I apologize in advance for being long winded with this post, but it's the only way I know to get the idea across to you guys.
There seems to be a general consensus among most forum members that we have a beautiful backrest/luggage rack, but that it lacks any meaningful utility. So, for what it's worth, I came up with a new idea and I've posted pictures in the Gallery in an album called "New Backrest Setup" under my user name TomP. Anybody who's interested can just go the the gallery and check it out.
I took my saddle bags off the bike soon after I got it. I think the bike looks better without them and I would hit my foot on them every time I on or off the bike. With the bags off, I had to come up with some way to carry stuff.
My first plan was to simply wear a backpack if I needed to carry something, but the reality is that you always need to carry stuff - rain gear, tools, kickstand puck, etc. So, I found an old camera bag and bolted it to the luggage rack thru the threaded holes meant for the trunk. (BTW, these require metric M8 x 30 tpi x whatever length you need).
I've become increasingly disatisfied with the camera bag setup (too small and a bit too wide), so I came up with a new idea that seems to be working out very well. It involves a tall but narrow backpack (Rothco brand) for which I made a hard framework out of poly board (King Starboard). The base of it gives the luggage rack another inch on each side and an average of about 2.5" extra inches in the back. And, the backpack about triples my storage.
The vertical and horizontal pieces of poly board are connected by a piece of angle iron (2x2x1/8). I had to get the angle iron off of 90 degrees and down to about 75 degrees to account for the cant of the factory backrest. It is a very strong setup, but at the moment there is a bit too much flex in the vertical poly board when my wife leans against it, so I am going to add two vertical pieces of angle iron. BTW, my wife loves it; she's much more comfortable now.
The vertical piece is inside the backpack and the horizontal piece sits directly on the luggage rack. Obviously I was connecting the pieces right thru the material of the backpack - I used large fender washers to protect the material from further damage.
I then thought it would be cool to have another cushion above the factory cushion. I did this down and dirty with some foam, plywood, glue and staples. You'll see from the pictures that I had to build a standoff for the upper rest because of the cant of the whole thing.
If I continue to like the look and utility of this setup, I'm going to find a professional to build an upper cushion to look just like the factory cushion below. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Here is one picture (if I posted it correctly); the rest are in the Gallery album:
There seems to be a general consensus among most forum members that we have a beautiful backrest/luggage rack, but that it lacks any meaningful utility. So, for what it's worth, I came up with a new idea and I've posted pictures in the Gallery in an album called "New Backrest Setup" under my user name TomP. Anybody who's interested can just go the the gallery and check it out.
I took my saddle bags off the bike soon after I got it. I think the bike looks better without them and I would hit my foot on them every time I on or off the bike. With the bags off, I had to come up with some way to carry stuff.
My first plan was to simply wear a backpack if I needed to carry something, but the reality is that you always need to carry stuff - rain gear, tools, kickstand puck, etc. So, I found an old camera bag and bolted it to the luggage rack thru the threaded holes meant for the trunk. (BTW, these require metric M8 x 30 tpi x whatever length you need).
I've become increasingly disatisfied with the camera bag setup (too small and a bit too wide), so I came up with a new idea that seems to be working out very well. It involves a tall but narrow backpack (Rothco brand) for which I made a hard framework out of poly board (King Starboard). The base of it gives the luggage rack another inch on each side and an average of about 2.5" extra inches in the back. And, the backpack about triples my storage.
The vertical and horizontal pieces of poly board are connected by a piece of angle iron (2x2x1/8). I had to get the angle iron off of 90 degrees and down to about 75 degrees to account for the cant of the factory backrest. It is a very strong setup, but at the moment there is a bit too much flex in the vertical poly board when my wife leans against it, so I am going to add two vertical pieces of angle iron. BTW, my wife loves it; she's much more comfortable now.
The vertical piece is inside the backpack and the horizontal piece sits directly on the luggage rack. Obviously I was connecting the pieces right thru the material of the backpack - I used large fender washers to protect the material from further damage.
I then thought it would be cool to have another cushion above the factory cushion. I did this down and dirty with some foam, plywood, glue and staples. You'll see from the pictures that I had to build a standoff for the upper rest because of the cant of the whole thing.
If I continue to like the look and utility of this setup, I'm going to find a professional to build an upper cushion to look just like the factory cushion below. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Here is one picture (if I posted it correctly); the rest are in the Gallery album:
