Installing a Sargent Metro Tank Panel on the Yamaha Vmax

Note: Click on any of the pictures to get a larger (better) view.

The first step to installing the Sargent Metro Tank Panel is to remove the seat. Once the seat it out of the way, you can get to the frame cross tube way down there in front of the ignition coils. The two rear straps of the tank panel wrap around the cross tube and snap using the buckles (buckles go to the rear). Since the spark plug wires run right where the straps need to be, I positioned each strap to the left of the corresponding wire. One thing I might try is to place both straps either inside or outside of the spark wires, to get a uniform position. Currently, the bottom of the panel has a tendency to be just left of center.

Once the rear straps are in place, the back of the tank panel should be flush (or close to flush) with the back of the tank. Once this is done, you can put the front seat back on.

Once the back end is done, the front is easy: the two straps go to either side of the instrument housing and down across the plastic fillers. Both straps have short stubs of vinyl that go between the straps and the instrument housing to protect the housing from chafing. The left strap will drop around behind the steering column, then the buckle snaps on the right side. I don't have the strap extremely tight, but it is snug. One downside to this setup is that the plastic cover on the bike underneath the buckle is showing some effect of the buckle vibrating against it. It looks polished smooth. I guess I will have to get the aluminum replacements for these parts.

Now that it's done, it should look like this.

The tank bag has a separate panel that zips to its base. When I put the tank bag on, I undo the front buckle of the metro panel, loosen the strap a little, then slide the tank bag's panel under the metro panel. It takes a little guessing at positioning the tank bag's panel to get it right so the two zipper tracks are not under the metro panel. I'll bet there's a better way to do it, but I haven't figured it out yet. There are three straps included with the tank bag. Two of them have buckles on one end and snaps on the other, the third is shaped like a 'V', with a snap at the point and buckles on each end. Once you like where the tank bag's panel sits, you can use these straps to help keep it in place. The two shorter straps attach to the buckles at the front of the tank bag panel, flip over the front of the metro panel, and snap to the top two snaps on the metro panel. The long strap attaches to both of the rear buckles on the tank bag panel, then snap to the third snap on the metro panel. It looks odd, but once the tank bag is zipped on, you won't see it.

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This page was last updated 17 April 2004

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