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!
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!