Motorcycle saddle bag update

Well as I mention a post or two back one of the bolts had backed out of my left hand side bag.

Due to my bad luck lately I have not got around to fixing it. Until today that is…truth is I have been so sick either with the leg or now this cold stuff I now have, I have not been out of the house much. My idea was this would be a simple fix and would let me get a little fresh air. Simple fix YES, almost killed me YES, ok let me explain…my lack of movement for the last week has weaken me beyond belief. I not kidding, it took me all of fifteen minutes to do, but found myself soaked in sweat. I got to get back outside starting tomorrow, my fever is gone but congestion is still hanging on.

Ok enough about that…I thought I would snap a few photos as I went along on the process of tighten the one bolt. Turns out to get to the bolt you have to remove the saddle bag
The saddle bag is held to the mount with four star head screws,

easy to get to…

Once removed the bag comes right off, I was amazed at how heavy duty the saddle bag mount was,

it looks like it could hold an elephant. Look close and you can see the bolt that had backed out,

I also noticed it was one of two bolts that hold the left side of the back rest on also…I’m sure the wife will be happy to hear that, since she loves to lean back on the backrest during rides. Ha-ha.

A few quick turns of the socket wrench and the bolt was back in place

and yea I checked the other ones while I was there. Then I put everything back together in reverse…DONE!!!

A few people have asked me what do you carry around in the bags, so I thought I would take this time to tell them. I use the left side for my cold weather gear…tour master gloves, skull mask, neck warmer (very warm) two bungee cords (you never know when you will need them) and my sunglasses kit (I have three different lens) Right side bag not in photo, my rain suit.

Just a quick look at the saddle bag mounting system of a Yamaha V-Star 1100, seems like a little over kill to me, but at least I feel sure the bags will stay on now.

More to come
Big Al

Day eleven plus motorcycle maintenance

Woke up this morning to a body weight of 290lb, truth is I did not have time to workout yesterday. My baby girl was in a beauty pageant last night and I did not get home till late

(more photos to come soon) diet went great, I’m back on track.

As I mention in my last post I’ve been helping a co-worker David gets his motorcycle license. While we were taking breaks between his practices rides we were looking over my bike and saw a few issues. One of the two bolts that hold my saddle bag on had backed all the way out

plus my rear tire is starting to look bald in the center.

I can’t believe I had not noticed the tire before, but in my defense on a v-star classic bike the rear fender does hang low making the rear tire hard to see unless you’re looking. I got to admit I’ve been slack on giving my bike a good walk around before my rides…I need to make this a weekly routine, daily would not hurt. For you long time riders out there approximately how many miles can you put on a rear tire before its time to replace it??? I got around 7000 miles on mine. Does that sound about right? Let me know.
Big Al

NOTE: I’m going to start adding this note to each of my blog post until the 56 DAY FITNESS COUNTDOWN is over…I’m doing this incase some new readers come on and wonder what the heck is going on…if your lost look to the top left hand corner of the blog page and click on “THE START” under the 56 DAY FITNESS COUNTDOWN (LINKS)…it will explain what’s going or just use it to look at a post you might have missed…oh yea my weight loss will be posted daily just above that…hope this helps.