Mounting old GT tank bag on new GT bike

[Dave McReynolds]

Balking at paying the usurious price of a new tank bag for my K1200GT, I wondered if I could mount the tank bag from my '03 GT, which is in fine shape as I only use it a couple of times a year on longer tours.

 

Of course both the front and rear mounts are different on the new bag, and even the plastic connectors are different, which seems hitting below the belt. But your dealer will sell you the mounts separate from the bag, and after examination, only the front mount is necessary ($17).

 

The rear mount from the old bag can be used, simply by shortening the metal bar a tad and drilling a new hole.

 

For the front mounts, I remembered that some supplemental straps had come with the old bag in case you wanted to use it as a backpack, which I never will, and fortunately hadn't thrown away. Scavenging two connectors from the straps, which even have the nice padding on them to protect your paint, I was able to have a shoe repair shop sew them on each side of the new connector ($10), which I had clipped off, as it doesn't fit the old connectors.

 

So this is the result, for $27: