WackyDan
New member
So I discovered what riding in heavy rain for extended periods on back roads can do to your V35 side cases.... If you have them.
The V35's have somewhat of a design flaw, if minor. The locks are sitting pretty right on top of the case, inviting the flow of water, and other contaminates like grit from the road to enter with gravity. Would have been nice to have some sort of weather cap or something for those.
At some point after slogging through that storm on the way to Gatlinburg, I noticed the locks on my V35's were difficult to turn with both my main key and the spare key I carried. I borrowed some lube, and that helped a little. I also noticed the mechanism that couples the bags to the rails was also not cooperating and the little "paws" that grab and lock onto the rails were sticking in odd positions. It was also difficult to get them off the Spyder once on...
So once home, I turned the V35s on their sides and flushed out the locks with some Liquid Wrench lube and penetrating oil... The locks had mostly started working right thanks to the lube I used in Gatlinburg, but this made them work like new again.
I then use some Garage door lubricant on the mechanism and releases for the bags themselves. This lube is plastic friendly as I did not want any blemishes or long term damage from use.
http://blasterchemical.com/display.cfm?p=50003&pid=5
Did the trick as they now release better than when new....
I did the same for my V46 top case just in case.
Next road trip, I'm either going to bring tape to cover those locks or figure something else out... Not a whole lot you can do for the actual mechanism for the rails, though I think prepping them with a little lube before a long trip would probably help.
Just my 2 cents and what the remedy was. I talked to a lot of you that had the V35's in Gatlinburg, and anybody that rode through that weather was reporting the same issue.
The V35's have somewhat of a design flaw, if minor. The locks are sitting pretty right on top of the case, inviting the flow of water, and other contaminates like grit from the road to enter with gravity. Would have been nice to have some sort of weather cap or something for those.
At some point after slogging through that storm on the way to Gatlinburg, I noticed the locks on my V35's were difficult to turn with both my main key and the spare key I carried. I borrowed some lube, and that helped a little. I also noticed the mechanism that couples the bags to the rails was also not cooperating and the little "paws" that grab and lock onto the rails were sticking in odd positions. It was also difficult to get them off the Spyder once on...
So once home, I turned the V35s on their sides and flushed out the locks with some Liquid Wrench lube and penetrating oil... The locks had mostly started working right thanks to the lube I used in Gatlinburg, but this made them work like new again.
I then use some Garage door lubricant on the mechanism and releases for the bags themselves. This lube is plastic friendly as I did not want any blemishes or long term damage from use.
http://blasterchemical.com/display.cfm?p=50003&pid=5
Did the trick as they now release better than when new....
I did the same for my V46 top case just in case.
Next road trip, I'm either going to bring tape to cover those locks or figure something else out... Not a whole lot you can do for the actual mechanism for the rails, though I think prepping them with a little lube before a long trip would probably help.
Just my 2 cents and what the remedy was. I talked to a lot of you that had the V35's in Gatlinburg, and anybody that rode through that weather was reporting the same issue.
