Has anyone seen or attempted to fit an RT topbox to an R-R?

[riceburner]

Just wondering if anyone has attempted this in the past, or seen a bike with this mod?

I've bought myself an R1150RT Topbox and the mounting part of the rack.

ie : this


My plan is to make up a pair of supports in steel so as to bolt the rack to the swoopy pannier rails on my Rockster.
But if anyone has seen or tried this before I'd love to hear about it or see pics.

Interestingly, the rack that the top-box clips to is totally plastic - I'd assumed it would have a steel core, but it doesn't.

[riceburner]

So - if anyone's interested... here's the photos on Flickr that will show my progress:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockburner ... 402529933/


Initally just some carboard shapes to demonstrate the idea and the shape. Interestingly the shape is strong enough even in cardboard* to support the rack and approx 0.5 kilo of weight.

As i was making up the cardboard shapes and eyeing them up for shape, fit etc; my neighbour came past and asked what I was up to - turned out he's a hands-on engineer and offered to make up the plates for me! I think he just wanted a good excuse to play with his new plasma-cutter. So, I made up a clean, finalised shape (the last photo) for him to use as a blank. Obviously I'll be cleaning it up (rounding off etc) after getting the fitting correct, then painting etc.


* Admittedly it's corrugated cardboard - BUT the corrugations ended up horizontal not vertical.

[Airman]

kjax909 did that install I think, but I can't find the pictures. It looked like it should, not a basket ball perched on the rear rack. =)

[riceburner]

kjax909 did that install I think, but I can't find the pictures. It looked like it should, not a basket ball perched on the rear rack. =)

When it's on, the RT topbox hangs over the rack on each side so it should be lower than it might look from the location of the rack.

[riceburner]

there's some pics on this thread :viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16745&p=148535&hili ... 09#p148535 of kjax909's work.

Looks pretty good - the one thing I'd say is that making the rack 'flat' (ie fully horizontal) means that the 31 ltr box isn't flat when mounted, and is tilted forward a bit too far (it looks like the bike's been rammed from behind somewhat!).

I'm intending to get the angle the box is mounted at to be aligned with the styling of the bike (eg the upsweeps on the tank and tail markings).

Obviously that means the box has to be mounted high enough to ensure that the brake light is still clearly visible to vehicles behind.

[riceburner]

Update for anyone interested : I finished the basic fitting and the box sits nicely and is solid as a rock! Have road tested and everything seems good!

More pics on the flickr set : https://www.flickr.com/photos/rockburne ... 402529933/

I'll take pics of the final shape when it's complete (there's some metal to come off and sharp edges to be cleaned up) before painting.

BTW - those of you who paint your stuff - do you open up the bolt holes at all to accommodate the thickness of 2 or 3 coats of paint? If so - is an extra 0.5mm diameter about right? (that's the next size up in my box of drill bits). Thanks.

[sweatmark]

Burner, that RT box setup looks good. How much does the empty box weigh? Similar to a side case?

If you're powdercoating, then opening the bolt-through hole might be necessary; spray paint probably not.

[riceburner]

Burner, that RT box setup looks good. How much does the empty box weigh? Similar to a side case?

Yeah - it's not far off - I think the material is a 'tad' thinner - the box deforms slightly if you push the lid back too far when it's open.

If you're powdercoating, then opening the bolt-through hole might be necessary; spray paint probably not.

Cheers - I'll probably open up the lower holes anyway - when fitting they're not completely in line with the holes on the pannier rails so I'd expect the screw threads to damage the paint a little - if I open them out it'll make mounting a bit easier as well.

Going to find it hard to get out to the garage for a week or two (need to make some arrows this week!) so won't be doing the next step for a bit. Next step is to clean up the shape of the brackets (tidy the shape and smooth of the edges), open out those lower holes and then prep and paint.

[riceburner]

Just in case anyone is still interested :
Managed to smarten up the outline of the brackets over the Easter weekend :



For reference - I'm going to make up a sheet of steel to replace the washers you can see in these photos. The steel brackets aren't bent to exactly the right shape (because I couldn't figure out the complex bends) so if I just use bolt without washers the brackets tend to pull the metal tubes out of the plastic pannier rails. Ideally I'd have shaped the brackets better, but to be frank, I'm happy to just clamp up the bolts around the pannier rails and not disturb the lug-tubes in the rails. yes - i'm a bit of a bodger.

The mounting still looks off-center and twisted, but with the box on it, it doesn't look too bad, and (my theory is that) the offset nature will prevent any aerodynamic wobbling at speed, certainly seemed nice and stable on the initial test runs.


The brackets are currently awaiting a final rub down with fine wet/dry and the last coat of paint before reassembly and usage! Was hoping to get that lot sorted over the weekend, but we did a smash and grab at Ikea last night and there's 6 Billy bookcases awaiting assembly back at the house now.....

[gregor]

A good DIY attempt but I fear it may wobble laterally with dire long term consequences for fatigue failure. Maybe a couple of hidden diagonal bracing brackets pop-rivetted in place would not obstruct the rear light? Primer and spray on Smoothrite should sort the finish.
Just checked my Kappa box setup in comparison.Very different mounting method. Does not use the 4 holes at the rear of the pannier rails- very strange as they look the obvious method. Instead a long bent tubular rail fastens near the front mount for the pannier rails and somewhere else underneath. The flat underside of my rectangular box is about the same level as the rear seat pad.
The kjax909 installation seems much lower but that bracket looks expensive indeed. I think any Mark 2 DIY version could be mounted a bit lower.

[riceburner]

A good DIY attempt but I fear it may wobble laterally with dire long term consequences for fatigue failure.

Don't particularly see why?

I currently run a Givi Mobobloc topbox on the OE BMW rack brackets, been like that for ..oooo... 5 years and at least 50,000 miles? Probably more. That shook about like crazy and the plastics brackets have held together fine. Even carried some serious weight in the box with no issues (except the occasional loose bottle cap!).

I've made sure there's no sharp corners so there shouldn't be any chance of any crack propogation and the steel is 3.5 - 4mm thick. It's also worth noting that the two brackets don't just slot between the pannier rails - they have to be pinched somewhat to get in. So there's some forces in there that should help to hold the box stiff in the lateral directions.

Maybe a couple of hidden diagonal bracing brackets pop-rivetted in place would not obstruct the rear light? Primer and spray on Smoothrite should sort the finish.
Just checked my Kappa box setup in comparison.Very different mounting method. Does not use the 4 holes at the rear of the pannier rails- very strange as they look the obvious method. Instead a long bent tubular rail fastens near the front mount for the pannier rails and somewhere else underneath. The flat underside of my rectangular box is about the same level as the rear seat pad.
The kjax909 installation seems much lower but that bracket looks expensive indeed. I think any Mark 2 DIY version could be mounted a bit lower.

The main issue with mounting it lower is that you then start to block the tail light to anybody behind in a large car or van. On the RT the tail light is virtually inline with the rear of the box, on the Rockster/R, with the box far enough back to allow decent pillion comfort, the tail light is about half-way along the length of the box - so you need to keep the box high enough to allow the light to be seen.

As said - I'm pretty confident in the strength of the pannier rails themselves, and the strength of the steel bracketry. My main concern is the structural rigidity of the BMW plastic rack the top-box latches to.

[Biff's R]

I just came across this thread, and I think that it looks great. My wife wants to do a little more riding with me, but she would like to have a backrest/top case and this May be the way to go. I need to look for a used box and the right saddlebag rails.

[riceburner]

FINISHED!



I'll admit it's not the tidiest job in the world, but it works and looks 'ok'. the rack is at a slight rear-wards tilt - but that means that the top-box itself is at a slight forwards tilt when on the bike :




Photos are taken along with my previous rack-job - the BMW OE rack mounted to the pillion plate which allows the use of the K1200RS canvas bag. I've not used that bag for a while - with my old topbox I couldn't get the key into the lock on the canvas bag frame to lock and unlock it. Now I can....


I think I now have virtually every possible luggage option / load layout possible!


Some more photos in the album : https://www.flickr.com/photos/rockburner/

[riceburner]

UPDATE.

Don't know if anyone in the UK has been following this and wanting the same setup?

If so - I'm going to sell this topbox and the mounting rack, and potentially the mounting brackets if anyone wants them?

FOR ME the top-box is slightly too small - BUT I have pretty expansive requirements so it may well be perfectly sized for YOU.

I'll be sticking the top-box itself on ebay in the UK in a month or so's time - but if anyone is interested on this forum first - please get in touch!

Please see the photos above in this thread for condition - obviously I'll switch the key to not-match my bike, and I could even match the key to your bike if wanted (It's reasonably easy to do if you have plenty of spare wafers!).

I'd be looking for approximately £150 for the top-box, and if someone on this forum wants the full mounting kit (the plastic BMW plate and the steel brackets + nuts&bolts) I'll throw it in for an extra £10.

(I can't post in the trade forum)

[EasyBee]

If you're looking for a bigger topcase & mounting rack ? I bought the Givi topcase rack http://www.motorcycleplanet.co.uk/produ ... ear-Plate/
Seeing that you have the original side case holders, it mounts well together. Then you can mount any monokey topcase, Givi, Kappa whatever.
Givi http://www.motorcycleplanet.co.uk/produ ... s-Monokey/ is more expensive than Kappa http://www.bykebitz.co.uk/motorcycle-lu ... niers.html

[riceburner]

If you're looking for a bigger topcase & mounting rack ? I bought the Givi topcase rack http://www.motorcycleplanet.co.uk/produ ... ear-Plate/
Seeing that you have the original side case holders, it mounts well together. Then you can mount any monokey topcase, Givi, Kappa whatever.
Givi http://www.motorcycleplanet.co.uk/produ ... s-Monokey/ is more expensive than Kappa http://www.bykebitz.co.uk/motorcycle-lu ... niers.html

Cheers - I have a bigger Givi box already, bolted directly to the OE rack supports - which works fine, but is ugly and the Givi locks aren't really up to much (from my experience).