Click on thumbnails for larger pic.
Bags on
Bags off.
The side supporting racks are made by a company called Five Star and I got them from www.riderhaus.com. Now they dont make a set for the Hawk so I searched through schematics on the Five Star website and decided the '90 VFR750 racks would be easiest for me to fabricate mounts for. They make a set for the NTV, but in my mind's eye they didn't look like they would be as easy to mod as the VFR ones.
Bags are the Givi e21's. Their smallest saddlebags. Each one will fit a small laptop, or a pair of boots, etc, 21 liters of capacity.
Racks and bags were in the $250 range including shipping from Germany.
Here's what I had to do to get to what you see in the pics.
1. Deciding on a position to mount them on the tail was a little tricky. The Hawk tail is so small I had no choice but to mount them pretty far back so I could still climb aboard the cockpit without having to hurdle the bags. As it stands now it's pretty tight when getting on, but there is plenty of cockpit room once I'm on the seat. I mounted them high because otherwise I would have had to cut the top mount welded on the racks, and going too low the exhaust can becomes an issue for me. I can always change later if I want to reposition, but I didn't want to cut off anything right away.
2. So after the position was decided on I had to raise the ventura rack. Searching through Home Depot I found a corner-adaptor tube for closet rack. It had the perfect taper to slide into the Ventura tubes, so I chopped off both ends and they acted as a lift kit for the rack.
3. Fabricate mounts. Using a grinder, drill, and some aluminum and steel flat stock (including some mounting pieces that were included with the racks) I made 5 mounting pieces, 2 attach to the old signal light location, 1 to the m4 canister hanger, 1 to the left side mounting bolt for the ventura rack, and 1 that connects the two side racks together in the back. I might refine the mounts, but these will do for now. And I'd like to powdercoat or paint them so they look better.
4. Install signals behind license plate mount. I made two
pieces using right angle aluminum stock to mount the LP signals..and much
to my surprise they were already wired to be running lights, so I split
the brown wire and.... then there was light.
I've been using the cases for about a week now, commuting. Initially
I thought I'd use them just for longer trips, but now I think I'll just
keep them on. It's nice to have lockable bags to throw your gloves
or extra clothes in, bags that you can pop off and take inside if you please.
In the future I might add a top case using the universal givi mount on
the ventura rack.
