Custom Trunk + Saddlebag Mounting Plate for Hawk 250

[Johnp]

Hey folks. It just so happens that I'm a welder, and I've also got moderate 3D design skills in AutoCAD. I'm wanting a trunk for my new Hawk 250, so I'm thinking about mocking up a design that I can have laser / plasma cut and then assemble to securely mount not only a trunk, but also some hard saddlebags.

I'm imagining something along the lines of the BMW photo here.



Questions:

1. If I design this sucker and go to the trouble of getting it cut and all that, would anyone else be interested in one as well?
2. Anyone have suggestions on the actual bags / trunk I should consider to go with this little mounting plate?

My Hawk is black, so my preference would be to stick with the theme and go with black accessories. I would also likely powdercoat the mounting plate black for durability. Oh, and I'm thinking the trunk would have a padded backrest in case I ever threw my tiny wife on the bike with me for a short jaunt.

I'm thinking of fabing up something made from 1/8" steel sheet, but in a super strong / lightweight mesh sort of design. It would be extremely rigid and the bags on each side could just kind of bolt on at the top via the sides or something.

Another option would be to fabricate a sort of carrier "basket" that would accept some sort of container being dropped into it. Kinda like a jeep gas can holder.

Anyway, any thoughts?

[SeerAtlas]

I wish you the best in your endeavors
while a hard rack and top case can b extremely useful, when remembering that the hawk is Often (if not mostly) used off-road or otherwise on less than pristine tarmac surfaces, u might consider accommodating soft luggage/saddlebags etc. on your mount system as many adv/trailriders prefer them to hard side cases which often take a serious, if not debilitating beating when a biker goes down in rocky or otherwise difficult terrain. There are a number of good systems which can mount either out there. I'd take a long look at the existing options then figure how to improve/better them.

Again, welcome to the board and good luck with your endeavors.

[Johnp]

Thanks for the heads up. I wasn't aware of any existing systems that could accommodate both, but that is certainly do-able.

What I have seen are certainly soft bags that will strap over a seat, and I've seen mounting plates that you would bolt onto the bike mounts to give you a surface to mount a trunk to since the bolt patterns won't usually line up. If anyone could provide a link to something else that might do a better job it would be great!

But what I'm thinking about is kind of like a mounting plate that would also turn down on the sides at a 90 degree angle and go down a bit to give some lateral support and provide stability for anything hanging down.

I suppose I'll have to mock up a design to kind of better explain what's rattling around in my head.

[Ron B]

thr rx3 bags may work, right side bag is alreadt cut out for the muffler.

[Wolftrax]

I'll thrown my 2 cents worth in. The Hawk doesn't have the suspension to handle racks and hard bags. My suggestion is keep it light and simple. On a small bike like the Hawk less is more I doubt 14 HP will be able to push hard bags through the wind.. I've had hard boxes in the past and will never use them again. They are heavy, increase wind resistance and yes increase your risk of not injury during an off. This is my current setup and I can pack everything I need for an extended overland journey. This setup has no racks and weihs less than 12 lbs and empty, yet I still have close to a 100 liters of space.

[kohburn]

a "rack" mounting plate that had detachable 90* down turned "wings" for mounting softbags would certainly be doable.


1/8" aluminum powder anodized or powder coated. would be easy enough.

[Johnp]

Thanks for the recommendation on the RX3 bags Ron. I found them here. Looks like the 3 piece set is $850 and they do indeed look quite nice. This is very close to what I'm imagining, except without the high price since I don't want to spend half as much on the bags as the bike. :-)

But imagine doing something like that using these $50 saddlebags from eBay:


And like this $32 trunk:


If I can make a bracket for under $50, we're looking at less than $150 for the entire set, which would seem to be in line with the bike from a pricing perspective.

Of course Wolftrax is right that these will add bulk and weight to the bike. My guess is that each of these pieces will be around 3-4 pounds, so let's say under 15 pounds for the set plus bracket, and they will definitely create some wind resistance which would hurt top speed. Also keep in mind that whatever you put in them is going to add another maybe... 10-30 pounds depending on the load? So you might be carrying an extra 30-40 pounds.

Although there would definitely be an impact, I envision using these bags for things like quick trips to the grocery store (2 miles from my house) or riding to my office (3 miles from home). And I'm a very experienced rider who has had hard bags on all my previous bikes (Triumph, Honda, BMW) so hopefully I won't have to dismount the Hawk any time soon.

Personally I'll be doing very little off-road riding, which I suppose is the opposite of what everyone else is doing. But I wanted the Hawk so that I CAN go just about anywhere with it if I ever wanted to. And for those jaunts I suppose I'd remove the bags because it would be just for fun.

[BlackBike]

johnp...those are sleek . diy side boxes with that trunk. sounds like a plan. thats the fun of the cheap bikes diy and make it as good as the big boys but at a tiny price. bmw

[Ron B]

the ones for 850. are the optional aluminum ones. the ones in the pic are a whole lot cheaper! if you look at the left bike you can see how they shaped it for the muffler.

[Sport Rider]

did you see the trunk case I got from fleabay for the back of my hawk? it was a direct bolt on for the plate that the trunk attaches to. about 60 bucks shipped.

http://chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=16409

I think it would be prudent to focus just on the side case brackets since the trunk case option is covered so cheaply already.

[Johnp]

Ahh, I see that the cheaper variants of the bags are around $99 each. Though that doesn't include the mounting brackets... I'm not sure if those will work with the Hawk or not, but I do really like the cutout for the muffler.

This is proving to be a much more tricky issue than I had hoped. There are two primary problems:

1) There are very few potential mounting points on the Hawk! For the sides the only reasonable locations are where the passenger foot pegs mount. And that is pretty far from the back of the bike.

2) The muffler and general shape of the rear end mean the bags might have to sit pretty far out from the bike to clear everything, which I don't like from a handling perspective.

Still thinking about how to tackle this, and working on a little rendering right now.

[Johnp]

Originally Posted by Sport Rider

did you see the trunk case I got from fleabay for the back of my hawk? it was a direct bolt on for the plate that the trunk attaches to. about 60 bucks shipped.

Thanks for the link. I had missed that! But I checked them out on eBay and actually went ahead and ordered the slightly bigger version of the one you got!

I am a little concerned that it's going to look a little too big, but I could use the extra room for sticking a backpack in or something. So I'll post photos and stuff when it arrives so people can see what the larger one looks like as well.

As you suggest, after it gets here I can worry about the side bags. Thanks again!

[kohburn]

only 5" wide? like a briefcase. I like em but just sure how functional it'd be.

[kohburn]

check this design for the detachable wings


http://motooverland.com/index_files/Page508.htm

[Johnp]

Originally Posted by kohburn

check this design for the detachable wings
http://motooverland.com/index_files/Page508.htm

That's fantastic! It's almost exactly what I had in mind! But I really like the option of mounting the 1Gallon gas tanks instead of regular bags. If you had a couple of those with you you'd have some serious range!

By the way, I got the top bag from the people SportRider recommended. I got a bigger version, and it's all installed and working great. Here's the complete blog post link with detailed instructions:

http://onemansblog.com/hawktrunk

And of course for you guys who don't need all that detail, here's a link to the trunk on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/351697329870...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

And there's an almost identical unit on Amazon that's slightly larger, but cheaper! And Prime!
http://amzn.to/1TzcGsI

And here's how it looks installed on the bike.



And for size reference, a photo with my buddy Carter on the bike to see proportions. He's 6'2" and sporting his safety sandals. ;-) I think the trunk looks just fine.



This version of the trunk will hold two full face helmets.

The only problem now is that in order to mount a couple of saddlebags, or gas cans, I'll have to fab the mounting plates to bolt to the factory bike holes instead of the trunk mounting plate because it won't be able to accommodate.

But experimenting is fun!