Okay, so I decided when I bought my F3 that I was not going to pay the ridiculous price Can Am was asking for their saddlebags. They are very proud of their bags to say the least.
I had a set of Viking bags on the Yamaha Raider I traded in on my F3 and I knew Viking had a universal mount for the unusual ride so I decided to give them a try. The Viking bags came in yesterday. First off, I'd like to say that in hard mounting the Viking bags you will have to do a bit of bag drilling. The bags are made from hard plastic and require the drilling of 3/8" holes for the brackets. When I held the bags up to the F3's mounting points, I found the existing pre-drilled holes in the Viking bags almost fit the F3 perfectly...."Almost". The rear hole was about a 1'4" off. I also found that the bags would not work with the passenger hand rails, which I thought was going to be the case. Lastly, I found that for a really nice tight looking fit, you would have to modify the Viking brackets, grinding them down a bit. All in all, it took me about 1.5 hours to mount the bags.
1. Removed the seats.
2. Removed the hand rails.
3. Positioned the bags and marked the holes for drilling.
4. I used the existing front hole and grommet for the front mounting point and removed the grommet from the last hole which had to be drilled slightly by about 1/4".
5. Once I had the upper mounting holes set, I simply laid the brackets on the bag and marked the lower holes. Due to the bag size and the design of the F3, clearance was not an issue.
6. For a clean look and to avoid the purchase of longer bolts, I removed about 1/4" of material from the upper end of the mounting bracket with a cut off grinder then smoothed it on my shop grinder.
After fabrication, I simply bolted the brackets on the bag then bolted the bags to the F3.
I think they turned out very nicely and I saved around $1,200 over the cost of a set of Can Am bags.
Nice looking bags. They fit in with the F3 styling well.
......BRAVO.!!!!! .....As you may know I'm an absolute DIY'er......so you have my deepest respect on this.......I have a question on one thing you said " ALMOST ".....1" 4" , OFF on where the hole needed to be ?.......was this a typo.....that doesn't seem to be almost............I can also picture re-placement " PASSENGER GRAB HANDLES "......You seem to be talented , so where the bags attach make a large " [ " shape with the flat on top and the ends extending down to the attachment BOLTS from 3/16 th flat stock (or if you can weld even better ) .....then slit a broom handle or large wood DOWEL and attach it to the sides of the flat metal.........WaLa passenger handles..............Mike
Thanks for the pics & info. Jeff (husband) has a set of Viking Quartercircle bags sitting here waiting for his F3S (fingers crossed he may get it this weekend!) - lockable and waterproof, top quality too. Your pics gave us a good idea of how they will look on the F3, so thanks again. The lounge room floor also has smoothspyder backrest just waiting for his F3 (thanks, Jim).
......BRAVO.!!!!! .....As you may know I'm an absolute DIY'er......so you have my deepest respect on this.......I have a question on one thing you said " ALMOST ".....1" 4" , OFF on where the hole needed to be ?.......was this a typo.....that doesn't seem to be almost............I can also picture re-placement " PASSENGER GRAB HANDLES "......You seem to be talented , so where the bags attach make a large " [ " shape with the flat on top and the ends extending down to the attachment BOLTS from 3/16 th flat stock (or if you can weld even better ) .....then slit a broom handle or large wood DOWEL and attach it to the sides of the flat metal.........WaLa passenger handles..............Mike
i'm betting he meant a "quarter inch" Mike.... as in 1/4".... but datz just me...
Dan P
SPYD3R F3-S
Okay, so I decided when I bought my F3 that I was not going to pay the ridiculous price Can Am was asking for their saddlebags. They are very proud of their bags to say the least.
I had a set of Viking bags on the Yamaha Raider I traded in on my F3 and I knew Viking had a universal mount for the unusual ride so I decided to give them a try. The Viking bags came in yesterday. First off, I'd like to say that in hard mounting the Viking bags you will have to do a bit of bag drilling. The bags are made from hard plastic and require the drilling of 3/8" holes for the brackets. When I held the bags up to the F3's mounting points, I found the existing pre-drilled holes in the Viking bags almost fit the F3 perfectly...."Almost". The rear hole was about a 1'4" off. I also found that the bags would not work with the passenger hand rails, which I thought was going to be the case. Lastly, I found that for a really nice tight looking fit, you would have to modify the Viking brackets, grinding them down a bit. All in all, it took me about 1.5 hours to mount the bags.
1. Removed the seats.
2. Removed the hand rails.
3. Positioned the bags and marked the holes for drilling.
4. I used the existing front hole and grommet for the front mounting point and removed the grommet from the last hole which had to be drilled slightly by about 1/4".
5. Once I had the upper mounting holes set, I simply laid the brackets on the bag and marked the lower holes. Due to the bag size and the design of the F3, clearance was not an issue.
6. For a clean look and to avoid the purchase of longer bolts, I removed about 1/4" of material from the upper end of the mounting bracket with a cut off grinder then smoothed it on my shop grinder.
After fabrication, I simply bolted the brackets on the bag then bolted the bags to the F3.
I think they turned out very nicely and I saved around $1,200 over the cost of a set of Can Am bags.
Chris
AWESOME Chris....
can you give us a website for these bags...? model number, LARGE, mid size, or small.....? etc etc etc....
Dan P
SPYD3R F3-S
220,000 Mile Spyder Ryder, IBA Premier member #59352, Saddlesore 1000 (11), Bun Burner 1500 (3), Saddlesore 2000 (2), Bun Burner Gold, MILEEATER SILVER
you can find them with google, just look up viking bags they have a good site with lots of pics. i just put a set on my friends honda vtx and they are good bags and pretty solid , they look great on your f3!!!!!! so the question is what are you going to do with the $1200 you saved
......BRAVO.!!!!! .....As you may know I'm an absolute DIY'er......so you have my deepest respect on this.......I have a question on one thing you said " ALMOST ".....1" 4" , OFF on where the hole needed to be ?.......was this a typo.....that doesn't seem to be almost............I can also picture re-placement " PASSENGER GRAB HANDLES "......You seem to be talented , so where the bags attach make a large " [ " shape with the flat on top and the ends extending down to the attachment BOLTS from 3/16 th flat stock (or if you can weld even better ) .....then slit a broom handle or large wood DOWEL and attach it to the sides of the flat metal.........WaLa passenger handles..............Mike
I was actually thinking of running down to my local Off Road Warehouse store and grabbing a pair of roll bar handles. They should fit nicely and look great.
......BRAVO.!!!!! .....As you may know I'm an absolute DIY'er......so you have my deepest respect on this.......I have a question on one thing you said " ALMOST ".....1" 4" , OFF on where the hole needed to be ?.......was this a typo.....that doesn't seem to be almost............I can also picture re-placement " PASSENGER GRAB HANDLES "......You seem to be talented , so where the bags attach make a large " [ " shape with the flat on top and the ends extending down to the attachment BOLTS from 3/16 th flat stock (or if you can weld even better ) .....then slit a broom handle or large wood DOWEL and attach it to the sides of the flat metal.........WaLa passenger handles..............Mike
New Viking Saddlebags
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Originally Posted by akspyderman
......BRAVO.!!!!! 
.....As you may know I'm an absolute DIY'er......so you have my deepest respect on this.......I have a question on one thing you said " ALMOST ".....1" 4" , OFF on where the hole needed to be ?.......was this a typo.....that doesn't seem to be almost....
........I can also picture re-placement " PASSENGER GRAB HANDLES "......You seem to be talented , so where the bags attach make a large " [ " shape with the flat on top and the ends extending down to the attachment BOLTS from 3/16 th flat stock (or if you can weld even better ) .....then slit a broom handle or large wood DOWEL and attach it to the sides of the flat metal.........WaLa passenger handles..............Mike 
