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Ensuring your precious cargo makes it to your destination.
Kyle Bradshaw from Cruiser Customizing here with this week’s Cruiser Customizing tip
of the week.
This week I want to talk a little bit about securing things in the back of your motorcycle
when you haven’t got a sissy bar or saddlebags.
Today I want to show you a couple of my favorite pieces. You’ve got the universal bungee
net. Just about everybody’s seen one of these.
You’ve got the *** from Willie and Max.
You’ve got Rock Straps and Bungee Buttons.
With a combination of these you can secure just about anything to your motorcycle that
doesn’t have saddlebags nor a sissy bar.
Take a look. The *** from Willie and Max is an awesome unit. It’s got soft sided
edges so you can lay this over your paint which allows you to have d-rings on either
side of your seat so you have something to attach to. It fits just about any motorcycle
out there with this super heavy-duty velcro. You can separate the unit as far as you need.
They even include an extra attachment piece in case you need to go really wide. For example,
if you’re running one of those Mustang wide-seats--perfect.
So for this application here you’re just going to go ahead and secure the two pieces
of velcro, slip it underneath your seat, and now you’ve got d-rings that you can attach
to whenever you need to secure something to your motorcycle.
This here is a prime example of use of the *** and the rock straps.
Now, I know that we put saddlebags on your bike a long time ago, Jerry, and you use those
most of the time, but when do you find the *** and the rock straps to be beneficial?
[Jerry] Usually when I go on vacation I carry an extra bag or when I go to the store and
I purchase something that I cannot fit in the saddlebags. I carry them with me and they’re
[Kyle] And the *** never comes off your bike--you installed her once and she’s been
there the whole time, right?
[Jerry] I can’t imagine going anywhere without the ***.
[Kyle] The *** from Willie & Max--great piece.
But what if your bike doesn’t have a seat to secure the *** to your motorcycle? Another
neat unit are bungee buttons. Cobra makes bungee buttons. Here is an example of bungee
buttons for the M109 and Kewlmetal makes bungee buttons for various motorcycles as well.
A bungee button is simply a piece of hardware that bolts to your frame-weld that allows
you to hook a bungee cord or something of that nature to your bike without marring up
your frame rails or anything.
Another one of my favorites is the rock strap. Rock straps are awesome pieces.
Basically you’ve got a section of bungee strap and the strap on each end has loops
which allow you to tie just about anything you want to. So you would slip this around
whatever your attaching point is going to be and just pull down for a nice snug fit.
Let’s take a look at a couple of examples here on my VTX.
So here on my VTX, I’ve got a little bit of a dilemma. I don’t have a sissy bar,
I don’t have a seat to hold dwon a ***, how do I attach things to my motorcycle?
The Cargo Net is an excellent way to secure things to the back of your motorcycle. On
this side of the bike I’ve got a rear turn that I can attach the bungee to as well as
a bolt lock. On the other side I’ve got a rear turn but nothing else on the fender
rail, so I had to go ahead and install a bungee button.
The bungee button was really simple. I just removed the fender bolt and installed the
button and put the new bolt back in. Super-simple installation.
So with those things in place I can go ahead and take my bungee net, I can come down to
my rear turn signals, and I can come forward to my forward-mounting attachment points,
and there you have it.
The cargo net is a great option for securing things to the back of your motorcycle. I do
use it from time to time. But my preferred method to secure is called the rock strap.
I use a pair of rock straps and I’ve never ever had an issue. These rock straps here
are almost three years old and I use them just about every time I travel. In the rear
I usually go around the rear shock, pull it up top, and secure it--nice and tight. I go
ahead and do the same thing on the other side and then take my bag, set it on top of the
fender rack, bring my rock strap up and over the top in a criss-cross fashion.
Once I’ve got the straps attached and the bag in the position that I want it to be in,
I can go ahead and pull these as tight as I need them, and this bag is not going anywhere.
So the rock strap is also a great way to attach your crutches to the bike when you’ve got
a broken foot.
I take my rock strap, wrap it around the crutch, come up, and we’re secure.
And here are another four examples of rock straps.
One on the VTX, here on the GoldWing, the BMW holding camping gear, and on the GoldWing
holding the crutch.
Rock straps, bungee buttons, and Hookers are three great ways to secure things to the back
of your motorcycle.
Thank you for watching this week’s Cruiser Customizing tip of the week. Until next week,
take care and ride safe.