Installation of Sprint ST Pannier Rails PDF Print E-mail
Written by Daniel Hienzsch   
Friday, 08 June 2007
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Obtaining the Pannier Rails (the racks the hard case luggage installs on) for my 2000 Triumph Sprint ST was quite an ordeal.  I purchased the rails and cases on eBay and had them shipped, only to discover that nearly all the mounting brackets and hardware was missing.  The owner had wrecked his bike and just took the main rails off the bike thinking that the mounting and strengthening brackets came with the bike from the factory.  Well... they don't. Actually, obtaining the brackets and hardware involved placing a $300 parts order with his dealer.  Because of all the confusion, the seller on eBay agreed to split the unexpected extra cost with me 50/50.  I had actually planned to do the installation about a week before heading on my first trip to Yosemite on the Sprint ST, but the difficulty in assembling all the stuff meant that I was actually doing the install the two days before.

Custom Aluminum Block
Custom Aluminum Block
I had all the parts laid out and read through the instructions over and over and over again.  Something didn't gel quite right.  There were a lot of things that were supposed to be mounted to the mud guard.  I didn't have one.  The guy I bought the bike from (again on eBay) had hacksawed the thing off for a more sleek appearance (rather than purchasing an after market under tail and reserving the mud guard for an occasion such as, I don't know, NEEDING IT.)  So now, the day before I leave for a tour that will be in excess of 1,000 miles, I had to run around and try to find a machinist that could make the rails work with my bike. 

I finally went by Elco Welding and Engineering in Venice, CA and went about having him build some heavy duty spacing blocks that would allow the tail end of the mounting rails to actually fit onto the bike.  There is a strengthening bracket that is supposed to go behind the license plate, and I don't have any meat left under there to mount that bracket to, so the custom solution was the right one.

I want to digress for a moment to talk about how much I enjoy watching a machinist at work.  This guy took block of aluminum he had "laying around", a block that you and I would only have been able to use as a paperweight, and over the course of the next hour, painstakingly turned and milled it down to the odd composite-angled spacer that I use to this day.  Watching him work the three hand wheels on his milling machine was seeing an artist in his element.  Two wheels to move the cutting head forward - back and left - right and another to move it up and down.  He moved the cutting head fluidly in three dimensions, manually, eyeballing it the entire way for the initial fabrication.  CNC is cool... this was beautiful.  The first pass through the milling machine produced a block that was very nearly the correct shape, the rest of the hour was spent fine tuning to ensure the lowest possible amount of play and distortion of the rail.  From the milling machine, out into the rain to hold it to the bike and use his grease pencil to mark it down some more... back inside to the mill, back into the rain... back and forth without a complaint (or a word really) until he had it ready to be tapped for bolts.  Perfect.  (or almost, since I was on the bike at the time, all I could take with me was the unmounted rail.  It wasn't until I got home that afternoon and had everything mounted that a sharp edge on the aluminum prevented the cases from sliding down the rails like they were supposed to.  A few minutes furious filing resolved that though).

The picture of the jigsaw puzzle
The picture of the jigsaw puzzle
That wasn't the only bit of difference between a standard install and mine.  I have a Two Brothers Racing exhaust installed in a high mount that really shows off the single-sided-swing-arm and chromed rear wheel.  Well, that exhaust needs to be lowered so that it will pass under the right hand hard case.  I had all the hardware for that but no instructions, so it was up to me to figure out how to make that jigsaw fit together without a picture.  I only found one copy of the mounting instructions for the cases online and one text document describing how another guy managed to do it.  So I'll get to the point now and do a little show and tell on how I mount mine up.  Mind you, I'm going to skip the installation of all the mounting plates, the repositioning of the rear seat lock, and the installation of the side stand lifting handle.  Why might you ask?  Because I don't recall how I installed them... just that I did :)

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