you visit that site,click on Storm and you will get another choice to consider.The iM2600 is almost identical in size to the Pelican 1550 and can be had in yellow as well as black and battleship gray.Click on the manufacturer's site and get their comparison blurb as they seem to be aiming at Pelican and may offer a better material composition and more secure latches.They also claim their's won't pop open when dropped.John

What site?

cases4less.com

How quickly or easily can you get the bags off the HB mounts ?

What's this about the Mt. Sun mounts quick releasing in case of crash? Care to elaborate because the mfg. website does not. Thanks!

There are metal pucks inside that unscrew, two on each bag. Less than a minute and they're attractive durable luggage

There is another thread going right now that is just the same subject... of course I cannot find it now! I think it is Ricardo Suaaaaaaaaaave's thread... But I will post the same pictures here... you can see how with the clips on top and bottom the cases would fly off... take the impact and the crash bars have protected those plates... removal by hand is 2 seconds!
So here we go...




Because I like the size of these Kinetics I bought them... the closure system after a year wore down a bit, plastic against plastic, so I added a thin piece of aluminium to make the closure snug again... totally waterproof... just has more resistance closing the latch... Pelican has a better closure system, so does actually STORM which I think is the best... but as I mentionned the sizes were not to my liking or needs...



































































Mt Sun use to sell the mounts on their own... $100! bags and hardware $200... but things have changed as he only wants to sell the identical set for $900... The plates and bungees with clips can be duplicated very easily...
Hope this helps...
Ara

Paging Mr. Ricardo to the white courtesy phone...