Ammo Can Saddlebags

Ammo Can Saddlebags on a Cx500 standard

First is Drewbees mod.

Here's my version, just recently added. They are the 20mm cans from a local surplus shop and cost under 20$ each. I dropped another approx. 20$ on some angle steel for the bracket system and misc. nuts & bolts for fastening. Took a few evenings after work of cutting, welding, grinding etc. and presto, they are solidly mounted and work great. They are about 16"L x 12"D x 8"W so over 3000 cu of storage total. Maybe a bit too large for some peoples taste but they suit my needs well.

Still need to prime/paint the bracket (black) and the boxes to match the tank. So whattya think?

The side shot shows the angle steel bracket I made, it's attachment points on two locations along the rear of the bike (note bolts/washers that do go thru the ammo can) and the diagonal piece of flat steel from front bottom corner of the bracket to the rear foot peg. Oh and I cut/ground some of the support piece on the side of each box so it fit tight into the rectangular bracket.

The top shot shows the overall spacing of things. I added some short lengths of square tube steel as spacers on the forward mounts to allow the seat to come off/go on easily, otherwise the setup made it hard to remove the seat.

The rear shot again shows the old handlebar turned into support bracket. This is a must have for cans of this size, without it they sagged and rattled and would have fatigued and broken the attachment points apart before long. I chose to bolt this part on rather than weld it in solid to facilitate the removal of the whole thing on occasion.

Gman's Cx650 with ammo cans.