Loss of Hard Bag

[MechanicSavant]

While I was traveling through a distant galaxie on my 1150r ,I went to latch the bag felt a sickening twang, dang!!! the tongue that latches the bag "failed to live up to its design potential" ..It broke off !!! w/ no way to latch the bag I remembered a thread from this forum about "saftey pining " the bags!!!! ya take a 1/4" drill & go through the lower bag ear & mount while its mounted on the bike then ya poot a 1/4" pin or bolt through & viola the bag is again secured Fortunately a mo-home type had a cordless drill in his rig n borrowed it to me ...I continued my inter-stellar voyage secure knowing that latch woud offend me no more !!!
ps if ya drill a 1/4" hole in the ribbing on the upper bag hook mount thingy it's a good place to store yer saftey pins when in the hanger

[RTRANDY]

Mine came off the first year I owned my 04RT. Here's the lessons:
When they come off, you likely won't know it.
A locking bag has nothing to do with whether it's attached properly.

The key is the parallel tabs on the lower front of each bag.Those tabs have to have the knob on the bike fit in between those two tabs. Once I made that mistake I became obsessive about eyeballing that several times before I rode off.

Here's the stupid part of my mishap. I was on a group ride to Eureka Springs while the left case was not attached properly. It stayed on all morning until we came to a small town with a railroad crossing. While crossing the bumpy tracks in first gear, the left bag popped off and slid along the ground. I never saw this, but a rider behind me stopped and picked up my case to put it in his lap while riding his bike. It was a lovely day and this guy kept waiving to me. I kept waiving back thinking he was giving me a thumbs up. Later he looked like he was pointing to his tank and I kept thinking poor guy needs to stop for gas. Five miles later other riders caught up to me to get me to pull over and see the guy trying to give me my case. First and last time I ever make that mistake.

[GREGFEELER]

I didn't see it on any of the threads and perhaps it's never happened before, but has anyone ever lost a hard bag? After several hours on a 75 mile an hour freeway with very gusty winds I noticed that I had lost the right hard bag on my 2004 R1150 RT. Sad to say that I never noticed it in my mirror. Has this ever happened to anyone before? I remember checking that it was on properly and it was locked because you can't remove the key otherwise. I ordered another one today to the tune of $417, and of course I also lost my BMW battery charger and case lining when I lost the bag The reason I'm asking is to try to find out if it was a once in a life time kind of thing or if there is an additional security strap or something to provide added security. Thanks

For the "later" BMW's (oilheads and K12's) the tongue that catches the underside of the top mounting bracket breaks. It's this tongue that protrudes out, under, and back again to catch and hold the bag under tension against the top bracket as you move the latch lever. Once the tongue breaks the bag can bounce off and be gone and you'll never notice until the next gas stop. It happened to me on my K1200RS and to another guy I know with an oilhead. BMW warrantied both bags. I was lucky in that all I lost besides the bag was a couple of t-shirts.

[kantuckid]

For an easy fix to the lost bag issue-go to the R1150 forum: www.R1150R.org and search out the thread that shows the fix. I did this fix and used the information given with one exception, being that the instructions there show some disassembly of bike that I found unnecessary . The fix involves drilling a hole of approximately 3/32" through the lock point on the bag lugs-with the bags in place and placing a lock clip you get from Home Depot(made like a large safety pin & only place I could find them) thru the hole. My opinion is that they are highly unlikely to come loose if they are correctly positioned(as previously stated) but this fix is cheap, easy and ensures they are in place and cannot come off. I also recommend taking the bags into a secure place, as my experience is that a potential thief will try to open your bag and thus bend the soft aluminum tab(painted bright orange) and your fix is a pair of needle nosed pliers which you'd better hope are not in the bag thats been affected! This happened to me in Mexico recently. As a side note, if you are new to the bags-buy some liners to make them more practical.

[RINTY]

I used to carry a couple of long safety straps for an emergency lash up, if one of the System Cases came off my oiler. They were left over from when I had Light Touring cases on my airhead, which I always safety strapped, and which maybe was over caution on my part.

Rinty

[BMorleyW]

Kantuckid - I looked for the fix on the 1150 R site with a "hard bag" search and found hundreds of posts but not the right one. Could you give a little more information? Thanks, BMorleyW

[R100RS]

Kantuckid - I looked for the fix on the 1150 R site with a "hard bag" search and found hundreds of posts but not the right one. Could you give a little more information? Thanks, BMorleyW

Scroll down to post from "CycleRob":

http://www.r1150r.org/board/viewtopi...t=7652&p=70261

-Mike

[BMorleyW]

BMorelyW

[MechanicSavant]

Yup dats the fix I wuz talkin bout , now, n e body had "issues " w/R1200r bag mounts ??? just lookin for pre-emptive 411 be4r I go inter-galactic w/the new scoot ??? this new roadster iz soo outa dis werld I cain't help but going into Hypr-drive !!!

[kantuckid]

1/4" is too large for the safety clip hole!

[rdsmith3]

A guy on the R1150R forum, Cyclerob, has a good description and pictures of a clever modification to secure the side cases

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/gallery/44...80864#12180864

[bmwcliff]

After reading about the "pin fix", I did it last year to my bike. Very easy, took less than an hour, and the locking safety pins were at Lowes, I believe, for around 3.00 each. Would encourage all concerned to consider this enhancement.

[mistercindy]

A number of years ago it happened to my right system bag on my R1150R. I was entering a highway, went over a bumpy patch at 60-ish MPH, and happened to see it bouncing along behind me in my rear view mirror. The bag never opened and, other than nasty scratches, the bag was in perfect operating condition. Those system bags are pretty sturdy (unlike the OEM Vario 12GS bags, DAMHIK...). I believe the fault was mine. I was new to the bike and the bags, and while I can't be sure, I suspect I didn't have it properly secured with the lower front tab or latch. Its an easy thing to miss if you're not familiar with it.

BTW, I think the R1150R's system bags are the same as the R1150RT. Could be wrong, though. If so, you might want to check to see if you've got that lower latch secure. And don't feel too bad. As you can tell from the responses, it happens. I suspect its usually pilot error, but sometimes not.

[Chris_d]

The left case on my R1100RS 'jumped off' one day at speed of a somewhat bumpy road (thats any road in Ontario ). Luckily a friend riding behind stopped to retrieve it.

Could not figure out how it happened, my only conclusion being that the bag latches were not fully secured even though it appeared they were. Now I give the bags a lift and pull check after refitting them.

As an aside, I have the shiny bag lids and it turns out they are not painted but come that way out of the mould!

[kantuckid]

I will say it one more time-you get the pins at Home Depot, not Lowe's! I have Lowe's available to me and not the other, so that's where I looked first and they did not have a hardware box with the clips. Maybe the two where I went were an exception, but if you have a choice, go to Home Depot first and save some gas!