I have to say,it did not take me long years ago to figure out,that riding a big inch 2 cylinder motorcycle that you have to be very diligent about things like that.It is a fact of life,and to me what makes it fun.You are a Harley rider!

 

Just thought I would bump this as a reminder to check the hinge bolts on the hard saddlebags at each service. I did not and my lid came off in my hands. Luckily I was able to catch it without scratching it.

 

Something else to check...

Was riding along the other day and realized that the endcap on my ISO grips was hanging on by one screw. The other 3 obviously vibrated loose.

If you haven't already, locktite the screws on your endcaps.

 

I got this bike in December ,and I got it home, and it snowed for 3 days after that so I torqued every bolt to specs, and I took non motor bolts out, and put locktiteon all the bolts that I could find, I put red locktite on the shift linkage bolts , and the shift levers.(Brother Lost One on the road with me behind him)
I am an ex motocrosser, and I raced a kawasaki tecate4 that thing would rattle your teeth out with the 74 hp I got out of that 250 2-stroke so I know all about checking bolt tourque.

 

The same thing happend to me last Sunday. Luckly the bolts landed in the bag. I was able to put them back on and have since checked every bolt that I can.

 

My bolts came off, the stealer fix it for free ,was underwaranty

 

I guess I will be bumping this thread up today because I was out on the road heading to Mississippi from Florida. While at a road side stop my damn saddlebag lid popped off its hinge when I tried to close it. I found 2 out of the 5 screws. I will be heading to a hardware store tomorrow.

 

When I sold my FXD and got my bagger last may I started reading the Touring forums and there were a lot of threads about locktiting all the bag screws. I did it first thing and have had no problems.

 

I just changed lids to the CVO style for speaker addition. I found these fasteners to be too short. On my second hinge/lid, I couldn't get the threads to catch on the inner plate that sandwiches the bag. I went and got 6-32"x 3/8" fasteners instead of the stock 1/4" long fastener. I put a little lock washer on each (which took up a little of the extra length) and blue locktite on the threads-much better. They are not coming loose/off now, and they aren't so long that the fasteners poke through the lid gasket. The factory ones should have been this long...

 

gee, ya think hd might have actually been on the ball when they specified servicing the saddlebags every 5k miles?