Issues with Viking Bags and Bolts
Aug 2017
Bought 2009 900 custom used
Ordered Viking bags from MotorcycleHouse.com
Arrived within the week and installed w/blue Loctite and bolts from True Value
Sept 2017 – Break Bolt 1
5 weeks and 2500+ miles, bolt on front belt-side broke. Rode150+ scary miles from Sanderson, TX into Del Rio with broken bag bungee-corded to other bag. MC shop drilled out broken part and replaced it with bolt from nearby True Value. (An aside: If you are near Del Rio and need anything, support T & T Cycles at 5800 US 90. I stumbled across his shop and he was a great help.)
Aug 2017
Replaced all 4 bolts with w/Grade 12.9 bolts from Fastenal
May 2018 – Break Bolt 2
After about 8 months and 5000+ miles later, bolt in same location (front on belt-side) but now upgraded to Grade 12.9 snapped. Bags were near empty since I was riding locally. My local shop tried to ding me for a half-hour shop time to drill out the bolt. With some protest, I managed to escape for “only” $20. If I known “local” does not mean friendly, I would have self-rescued since I was only 30 miles from home this time. As it turns out, a grommet and washer that the bolts thread through was lost on the road. The shop didn’t notice but I did as I rode home and heard a new noise when I hit a bump. Finally parked, I realized the front of the bag was closer to the bike than the rear. The noise I was hearing was the bottom barrel bolt hitting the belt guard on bumps and when the bike was on the kickstand. Nothing I could do until the new part came in so I left it as is.
Pix 1-2 : Grommet and Washer
Does anyone know the part numbers for the grommet and washer?
I ordered 92161-A damper…but it was not what I needed. I still need 2 sets of these :<
June 2018 - Break Bolt 3
One month and 1000+ miles later, I stopped for gas 350 miles from home and saw the rear belt-side bolt had snapped. The bags were only half full.
Road 20 miles to campground with bag hanging by one bolt. In AM, saw I could use needle-nose pliers to twist out broken part and replace bolt. Yes, carry around spares since the first one broke. Again, grommet and washer that bolts thread through was lost on the road. At least now the bags were same distance from fender in front and back. Maybe that extra stress made the rear bolt break. Or maybe it was just “time” since that Grade 12.9 bolt had been on since Sept 2017.
Pix 3 : Broken 12.9 Grade Bolt
June 2018 – Lose Barrel Nut
I regularly check tightness of all hardware on bags. When I went to Fastenal to replenish my stick of Grade 12.9 bolts, I saw that somewhere along the way, I lost the front barrel nut. Fastenal helped me put together a work-around.
Being optimistic, I politely asked Viking to replace barrel nut as a courtesy. 4 days later they wrote me asking me for my order number (or name and email address). Within a few hours, they sent me a reply telling me they cost $6.99 each and I could call them or order them online. I looked online and they are out of stock.
https://www.vikingbags.com/product-12262-detailed.html
Pix 4 : Barrel Nut Damage to Belt Cover
Just happy parts haven’t fallen into the belt or rear wheel and caused real damage to the bike or biker !
To address VN750Guy's questions
> So what seems to be the problem with repeated bolt breakage?
>Is there some variation of installation to change the attaching-point environment? By that I mean do your bolts (hell, I don't even know how MY bolts screw in!) simply screw into a threaded spot and bottom out or do they extend out the other side some? If they extend out, could adding a nut on the end possibly add some gripping/squeezing action to prevent any sawing-type movements?
My guess is that the bags hang too far from the bike therefore long bolts absorb too much stress and eventually break
- I don’t think there is enough room to add a nut at the back of the bolts since it is so close to the fender.
Pix 5 : Photo on belt-side where I am lacking both grommet and washers show a tiny space behind plastic fender piece. I can also see that the end of the bolt is has made a small dent where it hits the fender. The other side lacks this space at all and there are no dents as the bolt does not touch the fender.
- On my Vulcan 500, my LeatherLykes developed stress-cracks near the two bolts where they mount. As suggested at
LL Reinforcement Mod , a friend added a metal plate spanning both bolts inside and outside the bags. I will add larger washers now and later try ask my friend to do the same on these bags. It will relieve some on the stress on the bags themselves … and perhaps on the bolts too?
- Until then, will back up existing washers with larger washers
- Considered drilling 3rd hole in the fender to add another bolt but another holes in the bags might would probably them weaker and cause more problem than it solves.
> Grade 12 bolts are pretty robust. But they've been breaking, too.
While Grade 12.9 have the highest mechanical ratings on the chart you show, are there other considerations i.e. vibrations, impact, etc? It’s unclear but online conversations seem to imply the higher the grade is more brittle and therefore more likely break instead of bend when stressed. It also implies that it all depends on the application and other related parts in the design. Is grade 12.9 the best choice for our saddlebag mounts? I am not an engineer and have no idea.
> Does this suggest a regular maintenance schedule to replace bolts after so many months of installation?
> If regular swapping out of the bolts is wise (what the USAF called a time-change item: an item would simply be changed out after "X" amount of time used, period) then I would be curious of tracking exactly what kind of damage is regularly seen on the old bolts.
Riding with a bag hanging by a single bolt is scary. Suggest replacing one bolt at a time. That way, all 4 (or at least both on one side) will be less likely to fail at the same time.
> Are they being crushed? Cut or sawed in half? Do they look snapped or broken? RoadRunner were your bolts broken, sawed/cut, or crushed?
Thought I had all the broken ones, but the most recent as shown in photo looks like a pretty clean break IMHO. All 3 have broken in about the same spot, about where the bolt is flush with the fender (which is why it had to be drilled out, there was nothing to grab onto when it snapped.)
Another thing a wonder about is why have I lost 3 bolts on the same side but none on the other? Both bolts start okay and screw in smoothly. In fact, last time I took off the bags, a bolt on the non-breaking side was a real bear to start and screw in. It expect it will need to be re-threaded.
>If so why do the factory installed bags seem to be spared from this issue? Are the designers of bikes that come from the factory with bags included using larger bolts than aftermarket, add-on bags use?
I don’t see how length can be shortened at all. Although it is holding temporarily, I’d feel better with that grommet and washer.
Can bolt thickness be changed since they screw into the fender. Easy Brackets appear to use different (thicker? shorter? bolts to mount into the same holes in the fender but I do not know those details. Before drilling holes for the Viking provided hardware, I contacted Easy Brackets to see where to drill the holes for their product. I was hoping I could install the Viking hardware with holes that would also accommodate Easy Brackets, if I wanted to later. Unfortunately, Easy Brackets couldn’t/wouldn’t provide this information since Viking bags that are not Made in the USA.
> Am I making any sense?
Yes. We all seem to have more questions than answers but nice to hear the issue is on someone’s radar as well.…ok, everyone’s but Viking’s
The bags are look and function great but we have all been -
a) Nickel-and-dimed replacing bolts, washers, shop labor etc,
b) Treated poorly by Viking’s customer support. $7 for a barrel bolt is less than 2% of what I paid for the bags. Plus the part out of stock anyway. $7 versus how much in bad public relations !
c) Left wondering will the bags might fall off on this ride or the next (Otherwise I love my 900 … and still take the Vulcan 500 out too !)
On the plus side, as far as I know, no one has been injured (yet) because of this. I would hate to see this happen and I doubt Viking would change anyhow.
If anyone has an extra Kawasaki grommets and washers or barrel bolts from Viking…..I’d be happy to buy them from you.
THANKS !
