Ever lose a system case off your BMW, or know someone who has? I'd been warned when I bought my motorcycle how easy it was for the cases to fall off, and I'd seen various "solutions" offered on the board, including CycleRob's elegant retaining pin drilled through the footpeg mounting bracket and inserted into the lower tab of the bag. I think I've come up with two things that are both simple and effective to remedy this problem.
After meeting a K1200RS rider earlier this summer who had lost a system case - guess which guy in this pict has lost his system case that day?
It was long gone by the time he was alerted to it and went back to retrieve it - the first thing I wanted to do was to identify my bags, in case they happened to fall off, as that rider's did. So, using clear packaging tape, I affixed an ID card that included not only my home address and phone number, but also my cell phone number (which I was likely to have with me on a trip) to the back side of each of my bags.
Next, to help insure that the bags would not fall completely off even if they broke free of their mountings, I used a small dog or cat collar to tether the bags to their upper mounting rails. On my '04 R, I simply ran the collar through the inner case handle (the one that opens the bag lid), and made a loop through the pillion seat handholds in the mounting rails. The first pict shows the bag closed and tethered:
The next pict shows the outer handle opened, but the collar still wrapped around the inner handle (the one that opens the bag lid):
To remove the bag, simply press the quick disconnect buckles on the collar, and remove the bag as usual. To open the bag, but still keep it mounted, be sure to leave enough slack in the collar so the inner (bag opening) handle can be raised, as shown in this last photo:
At worst case, if the bag should come off it's mounting rails, at least it'll stay tethered to the bike long enough for me to stop and fix it.
Simple, No?
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