tailbag from a nelson-rigg cl-650 tankbag

[Jeff Saline]

Listers, A few weeks ago I posted about www.newenough.com having Nelson-Rigg CL-650 tankbags on closeout for $46. List price was about $80. I understand this is a discontinued item from Nelson-Rigg. I had bought one for a BMW Airhead project bike and it looked like it would work well as a tailbag on the KLR650. So I bought another one to use just with my KLR650 when riding my local area. I've wanted to carry some extra tools and I think this will give me a good way to do this. Note these are not waterproof but do come with a rain cover. I think this will work well for me as my Wolfman Explorer Tankbag and panniers aren't waterproof either. This morning I created a new album in the group photo section called * Tailbag from a CL-650 Tankbag. It should be the first album in the photo section. In a few days I'll remove the * and you'll then have to dig to find the album. Originally I was planning on using the stock clips on the bag and harness so I'd have quick disconnect capability. I tried buying some clips at a local fabric store but the Nelson-Rigg clips are special and the fabric store clips lock into place and are really hard to remove. It took almost two weeks to contact customer service at Nelson-Rigg but finally they replied to my second inquiry about buying another harness. I wanted to use the first harness on another bike for easy swapping of my other CL-650 tankbag. Cost of a harness was $12.95 including shipping. It arrived in about a week and I also got a couple of Nelson-Rigg stickers with that order. But after looking a bit closer of the fit of the bag on the rack I decided the clips wouldn't work as well as I'd like and it was going to require more work than I wanted to do. So now I have three harnesses so I guess the other bag can be used on all three of my airheads. I decided to make an insert for the bag and bolt it to the tailrack. Recently Don used a cutting board to make spacers for a front fender. That gave me the idea to use an old cutting board I had for the insert. It hadn't been used in probably 7 years so I figure this is kind of like recycling the unused cutting board. I like this idea as the cutting board is strong, easy to work with and won't rot when it gets wet. And, if I ever need a cutting board while on the trail, I've got one. : ) The cutting board is pretty much like plexi-glass but seems even tougher. And it cuts like plexi-glass too. Having the bag bolted to the bike will provide just a tad more security as it won't be easily removed. But I'll have the tools with me to remove it in about 2 minutes if needed. The bag will also cover the stock tool storage area but that doesn't bother me as those tools can go into the bag. Here's how I did my installation. I made a template to fit the inside of the bag. Once I was happy with the fit I marked it in the center for a reference. Then I made reference lines on the sides where the rack ended. A few measurements and I had holes located. I decided to use bolts through the rack on the rear but to use 1/8" thick, 1/2"x1/2"x4" angle iron with nuts welded to each piece to fasten the front of the bag. The angle iron fits below the rack and next to the stock tool container. The nuts were welded on the top 1 3/8" from the front edge. The angle iron pieces are mirror images since there is a left and a right. Once I had the template made I scribed lines on the cutting board and used a jig (sabre, for you old folks) saw to trim the board to size. I had to work kind of fast as a slow cut tends to melt the material. I used a hand held belt sander with a coarse grit to bring the edges to size. Then, using a sharpie marker and a spool of safety wire for a template I drew rounded corners. I again used the saw to cut most of the material away and cleaned it up with the belt sander. A dual action palm sander finished the edges. I wanted to make sure I didn't have edges that would cut the bag material as I'm guessing there will be some movement when I ride. After checking the fit in the bag I marked some reference lines and marked the locations for the four holes. I drilled them using the drill press turning at 650 rpm. I drilled 3/32" pilot holes and then 1/4" holes. Last I lightly chamfered the holes on both side with a countersink. Putting the insert on the tailrack I clamped it in place and then drilled the two 1/4" holes for the rear bolts. Again chamfering them with the countersink. I put the insert into the bag making sure the bag faced the direction I wanted. I have it so the top flips to the right figuring I'll maybe find that most useful when accessing the bag. The soldering iron was heating while I was doing this and so making sure the bottom of the bag was flat to the insert I melted through the material at each hole. Flipping the bag over I again melted the material leaving fray free edges. I had to clean the holes in the insert where material had melted into the holes. So using a drill bit two sizes down from the 1/4" holes I cleaned each hole. Then I increased the drill one size and did it again. The M6 bolts slip in and out without binding and there are no sharp edges. Later, when the soldering iron had cooled I cleaned the tip of melted material using a wire wheel. Now the tip looks almost new. A test fit of the bag on the rack showed the plan was coming together. My last task was making the two angle iron brackets for the front bolts. I marked the nut location on each piece and drilled 1/4" holes. Then using a bolt to lock the nut in place I tack welded it to the angle iron. I did a test fit to make sure everything would work as planned. It did. Then a quick cleaning of the parts removed oil, grease and other contaminants. I shot them with self-etching primer and let them dry for 30 minutes. Then I shot them with two coats of Rustoleum Gloss Black paint. They're drying now and I expect I'll install them next week sometime and figure out what to load into the bag. Hope some of you find this interesting if not useful. Best, Jeff Saline ABC # 4412 South Dakota Airmarshal Airheads Beemer Club www.airheads.org The Beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota 75 R90/6, 03 KLR650, 79 R100RT

[Bob Monahan]

OK... The mystery is unraveling... Although I've owned several motorbikes in my lifetime, this is the first one with a windshield and I'm learning but it's a painfully slow process at my semi-advanced age... As many of you might remember I started a thread recently about factory windshields for KLR's and the LOUD turbulence they cause, and I got some excellent input about replacement windshields. As I was mulling over which one to try someone opined that I could maybe just remove the windshield from my KLR and see if that helped. It got me thinking... (Danger Will Robinson!) so on my last ride I was coming home at about 70 MPH and, on impulse, just abruptly stood up to my full height on the pegs. Well... I kept a firm grip on the handlebars just in case. VOILA!!! Wind noise was magically reduced by an estimated 90-95%. Heck... It was actually "bearable". I had found "clean air" and there was little or no turbulence up there to buffet my head about and to give me that horrible wind tunnel noise effect that was really "bumming me out". I slowly sat back down and about a third of the way down I started feeling the "dirty air" created by the windshield (maybe other stuff too?) and as my posterior portion approached my Corbin the wind noise started getting unbearable again. AHA!!! Culprit Identified! Now what? How to reduce that dirty air without removing the windshield? Or maybe that "ducktail windshield" is needed for something? Does it keep the bugs off? Well... Maybe but I still get pummeled by a fair amount of bugs (I'm in North Florida) so maybe that's not it. How about rain or something? Would it keep the rain from beating me badly as I ride? Dunno... Haven't ridden my KLR in the rain yet... It DOES look nice and I don't really want to change the good looks of the bike. Yes... Even old farts like me like to look good when they ride their bikes... Can someone please tell me why the KLR windshield causes so much wind turbulence and what Kawasaki was attempting to accomplish making it like they have? $bob$

[stevedyer@cox.net]

Bob, I haven't owned a large number of bikes - maybe 10 or so, but they've been a fair cross-section of the normal types - early 70's enduros, naked street bikes, faired street bikes, Harleys, sport bikes, etc. I mounted various aftermarket windshields, large and small, to most of the naked street bikes and never found any that worked as well as I wanted - all were compromises in one form or another, quite noisy and buffeted the helmet on my 6' 1" head. Even the late model FJ1200 wasn't perfect in this regard, the sizeable fairing/windscreen letting the wind hit at the top of the helmet visor. The KLR windscreen creates less turbulence at the shoulder/helmet than other semi-faired bikes I've had - the '83 Suzuki GS1100ES being by far the worst. Its windscreen was much like the KLRs in size and slope, but quite a bit lower and further forward, if memory serves. For -my- purposes larger wind protection isn't appropriate for the KLR because I don't go long distances on the highway and prefer the smaller-displacement OEM windscreen when toodling around in the bush. After adjusting and cutting on a few of these windscreens over the years it occurred to me that what I really wanted wasn't so much full protection over a specific area (with the resulting turbulence), but just something to soften the bulk of the windblast over a large area and deflect the flying gravel and bugs that came my way. Think of it as more of a mesh screen door in front of the rider than a solid barrier. So, on one of my dang bikes...must have been the FJ1200 - I had a spare aftermarket +2" windscreen and drilled a series of 1/2" holes across the high-pressure area just above the central vent. This was intended to double or triple the volume of air that was bled into the space directly behind the windscreen (let's call it the 'rider dead-air bubble'). My goal was to increase the air pressure in the area behind the windscreen and therefore the size of this bubble, hopefully raising the airflow to just above the top of my helmet, and reducing the backwash at the same time. It was not a big success - I think it helped a very small amount, but not nearly as much as I hoped and I abandoned the project when I sold the Yamaha and went to other types of motorcycles. However, in the future I plan to revisit this approach, but I'm not sure what form it will take. I know this sounds as wacky as a screen door on a submarine, but for my street-riding habits I'm not ready to give up on the idea - a sizeable but very porous windscreen of some sort that a rider can easily see through, yet it lets about half the air straight through to reduce turbulence, takes the brunt of the wind blast off the rider and deflects debris kicked up by other vehicles on the road. I don't ride much in the rain or low temps so I wouldn't miss the weather protection a normal screen provides, but I do think the extra air coming through would make summer riding more enjoyable, while reflecting less engine noise back to toward the rider and cutting down on the glare that some normal windshields produce. Once the chortles and snickering die down after the listers read this crackpot theory maybe a few of them could offer some ideas on constructing a test device that might indicate whether the concept has any merit or not. Either way, I hope you find a solution to your KLR windscreen. Seems many of the road-oriented KLR riders like the taller Kawasaki accessory or aftermarket screens so you might give one of them a try. Steve A13, with bits and pieces of old windscreens and Lexan swarf swept under the garage workbench. ------------------------- (snip) Can someone please tell me why the KLR windshield causes so much wind turbulence and what Kawasaki was attempting to accomplish making it like they have? $bob$