Street Triple ruined or improved?

[otherwise]

I fitted a set of old school type panniers to my previous bike. I loved them, they were so handy to store the wet weather gear etc.

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When I traded the T100 and went back to another Street Triple the biggest problem was carrying bits and pieces. I’ve been tossing up how to handle luggage; the high mounted mufflers make panniers a problem. To fit an Arrows 3 into 1 ex system would open up the possibility to fit panniers close and low and not adversely affect the handling but the cost was putting me off. To mount panniers with the std mufflers was going to be a bit of a gamble with wide mounting and a real headache as to how to fit with mufflers in the way.

I had a stroke of luck when a member of an Australian forum was having a garage clean out and offered a set of 70’s panniers for free to the first to reply and able to come and collect them. He lived 2 hours from me but I figured my wife and I could make it a day out in the country. As it turned out when we met face to face and started to talk about the old days we had lots in common, we had many mutual acquaintances from our racing days. My wife and his hit it off, we stayed for about 3 hours and now have new friends.

The panniers were covered with rally stickers from the early 80’s and took some cleaning up. Then I took to them with wet and dry paper, still not finished but they are acceptable particularly at the price. I spent far too much time overbuilding some brackets and did my first fit up today. I’m happy with the look, they may be too low, some tight corners will tell but not a problem to lift if required. Tomorrow it’s additional polishing and make some internal stiffening frames then rubber mount the lot.

Now I have a Street Triple with a “reverse Mullet†serious at the back, party at the front. I’ll do a couple of hundred km with them and declare it a success or failure. It’s a matter of substance before style this time.

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[Rocky]

Nice job!
I don't think you spent too much time overbuilding the brackets.
They will be under quite a bit of pressure in service so the brackets need to be well built and not suddenly fail from normal weight of the panniers, contents, wind and vibration.

 

[otherwise]

Nice job!
I don't think you spent too much time overbuilding the brackets.
They will be under quite a bit of pressure in service so the brackets need to be well built and not suddenly fail from normal weight of the panniers, contents, wind and vibration.

You're right, I've seen too many sets of bags bending in at the bottom.
I just noticed that those photos don't actually show the brackets. It's late and dark now, tomorrow I'll post another photo showing the industrial frames.

 

[CarlS]

Great score, Kevin, and a very nice job with mounting them and cleaning them up. You certainly did not ruin the Street Triple. I agree with you about substance. I keep looking for a pair of hard bags from the '60's that I can mount on the T100.

 

[The Seeker]

I LOVE the mullet reference....LOL

They actually look a lot better than one would initially think they would. It gives the bike a kind of "Tiger" feel.

You definitely did a great job of mounting them!!

 

[DaveM]

Well you did a great job with the mod that is for sure. I don't think it ruins it at all it does look different I must admit. What type of reaction have you had from others that have actually seen them on so far

 

[The Seeker]

When I saw the title of this thread, I actually thought it was going to be about the newer Triples with the weird shaped headlights as opposed to the round ones.

Mind you, I'm not all that "up" on the different models, but I'm not sure I like those headlights as I do the round ones on a Triple. I guess they make both now??

I suppose they will "grow" on me and I'll appreciate them later, but right now I just think they are strange-looking.

 

[Dilligaf]

Works for me.

 

[otherwise]

Thanks for the positive comments.
Carl, keep looking or have a set made. That first set on the T100 photo were made for me in Sydney.
AJ, I agree about the "Tiger feel", but not as tall or heavy.
Dave, the reaction has been mainly positive but all from another forum as it hasn't been out on the road yet, so we'll see.
Dilligaf, so far it's also working for me, have to test ride to be sure.
It's now 8.30 Wednesday morning so will get into the garage and make the internal support brackets and try to finish them off. Hopefully I'll post another photo showing the frames tonight.

 

[hemibee]

When I saw the title of this thread, I actually thought it was going to be about the newer Triples with the weird shaped headlights as opposed to the round ones.

I thought the same. You know what they say, great minds think a like. Sorry you have now been moved down into the group that thinks like me.

As to the original posting, I don't think they look bad but they do seem a little odd but only because I'm not use to seeing a Triple with bags. I think you did a great job adapting them to the bike and I hope they work great for you.

Please don't take my "odd" comment as bad or a knock on the way the bike looks because that is NOT the way I mean it to be. It's just that, like I said above, I've never seen a Triple with bags. Heck most of the times I've even seen a Triple all I saw was the tail light as he was pulling away from me.


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[DaveM]

Yes I think for most of us not even having considered something like this it does look a bit odd on a triple but looking at it again I am starting to get used to it. Then again I thought the same about the headlight and that took. That took a bit of looking at to get around now I enjoy the look of both the versions of the headlights. Thinking about it I am surprised that Triumph did not make some type of carrier bag system for the Triple as we can see it can work and work very well at that. Kevin maybe you are onto something here

 

[The Seeker]

Carl,

I know a place near me that makes custom bags and does excellent work.

They can even make a bag that goes over your shocks (like an indent in the back of the bags which completely cover the shocks so the bags fit snug). They truly do fabulous work!

 

[otherwise]

Today I made a set of internal supports, primed, painted and all fitted up with a layer of car inner tube rubber between all steel and glass surfaces. I had only a short time to test ride so it only did a quick run around town but I tried to scrape in a couple of corners and it passed the test so far.
Photo showing the frames when the bags were off this morning. Fingers crossed that I will get good service from them as I put a couple of days into the project.



Only some polishing and a good test run with some weight in them and job done.

 

[CarlS]

Very nice designing and craftsmanship. I am impressed.

 

[The Seeker]

Excellent welding and designing!

With that square stock, you could get hit by a bus in that area and it would just bounce off!

 

[DaveM]

Very well done

 

[Dilligaf]

Nice work!

 

[Rocky]

A brilliant bit of engineering
The brackets look stout and should do the job.

 

[otherwise]

Excellent welding and designing!

With that square stock, you could get hit by a bus in that area and it would just bounce off!

If that happens my wife will let you know , she'll be the one posting from the gold plated computer.

 

[otherwise]

Thanks for the positive comments. I'll post again sometime with feedback and a ride report.

Winter hit us this morning it's 8.30am 12'c or 52'f without a cloud in the sky. Looking out the window you'd think it's high summer, my dog went out for an early morning leak and raced back into her bed. That's about as cold as it gets here during the day so it will take a day or two to get into the swing of things then I'll ride on through the winter.