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I know, not super interesting... but some of you will get a laugh out of it.

Click for larger shots....






Yep... homemade aluminum hard luggage... on a ninja 250.

The boxes are made from .040 thick 6061-t6 aluminum dimpled and riveted with flush aircraft rivets. The front curves were done using a shrinker and a lot of fiddling... I had some fancier touble-curve fronts but these are better though not quite as "impressive" to the 0.0001% of people who would know what they were seeing. They are set up to mount to the passenger foot peg mounts (though they aren't really passenger compatible) in the front and ride a little bit above the muffler.... there is about an inch of clearance all along. The brace across the back is still temporarily held in place with clamps (clecos really)... once everything is final fitted it will be riveted. The load will be born on straps running over (or perhaps under) the seat, but it's bolted firmly at the footpegs and a few other points. I just didn't want to set up any potential metal fatigue failures.

The turn signals are LED truck turn signals... &@#$ing BRIGHT!

The curve on the front pretty much prevents any contact between the rider and the boxes, even when walking the bike around.

The lids aren't on 'cause I'm still fitting the boxes... but the boxes themselves are sized to hold sleeping rolls and other standard camping gear... I don't have an exact volume but they are pretty big.(22" long axis, 6" wide at the front, 7" wide at the rear, and of course they get deeper towards the back... not the most useful configuration but each one will hold three gallons of milk.

Once I'm all finished I'm going to spray the inside with that truck bed liner spray and paint the outside to match the bike.... but I'll probably ride around with them bright for a few weeks just to make sure there are no mods required.

See... now this is what building airplanes as a hobby does to you.

That's awesome. Your bike will have a huge "O Ring" when your done.

Nice work on those boxes. i've always wondered though about side saddles/boxes, will the weight of what's inside affect the bikes handling enough to be a problem? Just curious.

Anyhow, again, nice work

Yep... full dresser ninja 250.

Part of the reason they angle forward like that is to keep any heavy stuff that might go into them forward as far as possible... in any case they should be no worse than a passenger.


If it's too wide I'll narrow the boxes a bit... I had considered making them 5-6 inches wide... but I liked this better.

Width is 27" edge to edge.....

i thought you hooked up some missile launchers.

A smart man doesn't talk about his weapons in pulblic, verm.

I agree... if by hardcore you mean "f'ing nuts"...

In my defense, the total cost of materials so far is about $100... half of that being the DOT-legal LED tail lights which were $25/ea. The aluminum was about $45 and the rivets and other hardware adds up to a dollar or so. The stainless steel mount bracket material was free scrap tho so I'm sort of cheating on the price... that'd add at least $5 to the total. I figure I'll have $150 invested by the time they are painted. I couldn't find any decent saddle bags I liked in the $150 range and I didn't want to spend a lot of money.


Don't even get me started on the labor. Theoretically I do that stuff for fun though.

Mollusks are good... who doesn't like a nice clam chowder? And muscles...scallops... .mmm....

Seriously though, it's all doable with hand tools... I didn't use anything fancier than an air drill. The bending break to bend the sides/bottom peice (which is a continuous U) was improvised out of some junk I had lying around because my $25 sheet metal break can only bend 18" long peices. A good ruler and a marker were the most important tools.

But thanks everybody for the kind words.

Just think, one of these days one of you will be riding along and you'll see a yellow ninja with a goofy overzied windshield and funny lookin aluminum things hanging off the sides (and really really bright turn signals) and you'll say to yourself "I know that bike!" ... and you'll be right 'cause I'd bet money there are no other ninjettes dressed out like mine....