Mistakes Were Made: Part 1

[JDChico89]

I’m new to the FJ-09 world and bring you my no-holds-barred approach to screwing things up. This series will bring you tremendous feelings of confusion, outrage, disgust, wonderment, and hopefully in the end lifelong satisfaction. When this wife-defying fear-fest is over, you will peer deep into the depths of something Yamaha DEFINITELY doesn’t want you to see!!! (probably)

After many years of being without a bike, I recently purchased a 2015 FJ-09. It’s been a massive joy to ride and gets me to work WAY faster, now that I can ride in the carpool lane.  

The only problem I could find, was that the top latch of the right pannier (side case for those who don’t call them pannier’s), would not fully close. For most, this would be a nuisance at best, but for those of us, like me, whose O.C.D. has A.D.D., it was simply unacceptable!

So, after a quick perusal of the visible mechanisms, the answer couldn’t be any simpler.  DRILL OUT ALL THE RIVETS!!!

And that's where it all began...
 

[HGP61]

Looking forward for installment 2 of your saga

[nhchris]

WAIT!!!  Hold that ADD and put that drill down!!!

The Case closing mechanism is very crudely designed on the FJ.  They NEVER close easily or flush with the cases.

Check the sliding vertical arm behind the case that locks it to the mount.  It probably needs cleaning as it collects crud from read wheel.

Then check the rotating the lock tab to be sure it is not bent.

 

[JDChico89]

1 hour ago, nhchris said:

WAIT!!!  Hold that ADD and put that drill down!!!

The Case closing mechanism is very crudely designed on the FJ.  They NEVER close easily or flush with the cases.

Check the sliding vertical arm behind the case that locks it to the mount.  It probably needs cleaning as it collects crud from read wheel.

Then check the rotating the lock tab to be sure it is not bent.

 

Ohhhhhhh @nhchris. If only the universe wasn't such a cruel mistress, she would have given me the requisite patience to look before I leapt...

[texscottyd]

23 minutes ago, JDChico89 said:

If only the universe wasn't such a cruel mistress, she would have given me the requisite patience to look before I leapt...

Oh, how I can relate to that statement.   The good news is that most (not all, but most) of these ill-advised projects seem to work out fine.  Eventually.   

I can’t wait to hear The Rest of the Story... 

[JDChico89]

MISTAKES WERE MADE: PART II

Note: Just so you know, this is not exactly what you would call a, “How to…”

Somehow, when I made the epically-fabulous decision to drill out all the rivets of my mostly-functional pannier, I assumed it would be a matter of simply popping out the inner plastic liner, rivet the innards back together, then zim-zam, we’re back in business! I’m a handy fellow. I dabble in polymer holsters and other such creatives. How hard could this be?  

The answer, my friends, is hard. Like, stupid-hard. Like, it took me almost a week to figure this thing out, hard. 

For all intents and purposes, the rivets were out, and the inner plastic liner should have simply slid out. Perhaps there was some type of adhesive between the two layers. An easier fix couldn’t have been more obvious! POUR GALLONS OF GOO-GONE DOWN INSIDE!

 

It didn’t work…

[maximo]

This is starting to sound like the time you decided to powder coat your entire KLR (or whatever it was you did to it). 

Welcome aboard, my friend! Good to see you here. Funny that we ended up with the same bike! 

[JDChico89]

@maximothis is a MUCH worse idea than painting my KLR tan!!!

Its now two times in the last two weeks we've run into each other.  We must be destined for a ride!

[maximo]

@JDChico89 I think that's what it means. I'm thinking maybe a day ride focused on Hwy 49 through Downieville? That way we meet halfway.  Let's make it work! 

Now, back to your saddlebag saga... what happened next? 

[JDChico89]

MISTAKES WERE MADE: PART III

After days of letting the Goo-Gone work its magic and endless prying <slash> slicing my fingers and banging up my knuckles, I began to sense something else was at work.  Perhaps there was some type of locking mechanism heretofore undiscovered in my many manful-strainings.

I tapped around, trying to hear some reverberation that would tell me right where the pieces clicked together. The problem was that after years of being around explosions, gunfire, and  teenagers, my hearing is not as good as it once was. Tapping on one area of the plastic sounded pretty much like tapping on any other part. 

I had momentary delusions of going to the courthouse or airport and coming up with a super-complicated <slash> totally-believable reason for them to run it through their x-ray machine, so I could see what was holding me back. Two things were wrong with this idea. 1) I can’t lie very well, and 2) The idea wasn’t very good to start with.  

So, with x-rays out of the picture, there was only one option left. DRILL BABY, DRILL!!!

 

Note: The pictured part doesn’t keep anything together. I advise you don’t cut the plastic away, just to make sure.

[wanderer]

I think this is going pretty well. Sounds like when all is said and done, you won't be worried about the latch anymore.

[betoney]

On 4/30/2021 at 11:55 PM, JDChico89 said:

This series will bring you tremendous feelings of confusion, outrage, disgust, wonderment,

And that's where it all began...

 

On 5/1/2021 at 12:43 AM, HGP61 said:

Looking forward for installment 2 of your saga

 

On 5/1/2021 at 9:41 AM, texscottyd said:

I can’t wait to hear The Rest of the Story... 

 

16 hours ago, maximo said:

Now, back to your saddlebag saga... what happened next? 

I am seeing a trend here... 😄

How many episodes to this 'series?'

[angrygirafe]

I hope a heat gun makes an appearance soon

 

ETA: And a dremel. I knew a Kiwi who could ruin anything with a dremel 

Edited May 4, 2021 by angrygirafe

[knyte]

ohh this is getting goooood

[JDChico89]

45 minutes ago, knyte said:

ohh this is getting goooood

Trust me.  It get's MUCH worse!