sw-motech rack doesn't fit with plate holder

[fluidsoul]

Hey all. New-ish member here. Joined the club a few months back.

Right. So I am thinking I am not the only one to have this problem, but I didn't find any posts about it. I have a solution in mind, but I wanted to see if anybody else had better ideas before I start cutting plastic.

The rear bar for the SW-Motech luggage rack is supposed to bolt to the tail structure behind the license plate. Brilliant, except there's no way to bolt the plate holder back on.

Here's the problem:





It looks like it's designed to fit on top of the ~1/4" nubs on the tail structure, pushing out the plate bracket even more. The stock bolts are just long enough to go through the brace and the tail structure, but not the plate carrier. Clearly not designed to reuse the plate carrier.

In fact, the SWM catalog photos show the install without any plate carrier whatsoever.Leaving a dangling plate bulb and no good way to mount a plate? No thanks. I'd like to have words with the engineer that said 'that's good enough'.

The easy answer would be to get some longer bolts (with a spacer for the lower one the same thickness as the brace, and just bolt it together, giant gap that will collect all sorts of road grime be damned.

Has anybody cut the license plate holder and tail plastic so that it sits flush? If I removed the nubs and cut some slots on the sides of the tail structure, it looks like it might sit flush.

I'm a little disappointed in SWM on this one. Neither their website nor Twisted Throttle's warned of this issue.

Ah well. Another trip to the hardware store for now.

[Fudge]

I installed the rack and removed the license plate holder. The European bikes don't have the reflector holder combination so the rack isn't designed to fit with them. I also purchased a European tail light because it illuminates the plate from the bottom, the US tail lights are covered. Candidly I think it looks much cleaner with the holder/reflector assembly removed.





Here is a link to some more pictures:
http://www.r1200rforum.com/forum/bmw-r1 ... ions-2561/

[fluidsoul]

Thanks. Figured it had to be something like that...

Yours looks nice and clean. If I ever have some extra cash begging to be spent on cosmetics, I might go that direction.

I considered bolting through the plate like you did. Mechanic friend cautioned against that; apparently you're not supposed to modify plates in Oregon.

For now, I opted to go ahead and cut some plastic to reuse the US plate carrier. It sits pretty well after a few tries. There's still a gap, but it's down to the thickness of the crossbar. It's not noticeable if the bags are on. Cutting is required in six spots.

I'll try to take some more pictures next time I get out for a ride.