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Rear rack that replaces pillion seat?


Gungho

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I’ve looked and can’t find what I’d love to have. A rack mount that replaces the pillion seat. I’ve seen something from a company called SW Motech, but it hangs off the end of the bike and I’d like to take advantage of the face that the pillion seat can actually hold the weight of a person, not that I’d put that much on a rack or platform, but some of those rear rack mounts can only hold 15 Lbs. has anyone see anything like what I’m asking about?

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Here's my effort. Been doing those for years, though mainly because we have a single seat registration that used to require the seat be no longer than 50cm. Killed 2 birds with one stone ( do not write in complaining. There were no birds actually killed in this . It is a figure of speech).

Won't show the underneath in public. Too ugly. but it uses the fittings from the passenger seat. It is considerably stronger and more stable than the seat and gives me a platform to put a kayak roll edge bag to carry more if I need it.

I start with a 3 to 6mm Aluminium plate and use foam to shape in to the bike and then carbon fibre cover. You can usually use the stock seat mounting hardware on most bikes. Ends up strong and stiff though because of the AL not necessarily superlight.

picview save seatcovert.jpg

picview save2.jpg

racks (2).JPG

Go forth and modify my son...go forth and modify...

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Sorry about the orientation but I took them with my Samsung S5 and they do their unfixeable thing of reorientating the images randomly when you put them on the net.. I don't use the phone camera at all anymore. Not buying a Samsung again.

 

Go forth and modify my son...go forth and modify...

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Here's one I made for Sally's Duke for the big trip.

singleseat replace (2).JPG

singleseat replace (3).JPG

Go forth and modify my son...go forth and modify...

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I think that the pictures may be deceiving you.  The SW-Motech is just the plate you see in the top picture, not the rack hanging off of the rear.  I have this one that I mounted my shad plate to so that I can keep the Shad case over the bike, not hanging off the rear.

https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/sw-motech-seat-rack-yamaha-fz-07-mt-07-2015-2018

My bike:

 

Hepco & Becker also makes one that is shown here:

 

 

The H&B looks better to me and the angled front is going to be a bit more comfortable if you shift rearward on the seat, but the SW-Motech appears to have a larger flat surface area to mount/place things.  I don't think that I had seen the H&B when I ordered the SW-Motech.  FYI: I had ordered the SW-Motech and Shad case prior to even getting the bike...

 

I'm sure that with a bit of effort (as seen above) that you could make one from the pillion pan, but for me I wanted to have the kit ready to install as soon as I picked up the bike (which I did).

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I bought a used seat on ebay for $30.  I'm bolting either a piece of plywood or a cookie sheet to it to make a platform for strapping stuff down.  I'll wrap it up and make it look better than it sounds.  As soon as I get some time...

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I can't stomach the cost of those.  The SW Motech is over $200 and the H & B is similar if I remember right.  I just want some loops to strap to in a particular way for my setup.  And I'll only use it a couple of times a year so I plan on having less than $50 in it.  I also have a GSXR I'm trying to take to the track, so my fun money is stretched pretty thin.

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1 hour ago, kbob2000 said:

I can't stomach the cost of those.  The SW Motech is over $200 and the H & B is similar if I remember right.  I just want some loops to strap to in a particular way for my setup.  And I'll only use it a couple of times a year so I plan on having less than $50 in it.  I also have a GSXR I'm trying to take to the track, so my fun money is stretched pretty thin.

SW Motech is horribly overpriced. No doubt. I got their luggage rack for my bike (stand alone, full rack- not the seat plate thingy). It's a fine piece, fits very well, hides on the bike pretty well....but is completely useless until you spend another $65+ to order the plate for it. wtf?! $300 all in to make it useful. 

 

Not a rack, but some guys here directed me to the cycleguys tail bag thing. Decently well made and holds a lot of junk without having to worry about straps. 

 

http://www.thecycleguys.com/yamaha/

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The cycleguys tail bag is a great option, we run one on my wifes FZ07 and on my daughters CBR500R, they look good when folded down and hold loads of stuff when expanded and doesn't move around.. Highly recommend them.

 

Gary

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That cycleguys tail bag is a great piece of design. I would carry some non stretchy straps in it to lash it down though, as the elastic will sag out as it ages and flop around. Great solution though

Go forth and modify my son...go forth and modify...

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Reading this makes me think I should buy a pillion seat and somehow bolt to its base my old top box. 

Just do it! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm actually in the process of building one of these right meow. I'm making it out of 1/2" thick HDPE plastic so that it will be waterproof and easy to work with (cut, saw, drill etc with simple woodworking tools) in case I decide to adjust it over time. I'm starting with a 12x24" 1/2" black HDPE sheet I got from Amazon for 20 bucks, End result will look something like a cross between these two images, the first being roughly the overall design I'm going for (less holes in mine) and the second being an HDPE saddlebag mount rack made by a company called Kriega. After the rack is setup I'm actually going to just leave it on my bike long term, so there's a good chance I'll make it a bit 'prettier' than the simple rectangle below. I'm thinking the box I'll mount to the top of it with hand knob/screw system is this: http://www.planomolding.com/hunting/general-mobile-storage/sportsmans-trunk-small-black
I already bought the trunk at Cabelas - 20 bucks, has holes to lock the lid on and anchor points on the sides to make it easy to strap more gear to the top of it. Easily holds my weight, so I can take it off and use it as a chair while camping. Just can't beat the utility/price on this...I'm pretty surprised I've not seen anyone else with this on a bike. 

If you go this route, you can obviously use an existing seat plate - but it's pretty wiggly. I'm making mine so that once it 'locks' into place, I can actually tighten bolts from the top side of the luggage plate to pull it down onto the frame more, removing any play in the rack. Even the HB/SWMotech plates are using the same basic hook + rubber pads + U bolt, mimicking the existing pillion design to secure it to the frame. I don't really trust the amount of play in that, and I also don't really care if It's slightly more challenging to take this plate off (since I'll be leaving it on the majority of the time), so mine will be much tighter to the frame, essentially 'locked' in place beyond just the key-locked- aspect. If you're removing it all the time / don't need to put much weight onto it, you might be good to go with just the simple hook-in method of securing that your pillion seat uses. 

All in with simple hardware from home depot, the test piece of plastic I'm currently using, the HDPE panel from Amazon, and the Plano box - I'll be in well under 100 bucks. The biggest benefits compared to the HB/SWM plates are partially cost, but also flexibility. Those plates don't really give you any more surface area than the pillion seat, which puts the majority of the structural work onto the 'box' that you put on top of it, which makes that box expensive. If you have a larger plate with lots of holes in it for different mounting options, you open up the door to simpler/softer/cheaper luggage. You can have a (cheap) luggage option for whatever suits your ride the best, instead of 1 (expensive) case that you make-do with for all occasions.

 

I'll post updates as it progresses. HDPE panel shows up tomorrow so hopefully she'll be functional this week. 


5aca34b660095_ScreenShot2018-04-08at10_26_17AM.png.2a3276fef5143fc832f4f1dd972dd216.png
5aca34a8eb0c0_ScreenShot2018-04-08at10_24_30AM.thumb.png.b68df2b9098ba04ac807897e768eeb05.png

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Well, here's the initial concept setup. I'm using a junky little cutting board as my initial concept model, waiting to cut the HDPE panel until I've solved some of the basic problems. Needs some modifications to a few parts - Replace some of the flat ended bolts with legit bolts that can be tightened down and secured better. Overall I'm quite pleased with the strength of even this little concept. More to come as I start working on the real deal...


Pictures on Imgur, since I seem to only be able to upload less than 2MB and each picture my iphone takes is larger than that lol.
https://imgur.com/a/6WA9b

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If that is a nylon cutting board it may be a lot lees jucky than you think. The nylon ones are tough and strong.

Go forth and modify my son...go forth and modify...

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geez, how come you're not 3D printing it out of Acetal? 

 

*ducks* Sometimes I just want to smack the next )&^% who says '3d printing' when a 1/4" hack saw and slab of Nylon does the trick in 1/100 the time and 1/500th the cost.

bannerfans_1095431.jpg
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LOL Yeah I'm not planning on buying a 10k machine to 3d print a 20 dollar piece of plastic. The current cutting board is indeed quite strong, but it looks...like there's a cutting board on the back of my bike. I intend on leaving this on the bike the majority of the time, so I'd like it to look at least semi-professional. I'm hoping that the finished product will actually enhance the visuals...I'm working on cutting up the black board today, I'll post results this weekend hopefully. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I agree the HDPE looks much better, and cutting board looks like cuttingboard. One point though is how petrol( gasoline) stable is the HDPE. There are a few polyethlyenes that craze up from even just the fumes. Might pay to test a bit.

Go forth and modify my son...go forth and modify...

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