In this blog article, I’m going to describe the howto of how I used MoskoMoto Wedge mount plates on GiantLoop Round the World (RTW) bags.
WHY?
The main reason is for future flexibility. The MoskoMoto Wedge will fit almost any luggage racks on a motorcycle. I do like the tusk racks with the top rack (to attach my drone box to), but the tusk racks are too thick for the GL QD plates to connect to. Rough calc and the wedge is about $30-40 more than the GL QD plate. Also, the wedge has a better lock-up system IMO and easy to find a pad lock to lock the release on the wedge system. GL QD lock is fragile in my experience and hard to unlock because its close to the rack on one side.
For a T7 and larger bike, I do NOT like the horse shoe shaped saddlebags! Main reason, the mounting with all those straps. Sooner or later those straps will go into the chain/wheel or exhaust and you’ll be sorry! I have over 50 adventures on the rack mount side bags and nothing critical fails in the middle of now-where! Also, the horse shoe style bags, I’m too tall and when I got down a steep hill, I can’t put my body back far enough cuz the stupid bag is in the way!
Here is the video talking through the bags and you can see they mount so nice on the giant loops.
Step1: ziptie the top of the wedge plate to the RTW bags (top d-ring you can see in the thumb photo video above or photo below).
Step2: push the plate up and mark each hold precisely!
Step3: heat up the back of a drill bit to punch a hole in the RTW bag that won’t frey. Take your time and make sure cuz you only want required holes in your bag (think of future water crossings and big rain storms!).
Step4: Drill the white plastic backer so the hardware fits I wanted a tight fit between the bolt and the plastic plate!. I just left the plastic plate in the bag and was careful not to drill all the way through the inside bag cover!
Step5: With locktie on threads, I used a bit longer 6mm bolts than the ones provided with the wedge. Start all bolts and then only tighten when you’ve got all bolts started.
