You may have notice my slight obsession with finding a neat way to mount my Givi Monokey top boxes to my 2011 bike.
I didn't want to use the universal monokey plate and having seen a generic illustration of the new bike specific rack I felt there was just a little too much "scaffolding" to ruin the elegant lines of the bike.
As mentioned in post 1 above, I have been mulling over a "cunning plan" for quite some time.
Yesterday this plan became reality and is the fruit of joining;
1. Touratech's smart alumin(i)um rack that replaces the plastic BMW trim piece on the factory rack.
2. A set of SW-Motech mountings, ooriginally intended to mount Monokey cases onto their universal quick release pannier and box carriers
Neither SW-Motech, Givi or Touratech were willing to share a dimensioned drawing with me for obvious reasons but Touratech kindly supplied a tracing of the rack so I could check that the holes in it's design were compatible with the spacing of the components.
I got my dimensions by sitting down with the Givi M5 rack from my FJR and a steel ruler. Add a set of HSS drill bits and a set of M6 thread taps...... et voila!
The black items you can see are the SW-Motech kit; the two "mushrooms" that slot into the top box at it's rear edge, four rubber bungs and one block to which the box lock secures.
The Touratech Plate itself is really high quality and comes complete with quality fitting hardware.
I had to cut the tail off the rack as it bends upwards and interferes with the box.
I also wanted to fit nylok backing nuts to the mushrooms but they interfered with the fit of the plate onto the BMW carrier. I may investigate raising the supplied spacers by around 3 mm to see if I can fit these nuts but for the time being I have faith in the M6 threads I cut into the plate given that the box will extert only an upwards pulling force on these.
I'm feeling rather pleased with myself that I finally achieved something I've been thinking about for ages and I'm pleased with how it looks on the bike too.
The box even fits securely.
Oh, and whilst I was in the mood for farkles ..... Shakey's patented (not) High(er) security Ram arm supporting Mk1 Touratech locking mount for the Zumo 660 to a
RAM ball which replaces one of the handlebar mounting bolts. I may yet revert to the Wunderlich carrier but we'll see.
