Luggage - Rack on seat cowl

The luggage rack on the seat cowl does not seam to be able to carry any substantial load. I was therefore looking for a solution when my family and I was going to the Alps. 4 persons on 2 motorcycles including tent, sleeping bags e.t.c. puts a limit on how light you can travel.

I had the following needs/requirements for improving the rear rack:

    • Ability to carry higher load

    • Increased area for giving better stability for the luggage

    • It should be possible to open the seat when the "device" is mounted

    • Easy to remove, and turn the bike back to the original look

    • As small a visual footprint as possible

I found a rear chrome rack made for the pannier rack (picture to the right), but for a seat without cowling. It could have been used directly - but it blocks for opening the seat. In other words in order to open the seat, the chrome rear rack would have to be unscrewed first.

I decided on using the chrome rear rack as the basis for a new solution.

I started out with a hacksaw, to make some suitable pieces out of the chrome rack. Gas welding (OXYACETYLENE) made it a breeze to stretch and bend the tubes and of course welding the pieces together.

You can see the result on the pictures below. It works very well and proved its worth during the 3.700 km trip in the summer vacation (see the picture at the top). The seat cowl did not suffer from having nearly 30 kg on top of the rack.