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Jaimec
| Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 04:33 pm: |
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As I was getting ready to leave the TourExpo yesterday (Americade, Lake George), I passed the Dowco display and they had a really nifty looking set of saddlebags mounted on a Suzuki SV1000. The more I looked at it, the more I realized these would be PERFECT for the Lightning Long! I spoke to the Dowco rep and after a brief discussion, I bought a pair. He assembled them for me, and off into the parking lot I went. Mounting took less than ten minutes and this is the result (the bike looks wet because it was raining off and on in Lake George all day):
Here is a link to the product page if anyone else is interested: http://www.dowco-inc.com/Prod_Power.asp?seg=2&ProdID=50110-00 I got tired of waiting for Buell to release luggage for this bike and I doubt very seriously that anything they could release would be better than these (unless, of course, it's locking HARD luggage like on the Ulysses). They're much bigger than those teeny-tiny saddle bags they have now for the XB12/XB9 bikes; more along the lines of the bags I used to have on the M2 Cyclone. |
Bigbuell
| Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 06:23 pm: |
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Nice bags. I to am waiting for Buell to release a set of rear bag for the Long as well. Now I'm seriously look at the ones you bought. Sweet find Jaimec. Hey how do you like the lip wind screen, dose it work. |
Jaimec
| Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 06:27 pm: |
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The Laminar Lip seems to work very well. I did about 450 miles yesterday from Long Island to Lake George and back and it wasn't tiring at all. The bags were also mounted for the ride back, and despite the occasional rain (and thunderstorm when I hit NYC) they held up well and there weren't any apparent leaks. Oh, and at a steady 70-80 mph, the bike returned about 53mpg both ways!! I LOVE this bike. |
Diablobrian
| Posted on Saturday, June 10, 2006 - 07:18 pm: |
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The lack of Luggage for the SS was brought up to Abe during the (2nd) seminar during homecoming. He promised it would be looked into. Luggage is handled by H-D, not Buell, or at least that's the impression I got. Buell engineers basically redesigned the bags for the Uly, and having mounts made for the SS should be a fairly simple matter. Aesthetics would be the only real stumbling block I could really see. |
Jaimec
| Posted on Sunday, June 11, 2006 - 04:59 pm: |
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As long as the mounts don't look too fugly when the bags are off, I'd be okay with the Ulysses hard bags on the Lightning Long. I'll go for the practical over the aesthetic. But in the meantime the Dowco bags are big enough to be practical and look sharp on the bike too. At least I'll have them for the Ramapo 500 next month. |
Wing_rider
| Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 12:09 am: |
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One of the things I liked about the xb series is they appear that they would make an excellent spot touring bike with proper equipment. Ventura makes what is called an areodynamic luggage system that has its own special mounts for the bike. I have added their web address I don't know if it will work as a link or if you will need to type it in. http://www.ventura-bike.com/ |
Bodyshot1
| Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 10:45 am: |
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I like!..is that windscreen detachable? |
Jaimec
| Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 11:47 am: |
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It's a Laminar Lip, and it's held on with 3M cordlock (kinda like Velcro on steroids) so yes, it pops right off (but then you'll see the four cordlock "dots" stuck to the stock flyscreen). |
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