The bike is my only mode of transport now.

In reply to yamaha:

I have no money at the moment. Gotta get through with what I have until I get an income coming in again, then I can think about a beater.

In other news I've started fabricating a sissy bar with an integrated rack. It will be easily detachable and the mounts I've designed should allow me to make a couple different racks or bars and just swap them out to suit different needs. Should have the fab work finished tomorrow.

A $50 rain suit is less cost effective than a $1000 car that probably needs work plus insurance, registration, and gas?

I've gone without a car and only had a motorcycle, first about 6 months with a BSA 441, then about 4 months with a Norton Commando. On the Commando, I had a 90 mile per day commute. It was tiresome maintaining it to the level required to keep it on the road.

As to gear, no money is no money. Recently, I bought a used First Gear Killamanjaro III jacket from Craigs list recently for 50 bucks. Its in better shape than the one I bought new. Modern textile gear is super versatile. I have made up lanyards for charging from the Battery Tender harness. I cut off the cigarette lighter plug from a cheap inverter with USB from Harbor Freight, and soldered on an SAE connector to match the battery tender. It works great. I used to keep shoes at my desk at work. I set up my electric vest to plug into the Battery Tender harness too. Milk crates on a rack work well. I like tank bags a heck of a lot.

Good luck to you.

Frustratingly, I didn't get finished with the fab work today. I forgot what a pain in the ass it is to not have good tools and the proper equipment. Never the less I'm forging ahead, it's just taking a lot longer and the result so far are less than professional but should be plenty functional and that's what is important.

Here is a little sneak peak of my efforts so far. Don't judge me too much, all I have is a little 110v hobby weld stick welder and a propane torch.

These are the receivers.

And where they will be bolted once painted.

The beginning of the sissy bar uprights.

I had to change my plans mid stream due to not being able to bend tubing. Decided to keep it a solid bar and this is the beginning of that.

After many hours of welding and grinding (stupid pos stick welder) this is where I left it for the night.

Still have some cleanup work to do on that and fab the rack. The rack is going to be welded inside the bar, sitting on the cross brace. From there it's going to loop up just behind the seat and I'm going to make a tab that will use the seat screw to hold it down. So when it's all done, all I'll have to do is take that one screw out and slide the entire thing off only leaving those little receivers which after being painted should blend right in. Hopefully, tomorrow it'll be in paint.

Made some good progress today. Still have some finish work and painting of the sissy/rack but was able to get the receivers painted and mounted permanently. Some pics of the process.

Laying out the rack.

Mounting tab welded on. Ignore the booger welds, they are strong but ugly.

With that done it allowed me to paint the receivers and get them mounted. While those were drying I added the bars to the rack and another cross bar to the sissy for another tie down point.

It's very strong, I can pick up the entire back of the bike up with it. It's not completely square but it's close. I didn't use a tape measure at all, everything is eyeballed. I like the fact that it's on and off in seconds but I may change out the screw for something besides a Phillips head, something less common just to make it a little harder to swipe.

Now that I have this I need to figure out some bags or something to mount to it. Academy sports and outdoors had a 30L dry bag that I may pick up.

I've got about fifty bucks in it, half of what I found used ones for and a third of the cheapest new one I found.

skierd wrote: A $50 rain suit is less cost effective than a $1000 car that probably needs work plus insurance, registration, and gas?

From my understanding, most people in here haven't been recommending a $50 pullover rain suit.

Here it is all painted. I could have spent more time smoothing it out but needed to get it on the bike. I'm happy with it.

Nice work there. Its a practical rack without looking like a dorky rack. Nice :-)

In reply to CarKid1989:

Thanks.

I've got a backpack that I take with me when I know I'll need to carry something. It's not big but it holds the essentials. I mounted it today and it feels great not having it on my back.

The only thing is it's not waterproof and it's not theft proof. I've been spending way too much time lurking over at ADVrider and got a bad idea. I picked up a very sturdy and waterproof Bostich tool box for $20. It just fits between the sissy and the seat with about an inch to spare. I'm going to make it quick release from the rack for times when I may need something more secure and waterproof. Ugly for sure but I feel it's a great option. And with that I think my luggage concerns have been met.

All in with the rack and the box I have around $80 in it. I already had the backpack. That's cheaper than the cheapest used sissy bar that I found while I was looking. I just performed the 5K service on it and I think I'm set up for whatever comes my way now.

Looks nice, Nick. Amazing what you can do with scrap and time. You should visit Papa Doc sometime if you haven't. He plays in his shop with his welder quite a bit.

This thing looks good. I like the sissy bar and the black on black, no chrome look of the whole bike. Vetter and all. The pics wouldn't load on my phone earlier so by the description of the process I was expecting some sort of rusty bent pipe or something hanging off the back but it looks pretty . Nice work.

I had only a small rear bag. It was big enough to pack my lunch and a couple other small things, and it worked well for almost a year. Last week however I ran into a situation. If it's raining in the morning I'll wear my rain gear in, but usually it's not raining on the way home so I'll put it in the bag. The bag wasn't big enough to put both my rain gear and my lunch in. I rode to work in the dry and it started pouring just prior to leaving for home. I didn't have enough room to bring my rain gear with me. I did not enjoy that ride home. I need enough room to take all my warm and rain gear with me, especially heading into the winter in which the weather conditions change quickly compared to summer.

I didn't have a ton of money to put into this and did not want to relocate my lights or license plate. What I found was a set of horse throw-over saddlebags at Tractor Supply Company for $29.95. They have some disadvantages compared to actual motorcycle saddlebags but they work for me. They are not waterproof. They are not secure. But they allow me to have enough room to take all of my rain gear, my zip out liners from my jackets and my lunch with a little room left over.

The yoke was a little wide, the right bag was sitting on the muffler, so I had to take three inches out of the middle of the yoke which gave me about an inch and a half space above the muffler. I used a hole punch and put in some eyelets and tied it up with a shoestring. It has D rings that are tied to the frame at the front and around the taillights at the back, and is mounted under the seat.

Here are some pics, sorry for the dirty bike but it's been raining here lately.

On the bike.

With the tail bag and rack on.

Dang man. Wish I would have known, I sold a pair of cheap saddle bags on CL that I would have given you.

PS u passed that book onto another forum member. I can get it back if you need it back.

In reply to octavious:

That's okay, just keep passing it around.

Looks good! Amazing how much of a functional difference those small details make on the bike. You can have a bike and ride, but the little things that make it functional for commuting make a huge difference!

Looks really good. I dig the toolbox.