Tourfella fit and finish
 

Howdy all,

Rec'd my Tourfella kit this afternoon. Boxes look well built and have a good finish. Rack fabrication, not so much.

I've got them mounted, but the left-side rack is canted inwards and the left-hand turn signal actually touches the side of the case. Also, the left-hand rack is about an inch to inch-and-a-half forward of the right-hand case. I had to add a nylon spacer and use a longer bolt at the top forward left-hand mount point to force the rack to cant at least far enough outward so the turn signal doesn't hit it.

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/PICT0029.jpg

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/PICT0021.jpg

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...CT0023copy.jpg

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...4%20copy_1.jpg

My only guess is that whomever welded the left-side rack had a hangover, or doesn't use a jig.

Really disappointed. I will contact CSC tomorrow morning. Looks like I'm gonna have to re-mount the OEM rack and boxes for my trip this weekend.

I'm bummed.

Cheers,

Dan K.

It's too bad that the bags did fit the first time, but they do look very good. It looks like it would be easy to strap a tent and sleeping bag on top of the new bags.

How heavy are the bags compared to the oem plastic bags?

They're good looking boxes! I've seen other reports of the racks not fitting quite right and needing spacers. It's too bad they won't be ready for your campout.

Thanks for posting the honest review, and including the excellent photographs. :)

Is it possible that the rack got "racked" during shipping from China? When you weld using a jig, a misalignment should be nigh on impossible.

Quite out of context, I love seeing the Ural hack wheel in the background. I formally request threads on your other rides. Pretty please.

Some of the better pannier systems re-route your turn signals to brackets that make them more conspicuous, as well as tuck the actual boxes in closer to the bike.

Spoke with CSC this afternoon. They're going to ship out a new left-side rack for me. Hopefully that'll be the fix.

Cheers,

Dan K.

:tup:

Rec'd a replacement left-side rack from CSC the other day. Finally got round to trying it today. Sadly, it is exactly the same as the original. I can only guess at this point that this is how these things are manufactured.

I'd like to hear the opinion of some other folks who have the Tourfellas mounted. Are yours like this?

I originally inserted 1 then 2 nylon spacers in between the rack and the frame to spread it apart. That worked OK. Today I visited the hardware store and purchased a longer bolt and a couple of nuts and now I've got it so that at least the bag doesn't tilt inwards against the turn signal anymore. There's nothing I can do about the left-side bag being nearly two inches forward of the right-side bag however.

If there were a second aftermarket pannier set available, I'd send these back to CSC for a refund. As they're the only game in town, I guess I'll live with it. I really like the boxes, they're good quality and much more practical than the OEM bags.

Here's my solution:

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0171.jpg

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0170.jpg

So the mounting went from this:

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/PICT0025.jpg

to this:

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0172.jpg

Cheers,

Dan K.

That is an ingenious, China Rider's solution. :tup: Thanks for posting the update, and your honest review. ;)

Nice solution! At least the boxes are working out.

That looks much better.

The plated bolts will be ok for awhile, but you might choose to install SS bolts in the future, so they don't rust.

I like those big block tires. Definitely going with those when my 804/805s wear out.

X2; the Kenda Big Block, rear tire looks great. :tup: