Luggage rack / sissy bar mount

[Anonymous]

I picked up a luggage rack / sissy bar on eBay a few months ago. It came off of an '81 GS1100L. I was hoping that it would fit my '80 GS1100E.

The front of the mount is forked to attach at the top of the shocks. The back is a solid ring that appears destined to mount to the frame somewhere. The problem is the rings don't seem to match up to any possible mounting points on the frame. They are about 1" short of the rear signal stem mounts.

I am considering fabricating some mounts from 1/4" x 1" bar steel and connecting the rack to the same point that the rear signal brackets are connected to.

Does this sound reasonable or should I just ixnay the whole idea and keep searching for the right sized rack?

Thanks,
- Tony

 

[brownie]

Luggage rack

Luggage rack

G,day.
If you have the abbillity, why not have a go at fabricating the rack your self.I imagine it would not be that Hard :wink:

Cheers mate..

 

[kalessin]

The sissy bar (an old KG "universal" design; the company is long-gone) that I have for my GS1100GL uses the bolts at the top of the shocks and two bolts that are slightly upward and forward of the rear turn signal mount bolts at the back of the frame. These latter two bolts appear to have been put there just for mounting things (probably the grab rail that's missing from my bike).

I think that the sissy bar/luggage rack frame mount points used on the L models are different enough from the ones used for the E models that you may want to find one that really fits. This may be tough because it looks like most E owners didn't buy this froo-froo sort of touring gear, trying to keep the weight down for max performance or something..

My tall, narrow backrest would look silly on an E, which looks better with a lower, wider "tombstone" backrest. It looks like racks made for the G models should fit much better (the G and E models have a similar tail design, with that bit of bodywork behind the seat).

If you look carefully at the bikes in the gallery, you'll see what I mean. The E and G models tend to use wider design sissy bars and luggage racks that cantilever out past the rear bodywork using two diagonal uprights. For GL models, the luggage rack is over the chrome rear fender, similar to other chrome-rear-fender bikes from other makers (such as Honda CB models, etc).

I suppose you could fabricate anything with the bar steel, but make sure you keep your bike's awesome good looks..

If the rack you have is in good condition and you wanted to sell it, I'm sure you could find a buyer here. My setup isn't in that good a shape, and I've started looking for a pristine example myself...

 

[Anonymous]

My tall, narrow backrest would look silly on an E, which looks better with a lower, wider "tombstone" backrest. It looks like racks made for the G models should fit much better (the G and E models have a similar tail design, with that bit of bodywork behind the seat).

Hmmm... I think I've just been insulted, but I am not sure.

I suppose you could fabricate anything with the bar steel, but make sure you keep your bike's awesome good looks..

For better or for worse, here is my bike (with rack and bar):

1980 GS1100E w/ black exhaust from an '83 GS.

The rack and bar

Custom mounting job. A 1.25" x 3" x 1/4" steel bar is connected to the same bolt as the rear signal stems. A 7/16" x 3.5" bolt goes through the bar and to the rack mount. A number of SS washers are used as spacers (couldn't find the right sized SS spacer). Yeah, it's ghetto, but it works (so far).

If the rack you have is in good condition and you wanted to sell it, I'm sure you could find a buyer here. My setup isn't in that good a shape, and I've started looking for a pristine example myself...

Finding a buyer isn't the problem, finding another seller is. After months of looking, this was the only real option that came up.

- Tony

 

[crag antler]

Tony, nice looking rack. 8) 8)
Hard to find a rack that looks right on the E's but your's does fine. Don't listen to any nay-sayers.
Here's a picture of my rack on my 83E. :twisted:

 

[crag antler]

OH, yeah.
Love your 83 exhaust. :twisted: :twisted:
You might want to talk with Jethro.
I know he has a mint 82 chrome exhaust and is probably drooling over yours. 8) :wink: :wink: :roll:

 

[scotty]

OH, yeah.
Love your 83 exhaust. :twisted: :twisted:
You might want to talk with Jethro.
I know he has a mint 82 chrome exhaust and is probably drooling over yours. 8) :wink: :wink: :roll:

I still hate you for winning that rack doug. it lookes even better when you see the bike close up

 

[kalessin]

No insults meant at all!

Back in the day, KG sold a number of different rack/backrest designs along with parts kits to fit them to different bikes. The rack you have looks like it may have been originally made for something other than the L model it came from...

Your rack looks perfect (I really mean this... the styling fits the bike well!) , and the bar-steel fitting looks great. I used to have a bunch of washers as spacers, too...

 

[Anonymous]

kalessin - what kind of saddlebags are on your bike? I have been trying to find something that would fit a 79 GS850 and those appear like they would work. You can get em under the seat but they don't hang on the pipes.

 

[kalessin]

kalessin - what kind of saddlebags are on your bike? I have been trying to find something that would fit a 79 GS850 and those appear like they would work. You can get em under the seat but they don't hang on the pipes.

The bike pictures above aren't mine... I don't know what brand those are, though the bottoms are angled up toward the back, which is a design used for modern sportbikes.

My own saddlebags are a set that might have been made by Tourmaster around 1987, but they're all faded and falling apart now. I'm due for new ones, the front-runners look to be the Tourmaster Cortech right now.

 

[Detman101]

For what it's worth, here's my sissybar that I got off of an old KZ somethingorother.

The item in question.

Sissybar and old exhaust that didn't work.

Sisybar with helmet sitting on it.

Sissybar in action for thanksgiving.

Sissybar in view with my dad on the bike and old lowrider shocks.

I had to fab up a connector plate to mount it to the bike's shock-mounts because the sissybars lower bars weren't meant for a GS.
It works and I've carried a full grown person on the bike strapped to the sissybar while they were asleep in a sitting position.

 

[b1ackd3ath]

Thats enginuity

 

[usin13]

Where did you get that windshield

Where did you get that windshield

Detman,
In some of your pics, there is a windshield. It's real nice, where did you get it? Was it hard to mount? Anything custom to mount it?

Bike looks real nice.