A BMW System Case Farkle

[Shakey]

I managed to negotiate a set of BMW inner bags when I bought my new bike and it has slowly dawned on me that there is a lot of dead space in the pannier behind these. This was confirmed when I saw a guy on Ebay selling a kit to do what I am about to describe except that you'd had to pay for his imagination instead of using your own. So......

What you need;
1. Two 25cm x 45 cm "Parcel Net"s from your local automotive store (I got mine from Ebay)
2. Some industrial strength self adhesive Velcro strip (2cm wide) - the soft side for my nets but ........
3. Four small penny (fender) type washers from your garage odds n sods box.

You'll need to be able to bend and trim the metal rod that reinforces the net but I'll leave that to your imagination.
The penny washers shown here are used with the original screws to just grip the net (see second picture). As I don't intend holding back significant weight this is good enough.

At the front of the pannier, top of the net, I pierced the velcro on the net and used the screw situated in the pannier (next to the retaining cord roll) to hold that in place.
The last couple of centimetres of net above that are held with another bit of velcro. I couldn't get a decent picture of that though.

General View (Note the screw just to the left of the retaining cord box)


Penny Washer grips the net at the bottom


The small plastic box you see holds my spare bulb set (European requirement) and I'll keep a spare set of gloves in there too. In my other (Left) case is my puncture repair kit.

I used to stow all this gear under the seat of my FJR1300 so I'm pretty chuffed to find a place to keep it all since BMW take all the undersea space for themselves!

France here I come

[dbrick]

Thanks, Shakey! That's very good. I didn't see that space.

I have a lot of stuff crammed under the seat



but it's a PITA to fit it all in place. I'll be glad to get some of it down in the bags.

[SF_Hooligan]

Super cool. I may do this to my cases - thanks for sharing! Any issues with putting cases liners in with the nets?

[Shakey]

No Issues getting the bags in at all. I must admit I haven't put them in packed with clothes yet but I played with this a lot before deciding to go ahead with the nets and I reckon the bag sits mostly in the lid. Off to France in a couple of weeks for a long weekend so I'll let you know.

[Caroanbill]

Great farkle!

I have Kathy's Journey designs soft bags, after years of paying far too much for low quality / high price BMW liners*. They are quite soft and mold into the rear recess reasonably well - so well that I've tried using the "dead" space for small soft bags and found there's no room left. I also get more into my KJ bags than other guys do into the BMW liner bags. KJ bags do wear out but they're not expensive and I feel I've had a great run with mine .. about to buy a new set, and I'll still have spent less than half the BMW price!

* I was an OEM-only guy until i got the farkelling bug from you lot!! Thanks!!

[Shakey]

I know what you mean about BMW prices for this stuff. I not only managed to negotiate a free pair of bags but I also got them to pay for one of the cases too! Nobody was more surprised than me!

For my Wife's F650GS we've gone for the "Mane Event" bags recommended by a member of this forum.
As an aside, when I was installing the luggage system on her bike I dropped one of the vario panniers on the floor and smashed the handle I was expecting to have to buy a new case but the replacement part only cost 10 GBP. Go figure

[Catchina]

Have fun in France...and I like your signature! :-)