I don't remember a piece like you guys are talking about on my 79 FLH POS. I had a rail underneath the bags that the bags snapped on to with a spring piece. Of course, the spring piece vibrated holes in the bottom of the bag at the rivets. I eventually got to the point where on road trips, I would add a bungie over each bag lid and one on each side going up to the tour pack. It was the only way to keep all the parts from flying off the bike.

My Evo is so many times better than that shovelhead POS. Completely different class.

 

Yep ... +1 to what "grbrown" said. As far as coming up with "thee" bracket .... use some good ol' home brewed ingenuity and show us the finished product. Good Luck Brother.

 

Dr H, you obviously had a bad experience. I hope we haven't given you nightmares raking them up!

I bought both my FX and FLHS new, with new luggage on them both and none of your experiences ring true. My FX bags were fine for the several years I used them. They had a brace between them and the lids stayed where I left them and those clips were things of great beauty.....

 

1979 was probably the worst year, ever, for a Harley. It was with AMF in full swing and the end of the Carter administration. Everything made in this country was crap. Throw in AMF, which treated HD as a perk for the rest of the corporation and it was just a bad thing. In 1979, they experimented with different valve guide materials. The experiment was to just throw in so many of this and so many of that and see how many motors blew up. Yeah, it was that bad.

I don't know how many people I ran into that said "I worked for AMF and I could buy a brand new Harley at manufacturer's cost." People would buy a new one every 2 years, then sell it at a profit. And that was for the whole AMF corp, which was pretty big. You can't make any money selling product at cost. HD was AMF's toy and they treated it like that.

My bike was a 1979 FLH Classic, the cream and tan. A total piece of shiite. She was purdy, though.

 

Hey there fellas! I finally got em done. I went riding on the nice days and put the project on the back burner for a bit. What do you all think? Just waiting for the bracket to support underneath which will bolt on between the rear peg and frame, but other than that, she's done.

 

Very, very nice.

 

Great job on those hard bags! I have an '85 FXRS and have been thinking along the same lines, wondering if it was possible. Thanks for the inspiration! Keep us posted.

 

I have a 94 FXLR . Those bags would lwork great on. What model & year bags? What hardware did u start with? Job well done
Thanks
Tom J

 

Now I see the title. Sorry new at this.

84 FLH Hard bags on my 87 FXRS

The frames were 87 fxr type? Or FXRT. FXRD. .
Thanks again
Tom

 

Thanks guys, after checking things out I opted to just leave the bags without the underneath support brackets. They didn't rattle anymore than the rest of the bike so they're staying like they are. The plates on the inside should keep the fiberglass from cracking. I didn't like the way the bracket looked anyway.

So I'm posting some pics of the Edge (Ghost) brackets that I mounted onto the bags. They're suppose to be for a metric bike and I got them for cheap locally, but you know us wrenchers, (We can make anything work!) I think they might make them for an FXR, you know with the offset strut. I just machined some standoffs to compensate for the distance difference and they're about an 1/4' from hitting the shock. Plenty of clearance.

These bags have two original holes that accept the original bracket and have a slotted slider to hold them in place. I used the front hole for the top forward through bolt on the Edge bracket and drilled the rear hole accordingly to match the rear standoff. It worked like champ!!! If there's anything else you have questions on, just let me know. For now...... It's time to RIDE!!!