WPZ
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- Chicagoland, Illinois, USA
A popup reminder: check your factory sidecase mount nuts for tightness.
The other night, the Missus and I were out on the forest roads after (her) loong day at work. Unusually, I was leading, on a 250 Ninja (for heavens' sake). Her right saddlebag, mount and all, detached itself after the securing nuts loosened and disappeared on nice twisty section at about 35mph and went bounding off into the weeds.
Good thing- there was a car way too close behind and we have no idea how he missed the errant case. There's no shoulder to speak of there, just a foot of gravel, a few feet of weeds, and solid forest.
The silver plastic flash panel took most of the damage and is pretty ugly. I hope to find a right-side-only replacement without having to buy a full set.
The detachment was a distraction to the rider, too, I might add, who immediately reported through the Senas that "something had fallen off" the motorcycle.
The next place to even pull off was near a half-mile down the road. I then peeled around on the Ninjette and went back. Amazingly, the 250's headlight picked up the case in the weeds and I was able to just barely get off the pavement enough to grab it, shove it on top of my Eclipse tankbag, jam my helmet chinbar into it, and somehow navigate the curves back to the parked NC.
I had enough bungees in the Eclipse to strap the case back onto the NC and we made the ten miles home in good shape.
Second lesson: always have bungees and repair tape.
Third lesson: make a safety cable retainer and use it. I have had three sidecase departures, two from my old Concours 1000 (I used to carry my carpenter's tools in the cases when working in downtown Chicago) and one on my GPZ ZX1100E. Ever since, I've had a six-foot locking cable looped through my saddlebag handles and the rear grab bar. The NC is tougher to do, but I think I'll add some eyebolts on the top recess and cable through them.
Only YOU can prevent sidecase ugliness!
The other night, the Missus and I were out on the forest roads after (her) loong day at work. Unusually, I was leading, on a 250 Ninja (for heavens' sake). Her right saddlebag, mount and all, detached itself after the securing nuts loosened and disappeared on nice twisty section at about 35mph and went bounding off into the weeds.
Good thing- there was a car way too close behind and we have no idea how he missed the errant case. There's no shoulder to speak of there, just a foot of gravel, a few feet of weeds, and solid forest.
The silver plastic flash panel took most of the damage and is pretty ugly. I hope to find a right-side-only replacement without having to buy a full set.
The detachment was a distraction to the rider, too, I might add, who immediately reported through the Senas that "something had fallen off" the motorcycle.
The next place to even pull off was near a half-mile down the road. I then peeled around on the Ninjette and went back. Amazingly, the 250's headlight picked up the case in the weeds and I was able to just barely get off the pavement enough to grab it, shove it on top of my Eclipse tankbag, jam my helmet chinbar into it, and somehow navigate the curves back to the parked NC.
I had enough bungees in the Eclipse to strap the case back onto the NC and we made the ten miles home in good shape.
Second lesson: always have bungees and repair tape.
Third lesson: make a safety cable retainer and use it. I have had three sidecase departures, two from my old Concours 1000 (I used to carry my carpenter's tools in the cases when working in downtown Chicago) and one on my GPZ ZX1100E. Ever since, I've had a six-foot locking cable looped through my saddlebag handles and the rear grab bar. The NC is tougher to do, but I think I'll add some eyebolts on the top recess and cable through them.
Only YOU can prevent sidecase ugliness!
