Installed my Smuggler! With pictures!

My Corbin Smuggler came last week, on time.

The shipping box is ginormous!!! 40" x 26" x 19". The part is very well packaged. The box has these words on top: "This box contains a beautiful motorcycle part. Please do not booger it up with your buck knife."



The mounting hardware and manual are shrink wrapped. Unfortunately the heat shrinking boogered up the instructions. Fortunately the same document is available on the Corbin web site.





A couple of views of the Smuggler just out of the wrapping.





After you remove the seat (one screw - fast and easy) you have to attach two of these brackets.



Sparkey was supervising.



The box has a tongue that you push into position on the scooter, then you push the box down on the brackets. The brackets penetrate the botton of the box. From inside the box, you put a screw through each bracket and into a threaded fitting molded into the Smuggler. Alignment is a first class pain in the butt. I am going to be removing and reshaping the brackets.

After half an hour of fussing, I got it on.



Here are the interior and hinges. The grey mat is padding. The hinges hold the lid up if you are very careful. But you have to lower the lid gently, because once it is lowered an inch from the postion shown, it drops heavily. Fibreglass is heavy.



I don't have a picture of the latch. It is okay, I guess, but my more valuable stuff will be under the seat. I worry that it will be a water penetration point.

It is supposed to hold a full-face helmet. Maybe it will hold Blexcroid's, but I chipped the paint on my helmet trying to fit it in there.



It is a full inch from being closed, and this is the closest I got to fitting my lid in there. No matter - mine fits under the front seat nicely.



Impressions:

This is a pretty good piece of kit. For $600 US, it ought to be.

The hinges have some slop, and they drop the lid, so you need to be very careful closing it.

I have not sat on the bike, but I suspect that the Yamaha bum pad makes the Corbin backrest useless.

The seat brushes against the backrest when opening and closing, but it is not a problem.

If I ever wash my scooter, I think that the colour match will prove to be excellent. I don't feel comfortable that the paint is scratch resistant, though, so I am at least going to wax it.

Once you put this thing on, you are going to leave it on. It is not a good idea to swap it in and out often. That screw hole is a weak pount, and replacing it is going to take a lot of time and money. Also, the bike's grab rail is going to get scratched if you don't just leave the Smuggler in place.

I think the looks are good, but not great. I see why the stylist put the shark gills on - to coordinate with the turn signal lenses - but I think they work against the very clean Majesty lines. But I did not get this box for its looks - I got it to hold stuff. I would not have bought it were it ugly, though.

I'll fill it with stuff soon and let you all know how that works out.