Scott-E
Vetter Aficionado
When I purchased my Vetter Saddlebags they were still attached to an old junk bike. No keys were available and even if I had them they would not have worked anyway after years of sitting out in the weather. I thought I would have difficulty removing the bags from the frames as there was no room to drill out the locks. After looking at the locking system I laughed. All it took to release the bags was two, small flat tip screwdrivers. It was actually easier to release the bags with the locks in place. All I did was stick the tips of the screwdrivers between the lock cam flats and the springs and then twist the screwdrivers. This easily pushed the spring out of the slot in the locking pin so the bags practically fell out of the frames. After that it was easy to salvage the associated mounting brackets, turn signals, and hardware. I decided not to replace those locks. I purchased 3 keyed alike locks to replace the locks I had to drill out in both bags and the right side pocket cover. I was lucky to find 3 keyed alike locks to begin with, much less 5 of them. I also figured out that it would be difficult to unlock them with those small keys used with modern locks. The bags are far harder for someone attempting to steal them without the locks in place anyway. Here's what I decided to do. I had been using an old lock with it's attached cam to unlock the bags so I used it as a design to make a new dedicated tool for unlocking the bags. Here's a picture of the tool along with the old lock and it's attached cam. The new unlocking tool works really nice and easy with it's brass handle to improve leverage as it's turned between the spring. The tool is made of brass so no rust worries and it will not damage the spring.
