Space between exhaust & fiberglass hard bag

[John Hopkins]

I've got longshots and I've just cut three inches off the length of my bag supports allowing by bags to sit over the top of the seat for easy removal and clear the top of the pipes by four inches..I have had less in the past which has caused a burn ring to the bottom of the bags..the other problem that can occur is that the heat transfers to the inside of the bag and can melt any plastic products you may have at the bottom of the bag.

I should mention that this only happened during a few day long trips.

On this bike I'm just not prepared to take any chances.

I hold the bags to the seat with bungee cords and carry them with me when I arrive at my destination..

I have a tank bag but I don't use it because it can scratch the tank..I also have a backpack which kills me after a five hour ride so I have decided that a sissy bar barrel bag and large leather saddlebags are the way to go for me.

John

[pcarrell]

Without heat shields on my 1500, I have under around 1 1/2" between the Longshots and leather bags; no damage or other issues so far.

49Reo

I've got about the same setup, maybe a touch less.....been running it for years.....

(Click To Enlarge)

Granted, a leather bag is more forgiving then a hard bag, but a simple heat shield should do the trick.  You see them mounted close on Harley's all the time.

[49Reo]

Without heat shields on my 1500, I have under around 1 1/2" between the Longshots and leather bags; no damage or other issues so far.

49Reo

[greenbarn]

I think JMBO is right - the nomad in the pic looks like a double-wall pipe, so that would make a big difference.  For example, on my HardKrome pipe, there is about a half inch air gap between the inner pipe and outer chromed pipe.  The outer stays a lot cooler than a single wall pipe would be.

With single-wall, I would think John is close at 4".

If you needed to, You could get a piece of stainless pipe from an automotive exhaust shop, and cut it in half and polish it up nice to make shields.

[jmbo]

This is a factory stock 2009 Kawasaki Nomad......

So, I'd say you're probably looking at somewhere around 2 inches.

But isn't the chrome outer tube on the Nomad basically a heat shield around a much smaller pipe.  If the V&H pipes are solid tube without an outer shield they will get much hotter than the Nomads.

A heat shield mounted on the bottom of the bag might help but you will need a space between the bag and the shield for air flow.  I'm building a hot rod and have the same issue between the battery case and the exhaust.  I'm using a piece of bakelite for an insulator.

[49Reo]

You could go to about an inch IF you put in a heat shield that doesn't touch either the bags or pipes. Tin would work well.

Regards,

[pcarrell]

This is a factory stock 2009 Kawasaki Nomad......

So, I'd say you're probably looking at somewhere around 2 inches.

[John Hopkins]

four inches..

John.

[brillo72]

I am in the process of doing the Vance & Hines longshots to duals mod as found in the mod tips section. I am also adding a set of fiberglass hard bags. I want to hang the hard bags low. My question to anyone who might know something about this subject is what is the minimum space I should leave between the exhaust and the bags on each side?

Thanks,
Brillo