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How to carry a pizza on a Sport Bike. The right way.

12K views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  Gables_Ninja 
#1 · (Edited)
Okay, so let's get the first thing out of the way since half of the people who are "reading" this right now just want to see pictures.

Well, here you go.

















Now that that's out of the way, lemme give anyone interested some detail.

If you actually clicked on this post, then I bet you've wished there was a half decent way to do this at least a dozen times before. Apparently, there isn't really any easy way to carry a pizza on a sport bike. Who would of knew. Not counting on the tank held by your elbows of course... . I got tired of looking on Google for the past year or two, and there wasn't any commercially available solution for it. At least nothing you could put on and take off in a minute or two, and certainly nothing that didn't look ridiculous, too big, or too expensive.

Not exactly sure what made me think this would work, but I just kinda bought a pizza bag a couple of weeks ago thinking I might be able to mod it to work, and apparently I was able to do so with a bit of creativity, a jig saw and a sewing machine (Yup, real men sew). Had it done in about a day or two. Maybe 5 or 6 hours in total, perhaps a few more. Most of the time it was just deciding what to do, or letting the wood sealer dry.

As the pictures show, the outcome was awesome. Looks kinda huge, but that's because it's supposed to fit two 20" pizzas. I did some "quality control" going for a Costco 18" pizza and it fits perfectly. I'm not sure if two 18" pizzas would fit, but certainly two of anything smaller would. If a 20" pizza would fit depends more on the box. The bag I decided to use was this one - New Star 50110 Insulated Pizza Delivery Bag, 22 by 22 by 5-Inch, Red. For 19$ shipped it wasn't expensive if the project didn't work out, and I'd have a pizza bag regardless so it didn't sound like a bad bet.

The summary of what I did was rip open the rear seam, put in a piece of 5mm thick plywood so the bag would have a "base" and stay rigid regardless of there being anything in the bag. Then I made a little strap that attaches to the strap the bag already had on the bottom, and that goes underneath the rear seat. Even if the elastic cords were to fail, the pizza wouldn't fall off thanks to that strap. It would just tilt the bag and the pizza would get messy, but besides that it wouldn't be anything tragic. After that, to attach the elastic cords I added 4 loops to the bottom where the carry straps are. Using two bungee cords you can attach that to whatever mounting points your bike has.

I initially thought about bolting it to a replacement rear seat and that's that, which probably wouldn't have been that bad an idea honestly, but it would have been more complicated, more expensive, wouldn't be "universal" and I wouldn't be able to use it as a standalone bag. This way it will probably attach to virtually any bike with a rear seat, and the bungee cords and strap can be adjusted to get it to work.

I initially tried a different method with the bungee cords, but it wan't great. With the method in the pics above it feels rock solid. I purposely made it so it slides a bit forward, so it constantly applies light pressure on your back so you know it's there and hasn't moved. It stays centered almost perfectly in use, and after a few minutes I had no feeling whatsoever that it was going to fall off. On the way back from a test ride I would have loved to see what it looked like to see a pizza toting-sport bike taking a nice lean rushing through an amber light at a big intersection :grin2:

Functionally, I'm surprised with how well it works given how little insulation the bag had. The bag has a reflective silver material all around, and foam insulation on the top and bottom. There are also vents on the side so the pizza doesn't get too humid. When I tried it the first time, I was surprised that the pizza was too hot to eat when I pulled it out. I've never had that happen before on a cheap 5$ Little Caesars Hot N' Ready haha. So the idea was definitely worth it function-wise.

I can't add more pictures to this post, but I'll add some more detailed pictures of the bag in another post should anyone stumble on this post in years to come thanks to the magic of Google, and wants to replicate the idea. I didn't take DIY style pictures, but it shouldn't be impossible for anyone with some basic DIY skills to copy with some inspiration.

In case it needs saying, I'm by no means a pizza fanatic. I just wanted to have the option for the 1 or 2 times a month I'd need something like this. And it's not like I need much more motivation to avoid taking the cage when possible.

Anyways, hope you guys liked the idea. I just felt like showing off a bit, so that's that.

Ride safe!
 

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#2 · (Edited)
Now I might as well give some detail in case anybody would like to make their own. If nothing else, because I wish someone would have posted something like this online for me to copy when I was thinking about making this. It's pretty weird that so many people have asked how to carry a pizza on a motorcycle, but no one seems have posted a half decent solution to do so. At least not for sportbikes.


If you want to do this your going to need:
  • Pizza Bag
  • 5mm board
  • 2x Adjustable 48" Bungee Cords
  • Jigsaw or any other suitable saw
  • Seam ripper
  • Sewing Machine (Optional but highly suggested)
  • 1" Strap (webbing)
  • 1" Buckle
  • Black, Silver, Red Thread
  • Needle for handsewing
  • Sealer (Optional)
  • Router with rounding bit (Optional)


Anyways, here we go.

The first step is to buy the bag. The bag I used is the New Star 50110 Insulated Pizza Delivery Bag, 22 by 22 by 5-Inch, Red. Even in hindsight it looks like the best bag for the money (19$ shipped) mostly because of the reflective interior which keeps the pizza hot without adding weight or bulk. If you see another bag you like more, or in another color or size, it should serve just about the same. I doubt there is a big difference between most bags. None of the cheap bags seem to be rigid on their own, or have insulation on the sides or the flap. All of them seem to have insulation on the top and bottom (including this one), vents, are mostly water resistant, and that's about it.

The next step is to buy some wood to make the base. I used this: Underlayment (Common: 5.0 mm x 2 ft. x 4 ft.; Actual: 0.189 in. x 23.75 in. x 47.75 in.). For 5.99$ it's extremly lightweight and pretty rigid. For the price it's perfect. And it's probably more than twice as big as you need if you make any mistakes.

Measure your bag and cut to size. If anything oversize it and trim as necessary. Snip off a bit from the corners so they don't poke through the bags material (look at the corners in the picture). I personally used a router to round off the edge that would face down in the bag so it wouldn't damage the bag with the sharp 90 degree edge, or at least so the board would be less noticeable. It was worth the extra effort, but if you don't have access to a router it probably isn't necessary.

Finally, I applied a sealer to the would since I imagine it might eventually get wet if I clean the bag, or take on odors or whatever. Probably not necessary either but for 5$ you can do it and have extra for any other project.

I only took a bad pic of this step since at this point I had no idea if the project would actually turn out. Here you can see the board after cutting with the sealer drying.





While I was deciding what the hell I was gonna do, I removed the ugly "Food..." something or other badge the bag came with (it doesn't appear in the item listing) and put some velcro so I could put on a USA flag badge I had laying around, or whatever else I felt like. Nothing like patriotism, motorcyles and pizza.





Next step, put some thread in the sewing machine. Draw a straight line with chalk or a pencil a centimeter or so in front of the bottom foam. This is so the foam or board doesn't move forward into the flap during use. It's easier and looks better with a sewing machine, but it can be done by hand if needed. Just sew a straight stitch with thread matching the color of your bag. If using a sewing machine, use a smaller needle (70 or so, to not damage the material) with different top and bottom thread to match the color of each side of the bag. Use a longer stitch length (3-4mm) so you don't weaken the material. That way the stitch is virtually unnoticeable. You might need a roller foot if the the material sticks to the regular foot.







Now you have to get into the ugly part. Rip open the bottom-rear seam. There are two different stitches your going to have to open. Do it without damaging the material since you'll be using the same holes later on.





After that, install the board. If you rounded off the edges, insert the board with the rounded side edges down. Then seal the bottom side of the bag up again. It's best to do this by hand using the same holes the original stitches went through to not further damage the material.

Now you have to reattach the black "edge" of the bag. With a sewing machine, managing the rigid, large bag can be a pain but it isn't too hard to do. You can also do it by hand if necessary or if you want.







Now the bag stays rigid on it's own. That's pretty much the most important step, and the main feature needed to be able to use it on the rear seat of a sport bike with very little surface holding it in place.

I wish I could say the worst is over, but adding the loops was the largest pain in the ass for me since you're sewing through 3 or 4 layers of the bag's material, plus 4 or so layers of webbing if I remember right. It's pain doing it by hand, and on a consumer sewing machine it jams every few tries. How easy or hard this is depends more on you and how you're doing it.

Basically you have to rip the seems on the bottom side of the bag where the carry straps are. You only have to rip enough to "tuck" in the webbing on both the top and bottom to make the loops you can see in the pictures. Then just sew it up again, and reinforce it well (I did two rows of stitches) so the previous stitch you cut doesn't come loose, and so the elastic cords pulling on the bag doesn't damage the loop or the bag. It doesn't have to look pretty since it's a pain to sew this part, but it can be done more or less quickly.







Since I can't add more images, I'll continue in the following message.
 

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#3 · (Edited)
If you've reached this point, the worst has passed. Now you only have to sew up an adjustable strap with a quick release buckle. I used 1" webbing and a buckle I already had.

The purpose of this is to keep the bag attached to the bike if both elastic fail. With this strap, the bag will bounce around the rear seat, and the pizza will end up pretty much useless, but the bag will most likely not fall off the bike and shouldn't get damaged either (hopefully). The straps length in total is probably somewhere around 25-30", but that will depend on the width of your rear seat and it's design. Just overestimate the number and cut if it ever turns into a problem. If you don't know how to make straps or install quick releases, there are plenty of videos on Youtube or tutorials online. It's probably the easiest part of the project.







Once that's done, the bag's mods are finished! Give it a try, make sure it works perfectly and modify if necessary. Since everything is adjustable this should work with most bikes with a rear seat.

I'm not sure most people (or anybody at all for that matter) will be willing to go through the trouble to take on this project, but it was an interesting solution to an interesting problem. Even if people don't copy it, I'm sure a lot of people wished there was a bag like this available commercially. If there is and I didn't find it, it would be ironic if someone posted a link, but I doubt it exists at this point.

Anyways, if nothing else I hope you guys found this interesting.
 

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#5 ·
kind of off topic, but in Japan they have Pizza delivery scooters.
haha yeah a bit random. But I'll one up you.



For carrying soup on a scooter. Definitely a wierder system.
 
#7 · (Edited)
If I would have, it would look like a prop straight outta TMNT >:)



There's just something classic about a red pizza bag, what can I say.
 
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