Speaking of bags - Valkyrie this time

A year and a half ago, the stars aligned and I had both "extra" money and an opportunity to buy a motorcycle I had always wanted - a Valkyrie. Excellent price, owned by a policeman, maintained by the motorcycle motor pool of the Mesa Police Department. It was my all-time favorite valkyrie color combination - bumblebee yellow and black . I jumped and haven't looked back.

But I made a couple of compromises. It wasn't a Tourer, but a Standard. It had the tourer windshield, luckily, and the popular leatherlyke hard Lockable bags. And it had cobra 6 to 6 straight pipes. Believe it or not, the cop had no baffles in the pipes and that is the absolute first thing I bought for this motorcycle.

After putting over 4000 road trip Miles and another several thousand local miles I began to have some regrets about not waiting for a Tourer. The quality, convenience and capacity Of OEM bags cannot be overstated. And even baffled cobras can wear on you during long days in the saddle .

The stars aligned once again and a fellow here locally was selling the entire rear section of a Valkyrie that he had triked. I got everything from the swingarm back for one incredible price. Including the hard-to-find OEM bag rails. And what personality change would be complete without a nice set of JetHot coated headers and 4" x 36" glass packs? Yup, latched onto a beautiful set of pipes . Cobras are for sale.

Anyway, if there's any group of guys that can appreciate my excitement, I knew it would be those here. The bags should be ready from the body shop this week. Factory colors of course and pattern. Except that Honda never made a bumblebee tourer!

I'll put a couple of photos into this thread when I get it all back together, but I wanted to just show what I started with and where I'm going.

Does your transformation include a trunk? Mine had the tour pack but did not include a trunk. Rear rack is small but handy. Mine also has the stock exhaust which is still a bit louder than I like.

opcorn: :clapping:

No, but it would be nice. I'll probably continue to use the trunk you see in the photo above for now - if I need it. For most short overnighters, it's overkill.

By the way, these are the bags going on. I have the rails and a pretty good stash of spare parts now.

Looks like you just need the yellow over the teal and they'd match up nice. That reminds me I need to get my lid gaskets glued in place. They pull up from the channel.

I wanted this one done right. They're getting completely redone. Pin striping needs to go from silver to orange, too. Splurging a bit on one of the better shops in town. They have a great reputation and specialize in bikes and hot rods. (I went cheap on my '78 GL and although it turned out OK, the Valkyrie gets the royal treatment).

Here's the shop's website. Highly recommended for folks in the Phoenix Metro area:

https://www.classicgoldauto.com/

Can't wait to see how it turns out!! :clapping: :yes:

That's going to look really nice bumble bee to match. Are the tops staying black?

Yes. Although a complete repaint, the only difference will be the blue will be yellow and the silver pin striping between the two colors will be orange instead of silver.

And, oh, am I happy with the sound of the glasspacks. A lot of folks like the sound of the Cobras - and they do have a nice wail when opened up - but it can get tiresome. The "new" pipes are much more mellow. Authoritative, but purposeful. Yeah, that's it.

Thanks for the encouraging chatter. Stay tuned! (And don't forget I have an experimental pair of bags coming for the '78, too!)

Can't wait to see the finished job(s)!
opcorn: opcorn: opcorn:

opcorn: opcorn: opcorn: opcorn: :good:

Yeah! The Barndoor on the front really gives you a bunch of protection. I bought the Tourer back in 97 in Green and White. Gotta watch that throttle for a bit. The bags are nice,hold a bunch of stuff and actually are quite sturdy.Access is easy as well. The only other thing I did was Progressive air shocks and a set of Baker wind wings to scoop in a bit of air and keep the head buffeting down. Other than that gas ,oil and tires. They handle great if you push it into corners. Oh, by the way they do like tires. Congrats!

opcorn:

The paint guy called today at lunchtime and got me so excited and distracted I couldn't work. The bags were ready!

I left work early.

Just about an hour of sweat later I have a very rare bumblebee Tourer. Except that since they never made one, I'm not sure I'm going to put the badges back on the bags. Just because. In any event, they did a fabulous job, the pearl really pops and pictures don't do it justice. In my stupidity, I had looked at the lids and said to myself they look great and didn't have him do them. Turns out there is a spider webbing in them but I think I can buff it out with my DA polisher. Compared to his beautiful work, they don't look as good as I thought they were.

My right side pipe still riding too low and I need to adjust it. I guess that's the extent of what's left.

But I am a happy camper and I'm itching to get it out now !!

Really nice !!!

yeah really nice looking .... :good:

The bumble bee is a Phat girl now! Looks great.

Really great look!

Absolutely beautiful. :good: :clapping: :salute:

I like the seat with back rest. I've gotten used to the stock seat now I think.