Bartman10 has designed and built a great pannier rack for the DR650 and his Russian Traverse – I took delivery of one of these shortly before Easter – complete kitset, bolts, nuts, spacers … and fitted it to my DR one afternoon – many thanks again Mark, great work.
The next step was to fix a couple of large Pelican cases to Mark’s rack – preferably without drilling or changing the cases in any way. I had hoped to get this all sorted by Easter – in time for trip out through Haast > Fox/Franz > Arthur’s Pass > Geraldine and back home.
However finding an engineering shop that could do the work in time became a mission – I finally did the job myself, using their workshops – I’m not much of a ‘handyman’ so the job was a bit rough and ready and will need sorting later with some proper welding and painting.
Next step will be to make a ‘finished’ version – without the lap at the cross (I had hoped to butt weld two arms thereby avoiding spacers at the frame/adaptor) and painting and or heatshrinking the assembly before fitting. Also I was a little concerned about drilling holes in the 12mm box section of the rack – a clamp or weld would be better. Ideally the rack could be purpose built with the adapter ‘built-in’.
None the less, Bartman’s rack and my adaption worked a treat – 1000ks without incident. My riding position is unaffected, the cases are undrilled etc and are easily installed and removed (for that rush to the spa pool!) - and there is plenty of space on top of the rack for additional luggage - the pictures show the business better than I can describe.
PS – the Pelican cases were instrument cases ex a company of mine some years back – I have no idea what they cost etc …
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks