2006 Honda Interceptor Hard Luggage

I recently bought a 2006 Honda Interceptor with OEM hard saddle bags. Whilst riding one of the bags fell of the bike, into the road. The bag was in good condition and showed no sign of wear and the road way a normal LA street.

After picking it up (it was well and truly smashed), it was clear that the locking mechanism had failed. I rang Honda's 'customer care' to explain the problem, explaining the danger I felt this could present to other riders and that as a long term Honda customer I was extremely disappointed by this failure.

Honda's representative told me that although the bag costs over $500 it only has a single years warranty. He had no interest in the danger that this failure presented to other riders. After a huge amount of arguing he told me to take it to a local dealer. Honda of Santa Monica have had the bag for over a month and have contacted Honda and the original bag manufacturer Givi's technical department. Neither have responded. The dealer has confirmed this catastrophic failure is very worrying and the reaction of the manufacturer is at best lax.

I then wrote to Honda's president and customer care department. I received a phone call today telling me the bag is out of warranty and they had no interest in the safety issue that this presents. Basically it's not their problem.

I am horrified that they behaved in this way. No one will know if this is an isolated incident until the bag is properly examined. I presumed that Honda would show more interest in the safety of their customers, but clearly my experiences have shown that problems outside of warranty are of no interest to them.

Has anyone else had this kind of experience?

Any ideas who I should contact to try and finally get a considered opinion from them?  

Hi there,

I can't believe I've read this article.  I bought a brand new VFR800 (you call it an 'Interceptor') with the genuine Honda hard panniers.  I am a teacher who rides to work every day so imagine my surprise when my right pannier decided to leap off the mounting at 80km/hr WITH my laptop inside and scoot down three lanes of traffic.  Luckily a guy in red Skyline matched it's speed and parked behind it with his emergency lights on once it stopped, giving me time to get over to the emergency lane and retrieve it.  i am about to send it back to the dealer as it's still under warranty...

stay tuned!  

Hi,
I have a 2008 VFR with the original hard cases.  They have Honda stickers but I think they are really manufactured by Givi.
Once I connected the hard cases and one of them fell off while I was still moving the bike inside the garage.    I then realized that I did not connect it correctly.   It's just possible somehow to place it almost in its proper place and to "lock" it there without realizing it is so.   Ever since, I always give it a hard shake to make sure it's properly installed.

--ilan  

I bought an New 02' Triumph tiger 955i, I had this issue of the bike stalling just as i would get underway from a stop, whether it was in the intersection or a stop sign, it was not all the time, so you could not  ever know when it was going to happen, i took it back to the dealership, they said put 1000 miles on it and come back, i did, 3 days later, and it was still doing it, the dealership was nice enough to give me a loaner, long story short, they never fixed the problem, Triumph offered me free clothing, gear, to keep it quiet, bnut since they never gave me anything, i got a new bike under the illinois lemon law, low and behold the new bike had the same issue, i almost died 4 or 5 times when it would stall in an intersection, Triumph could not have cared less, it was a buyers experience i would never forget, the problem on the second bike went away at or around 3000 miles, but boy what a POS it was until that time.
I loved the bike, it handled great, toured pretty good, the seat being soft like the suspension, i would drag the pegs in the corners, and had good speed, didnt do too bad off road, but it was no Honda Transalp for sure, anyhoo, best of luck, The Bike manufacturer's for the most part do not care bout your issue, that being a shame, but if they fix yours there are thousands of other bikes they would need to fix and of course that will come out of profits, so unfortunately your life is not worth the money they would lose on replacing the faulty part, which in my experience is probably a Regrind material used in the molding process of the luggage, to make a little more money on their product, Givi probably used regrind material during the injection process which causes the plastic to be a bit more brittle, and not so flexible.
Sorry for the book.
Dan, Hanover, Md