Thursday, Aug 22 2013 [1491 miles]
Top straps
Side strap
I’ve had the Mt Sun Tank Panniers for about 7 years. I modified the panniers to mount them on my ‘05 GS which resulted in cutting the front strap. I used some scrap blue webbing and a few extra fastex buckles to restore that strap before trying to put them on the new bike.
To keep the side clips from rubbing on the black side covers I put about a 2” square of black gaffers tape on the plastic cover under the clip. It seems to work well.
Bad front strap location
Don’t do this
Wrong place for strap
These pictures show my first attempt at locating the front strap on the GSW. I didn’t like how the strap would rub against the forks so played with the cable ties connected to my light bar. Don’t do it that way. Doesn’t work very well as I found out on the way back from my first trip using the bags.
Wednesday, Oct 16 2013 [4149 miles]
Better front strap location
Behind/under the radiator
The last two trips I followed some advice found on the MOA forum and routed the front strap under the radiator, between the front telelever A-arm and the front of the engine case. Much better. The image shows that routing from the left side of the bike. The front of the panners are far enough from the radiator that there is no effect on cooling, even on the right side with the fan.