The Prophet

Finally pried open the wallet and purchased a few items lately for my Bonneville.

1.) A Compass from Formotion, via newbonneville.com
2.) Hardbags from A-1hardbags.com
3.) A King and Queen seat from Triumph.

The compass, at $54.00 - not worth it. It's nice, but I would suggest you could get a $5.00 one at Pep-Boys to perform just as well, and be just as accurate. On the other hand, the Chrome is super nice, and it looks great, works accurately. It mounts on the handgrip adjusting, upper allen bolt, right hand side, just behind the Front Brake Fluid reservoir. You merely glance down, and the red cross hair lines up with whatever direction you are heading. This is my "old skule" GPS.

Hardbags I finally mounted. On Good Friday I spent the better part of the day cutting, drilling, measuring, etc., 3 or 4 visits to the Hardware Store for metric nuts bolts, washers, aluminum spacers, etc. In the end, I think they look great, and are about as close to looking like they belong on a Bonneville - which almost all saddlebags do not - as anything out there. Pics soon... I'm busy!

On the A1-Hardbags website there are a few pics of 2 other Triumphs with these same hardbags, so you'll get the jist of what it looks like.

Those are the "Pro's"

The "Con's":
A. They are kind of small, but so is the Bonnie.
B. The Tailights are single element, so you need to choose only one of three options - Tail, Brake, or Indicator. I chose "Tail", but I'm devising a way to have both Tail and Brake with a little modding.
C.) As I did, you have to fabricate your own mounting Brackets, as A-1 does not offer any. You need to be creative with the Bonneville, as IMHO, it was never intended to have saddlebags of any sort. I used "Easy-Brackets" as lockable/removable mounting hardware for the Hardbag side, and a 100% fabricated bracket to mount them on at the bike end. "Easy-Brackets" is an oxymoron if I ever heard one! And... they cost almost as much as the Hardbags! Anyway, they're on, they work, taillights work, and I can now put "stuff" in 'em. I'm happy.

Lastly, I broke down and purchased the "King and Queen" seat. Arguably - or not - the least attractive appearing seat available for the Bonneville. Some say "Downright ugly"*. At 59, with the wife currently suffering from leg and back pains, and at an age where comfort consistently trumps looks, I don't really care. At any rate, I still have the ol' Slab Seat should I ever want to change back the look. Also purchased the two long "seat bolts" so I no longer need to be a contortionist to get the seat on or off. I already have the high sissy bar and the MC Resources Luggage Rack, so with all that, I'm pretty much set for a good summer of long-range riding, and carrying stuff.

* Many also say that the K&Q is the most comfortable seat ever, so there's a ying/yang balance here. Ugly/Comfortable.

Unfortunately, No one... yes... no one has this seat in stock, including Triumph (yes, I called around to roughly a dozen vendors and dealers), so the seat is on backorder from Triumph, with an ETA of April 28th. I did as much research as I could, and it eventually boiled down to the K&Q seat from Triumph Vs. the Gunfighter & Lady from Corbin. Both are a tad expensive, but the end quality and materials justifies it. In the end I voted the K&Q as the more comfortable, the Corbin better looking. As mentioned, comfort trumps looks after a certain age.

Yes, I know I'm going to be trading this bike in soon, but I figure I can EBAY or Craigslist this extra stuff If the dealer won't give me a few more bucks for the add-ons. Otherwise my Triumph Dealer might know of potential second hand seeking customers.

And, I look forward to this summers riding.

Ride Safe (and... in comfort)!

Bob

__________________

• A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu
• Motorcyles are not my whole life, but they make my life whole. ` me

The Prophet

Horrible photo's, sorry - taken with my Blackberry late last night.

I promise to take better ones in the sunlight ASAP.

Anyway, you get a glimpse of what the A1 Hardbags look like, and the lights. In the second photo, you can see the, black, lockable "Easy Brackets", and the aluminum flat-stock piece with the various spacers that I fabricated. Still deciding if I should paint everything black, or just leave the aluminum / Stainless Steel Hardware finish exposed. When you unlock the easybracket lock, the bag and black bracket come off as one piece, and the Aluminum flatstock and spacers remain, just two chrome nubs stick out where you click the bags back on. Also, the taillight wiring has a quick disconnect.

When I recieve the K&Q seat, the rear (pillion)section will be just about even with the underside of the sissybar backpad, so about 2 inches (50 mm) higher than what you see with the current slab seat.

Info on Compass:

Compass

Attached Thumbnails

   

The Prophet

Five months later, and an update on the Formotion Compass...

Totally worthless piece of junk. There is not a whole lot one can do with a compass that doesn't accurately provide direction... period.

Unit is (I guess) prone to magnetic interference from the motorcycle itself, regardless of physical location on the Bike. I sent an email to Formotion, explaining the problem, and recieved a slow, but eventual reply informing me of the fact that it is a "very precise instrument". Great to know, but most compass's provide accurate and reliable direction via the needle. Perhaps if my motorcycle wasn't made of numerous pesky metal parts, and didn't have an ignition system, it might work. That said, I'll shelf the compass, and await further developments from the motorcycle industry - maybe a plastic bike, with solar power? Hydrogen power?

Sorry, this one's a definite dud. Made in China BTW, which may be un-PC, but take it as a FWIW statement. $54.00 blown that I could've spent on Guinness! Or 20.8 Meatball Sandwiches @ $2.59 each!

Once again, one of those five buck suction cup cheapie's at Wallyworld would be 100% better. Oddly, my kids gave me a Garmin GPS for Fathers day, so realistically, I don't really need the "old Skool" compass. Guess I need to get with the times.

Ride Safe (and with direction)!

Bob (one of the two famous (infamous?) Elderly Bros.)

Jamie

Five months LATER? How hastily conclusive of you

Ol' Bro Jamie

The Prophet

Hey... I was busy! Plus, with the gradual onset of the altzeimers effect, bought on recently - due to this Forum - by a sudden upsurge of the aging process, I simply forgot it was there!

What was I sayin'? Oh yeah...

At any rate, due to the unbelievably overwhelming response to my first post, I felt I needed to quench the mad rush by my loyal - but easily swayed - readers to go out and buy cheap Chinese compasses (compaii!)

Come to think of it... maybe Chinese Compasses are read differently? Up/down Vs. Left to right? Hmmm. [Getting dangerously non-PC here]

To review more accurately, the compass actually reads true and correct when the bike is not running, sitting quietly in the garage, but when you start the engine, and ride, the floating "ball" just spins around erratically as if in a drunken, or 1960's drug induced gyroscopic state. Every so often it slows down, sending slightly encouraging possibilities to the ever hopeful rider, but then soon it returns to the wild rotational mode. The chrome part of it is nice and shiny though.

Had say Christopher Columbus been using this device back in 1492, I'd be speaking fluent Norwegian with round, ruddy cheeks, and nibbling happily on Lutefish (lutefisk?) as we speak.

Ride Safe (and hopefully in the right direction)!

Bob - considerably older now, but unfortunately no wiser.

Jamie

What was the "it" that was there? Where was "there" in the first place? What were you saying?...

JUST FORGET IT!

(Thanks)

Think forward AND positive, instead: Altzeimers gives you a chance to get acquainted with NEWBIES every time you manage to click in here

George