Strengthen the rear rack on an 1100/1150

[essjay]

Selling my panniers so I'll need somewhere to throw the padlock, laptop etc when out and about on the bike. Pretty broke so thinking of bolting a Pelican 1550 case to the back of the bike. Trouble is that I've read that the rear rack on the 1100GS is not the strongest so I was wondering does anyone have any ideas about toughening it up a bit?

I had a quick look on the Carabou Cases site and this is what they've done:

Anyone do or have done similar?

 

[oblertone]

Touratech ...

... did once sell rack supports; tubular affairs that mounted on the rear pannier mounts and extended under the rack, bit hard to find even when new

 

[Steve B]

... did once sell rack supports; tubular affairs that mounted on the rear pannier mounts and extended under the rack, bit hard to find even when new

Wunderlich did something very similar. Bought one but couldn't get it to fit properly due to my Jesse panniers mounts. (Not cheap either - as you'd expect).

 

[uncle dick]

The Wunderlich supports are no longer available. If you buy a Givi mounting kit it comes with supports which can be used on their own - but they aren't available separately.

I took the seat frame off and strenthened it with various bits of stainless steel and copious amounts of JB weld. I also made some spacers so the seat frame actually rested on the rear part of the pannier bracket. Since done a couple of trips with 65l roll bag and two 15l bags all sat on the back with no problems.

HTH

Dick

 

[motobiker]

Use the pillion space.

or is that too simple?

 

[MattW]

Use the pillion space.

or is that too simple?

Not sure what my missus would think about being told to sit on a peli case

 

[essjay]

Here's an interesting idea..... This guy used alloy and some Loctite metal epoxy. Might try the same with 1mm or 2mm steel.

 

[motobiker]

Not sure what my missus would think about being told to sit on a peli case

well.. it wasn't YOU that posed the question.

besides which you've the full tosser set-up.. so carrying heavy stuff isn't a problem... just spread it between your Verns.

I have this to strenghen and spread the load more across the pillion area. Worked very well on the back roads in the julian alps.