Seeing as how I commute 100 miles a day, and lane splitting is pretty important, I decided I needed a different solution. A topcase was the obvious choice, but I hated the topcase that BMW has chosen to designate as "proper" for the R12R. Looking around, the GIVI and Shad cases looked okay, but required another key. Okay, okay, that's a minor quibble, but after seeing the glory that is one single key for the ignition and topcase locks, I was kind of hooked on the idea.
I was just about to give up when I spotted a very squarish-looking suitcase-like thingy on the back of an F800GS at my dealer. I thought it was kind of nice (although a bit small) and asked about it. The salesman's eyes lit up, and he opened up the suitcase, pulled a lever, and PRESTO! the suitcase expanded into a proper topcase. I thought that was about the coolest thing I had ever seen. Small and low-profile when you don't have much to carry, and enormous when you do.
Me: "I'll have some of that!"
Them: "But it doesn't fit your bike. It's only made for the F800GS".
Me: "Give it to me!"
Them: "No, really. It won't fit."
Me: "I'll make it fit. Gimme!"
Needless to say, I walked out of there with a topcase in hand. The mounting plate took another week or two, but did eventually arrive.
It turns out, like most of my big ideas, that this is a bit hard to make fit. The mounting plate for the vario topcase is about the same size as the rack that I already had on my bike, but the mounting method is completely different. I didn't want to stack the vario mounting plate on top of the rack, as that would have looked ugly and put the topcase up higher than it really needed to be. I opted to modify the metal portion of the vario mounting plate so that it would bolt down to the same mounting points as the existing rack. The fact that the metal plate didn't actually extend far enough to hit the forwardmost points was a minor inconvenience. I welded some "ears" on the corners in order to make a place for the forward mount bolts.
Now, I'd like to point out that calling me an incompetent welder would be an insult... to incompetent welders. I'm more like the incompetent welder's bumbling assistant. Please keep that in mind as you look at these pictures. Still, it's very strong and (now that I've added the webbing) very stiff as well. I'll ride around with it like this for awhile longer, then take it off and clean up the edges. Seeing as how it's not really very visible once the plastic is mounted on top, I can probably forego anything fancy like powdercoating. Maybe some simple rattle-can Krylon would do the trick.
Summary: It works, but you've got to really want it.
