DIY Happy Trails Panniers passenger grips

When shopping for luggage we were pretty much sold on Aluminum boxes from the start. Solid, waterproof, lockable... they make alot of sense. Who to buy them from was the next question. This wasn't so straight forward. There are several manufacturers and because most are hand made in the USA with a rack that is bike-specific, they cost quite a bit more than you would expect... at least more than I expected. Anyway, Happy Trails seemed to offer the best value. And using the product the last 3 months in Latin America en route to Tierra del Fuego has left us very happy with the product.

A deficiency we immediately identified however, was a lack of passenger grips. Removing the stock V-strom rack also removes the passenger grips. This wasn't going to work for us as the Corbin seat we have leaves a signifcant gap between driver and passenger not leaving Amie anywhere to hold on. My solution was to use my discarded stock v-strom bars, cut in half, and welded between two of the mounting points to solve this problem. This is something Happy Trails can do to improve the strength of the rack while giving their customers passengers somewhere to hold on.

I will recommend that to them now...

Here is how they came out

Old handle bars worked perfectly

Having the passenger bar also works great for aligning the mounting holes