Refurbishing Panniers

[Sin_Tiger]

I'll state it now to save any comments later. What follows was done on a set of Mk2 Trophy panniers, which are essentially the same as 1999 - 2007 Girlies apart from the exhaust indent on the right pannier casing. In case it helps anyone else, this type were also used on the 885 Sprint Executive and the 955i Sprints.

When I got this bike the panniers have had a hard life. Retaining straps no more elasticity, restraining straps too short and about to break, lock in arms bent and rusted, hanger rail rusted and worst of all were the hinges. Now to sort all that out over a few posts.

[ghulst]

It's the pannier revival!

Honestly, looking forward to that. I had a great pair of Hepco & Becker's on my Steamer but as the Steamer went, I sold them, because the 1150GS came with BMW's optional panniers. I wish I had kept the H&B ones. They were much bigger and much nicer inside. Especially the plastics as well, as those would actually leave black marks on the stuff I put in there. My iPad charger still has a strong black mark from the case. Really annoying. Refurbishing might have actually helped there. The cleaning I did, clearly was not enough.

[Lee337]

Fortunately, my Girly panniers weren't too bad, but watching this with interest to see what i could do with them to make them that little bit better.

[Sin_Tiger]

Starting with the inside and the easiest job, the retaining straps. Admittedly some people won't use them or even remove them entirely if you're using well stuffed inner bags but my OCD prohibits just binning them 

Not a lot to this as it's simply a matter of replacing the elastic and apart from sourcing good quality (what is basically knicker elastic) I went with "Wide Black Elastic Band / Stretch Webbing - 20mm x 6 metres from "The Bead Shop" for under £10 on Ebay (other suppliers are available) and had plenty left over for other jobs or my old underwear. The only other thing you need is someone with decent skills on a sewing machine.

I'm always wary of older plastics, so before removing the clips a small spray of lubricant on the clips that secure the ends into the casings, then make sure they are warmed up to around 25C and being gentle levering them off with a couple of terminal screw drivers under the clip groove should give you a fighting chance.

Once I'd cut off the old elastic, I give the plastics a wash and then a rub over with some common vaseline (petroleum jelly) in the hope that it will at least slow degradation of the plastics. I have no evidence that this works never having done a placebo test but I feel better and the lugs inside the casings get the same treatment.

A few tips on getting the lengths right and minimising waste. Since the ends can fray, double the loose part over and or seal the cut end with some glue to reduce fraying effect. Use both ends in a loop until you get the lengths right as you'll have to do both parts at the same time to ensure the joiner clip is positioned as you'd expect. Adjust the tension until you get the unjointed / relaxed sections with barely any tension. Too slack and they just get caught in the cover  joint, too tight and they will be under stretch all the time and won't last as long. Use tailoring fabric pins or a small stapler to hold relative positions before you cut anything, do NOT use superglue, your tailor / machinist will curse you when they break machine needles.

[Sin_Tiger]

Next up the steel hanger inserts and the frame lock hooks. Both of these were rusty enough that they were dripping rust stains down onto the exhausts.

The hanger inserts being rusty, apart from cosmetics, wear the plastic rails quicker and make the panniers harder to slide rearward for removal. This is possibly why one of the lock hooks was quite badly bent, someone trying hard to pull it back while it was still attached.

Removal is easy enough by drilling the heads off the pop rivets inside the casing and then just punching out. While they were all off, apart from straightening the bent bits, they got a blasting and powder coated. Then it was just a case of riveting them back on with the correctly sized rivets. I couldn't find black rivets in the sizes I needed so a few dabs of black paint sorted that anal requirement.

A couple of tips here. You might struggle to find rivets exactly the right length for the the lock hooks, too short and they will pop before there is enough meat to retain it securely, too long and the excess will interfere with the lock lug on the frame. It's easy enough just to use a longer rivet and then trim and smooth the excess meat to clear the lug with a Dremel or file. I fitted a couple of rubber wiring blank grommets into existing holes on the hanger inserts as I found the panniers moved a little more than I thought they should, I'm not sure if there was something like that originally but it seems to work well without making the panniers any more difficult to remove.

[Sin_Tiger]

Next job, the four restrainer straps for the lids / covers when in the open position.

The problem with mine was I believe that at some point they had broken at the fixing screw hole/s and had been shortened, thus preventing them opening as wide as I remember others opening, making it harder to get filled inner bags in or packing the inner and covers separately. Also, they had been refitted to the outer side of the mounting, meaning that when closing the natural tendency is for the strap to bend outward and get caught between the cover and the inner casing, meaning they got frayed. Refitting them on the inner side of the mounting as I believe they should be, meant they would be way too short for access.

So I decided to make some new ones. I happened to have some woven nylon webbing just the right size left over from an old shoulder strap, it's about 12mm wide x 2mm thick and you'll need about 1100mm total length for the job. The original straps I believe had riveted eyelets to prevent the screw & rivet tearing the webbing weave, so I sourced a small 5.5mm kit complete with the riveting tool from an upholstery company on Ebay from "ohsewcraftyltd" £9 was pretty reasonable and would leave me with plenty of spares.

Once I'd got the lengths right, there's a fractional difference between the front and rear, and sealed off the cut ends by melting with a lighter, the ends can then be fitted into the mountings one by one to mark the hole centres. Even although I'd decided to use the riveted eyelets I still didn't want any chance of the webbing fraying. So once marked, I centred the strap up on a piece of wood and pushed the male half of the eyelet through the webbing by heating it with a soldering iron. This seals the weave off nicely and cuts a very neat hole. A tip here, which also applies whenever you use a hole puch making gaskets etc., is to push through onto the end grain of the wood which offers less resistance than across the grain. You can get away with just melting a hole for the rivet and bolt using a soldering iron but it won't be as resistant to strain as using an eyelet. The female side of the eyelet can then be easily riveted with the tool as the male will be held in place by the melted nylon.

Once fabricated fitting is straight forward, feed one end into the back of the mounting on the cover and pop rivet in place, the inner end is a bit more fiddly getting the nut onto the M5 screw behind the mounting. A bit of Bluetack on the end of a screwdriver worked for me, I just couldn't find the right angle with a ring spanner and working through the partially opened pannier is awkward, which is probably why it was fitted incorrectly on the outside with the previous repair.

The end result is worth the effort as I can now load the panniers with ease, not worry about them breaking and falling down and the straps naturally tend to bend inwards when closing the lid and don't get so easily trapped.

[Sin_Tiger]

Next up, replace those rusty hinges.

Replacement hinges have never been available from Triumph. Removing to blast and powder coat is an option but beware, the captive M5 screws will probably snap if they are this rusty no matter how careful you are. True you can drill them out and replace them but they will rust again eventually, no matter how good the powder coat.

I decided to try to replace them with stainless steel hinges, even if it meant making them myself. Fortunately I managed to find a source of undrilled SUS piano hinge which was very close to the size required, good quality (304 I think) and shock horror UK made into the bargain. Supplied in various lengths by "Bryson Components - brysoncomponents@sky.com" also on Ebay.

To make 4 hinges you will need 12" / 305mm "Stainless Steel Piano Hinge 50mm / 2" Open Width Undrilled UK Product 1.2mm" that will leave you with only a little spare material and at £9.10 including very fast post, it's a bargain. You need to cut them in such a manner that the ends can be fixed to hold them laterally, so mark the cuts up carefully and double check before you lift the hacksaw, see photos.

Once cut and dressed up, you need to fix the hinge pin in place, I tried to gas weld one end but didn't manage a tidy result so I ended up running a little brazing onto one end of each. You could probably TIG if you're that handy but MIG or Stick is likely to be too heavy for this gauge of material. Alternatively you can simply rivet or stake the ends of the pin with a centre punch, do both ends if using this method. Other methods of fixing the ends have been kindly passed on to me, A) take a slightly longer hinge pin out and mushroom over one end before refitting and doing the same at the other end, B) using a slightly shorter hinge pin the hinge end can be swaged over enough to prevent it dropping out.

Removal of the old hinges is pretty straight forward, drilling out the rivets and undoing or mostly snapping off the nuts. This material drills very nicely after marking with a centre punch, beware there is a couple mm difference between the body and lid sides. I'd recommend bolting the hinges through all 8 holes to check for alignment / adjustment before removing the lid screws to fit rivets one at time to maintain relative positioning.

I am very happy with the result and can hold my panniers high in any company, now if I could just work the same magic with my dodgy knees.

[Lee337]

Now looking forward to the dodgy knee fix - may have use for that meself 

[ghulst]

Those are looking really nice now!

[Bixxer Bob]

Good job, as usual