Why no luggage racks?

Hello all,

I seem to be one of the many here who are looking for luggage racks. As far as I am concerned, a bike needs a luggage rack. For those of you who have been to Europe, 99% of bikes there have luggage racks because people there and around the world actually use their bikes as their primary vehicles.

Anybody have any ideas? How can we get one, make one, customize one, etc? There must be 20 of us here looking for racks.

I have a 1982 XJ 750. It needs a rack.

 

On this side of the pond bikes are usually toys instead of primary transport.

You should be able to make up a nice rack with some square tube and welder.

 

I'm with you on that, Gringo - I have a King/Queen seat on my XS - with a sissy bar that I can attach a luggage bag to - and it almost never comes off because it's so useful for me. It's big enough that I can get a week's worth of groceries, carry my lunch-bag and extras that I need for work, tent, camping gear and clothes for weekend rides. Handy as all get-up.

It would be great if I could find a sissybar/backrest for my 83 Maxim 1100 so I can just transfer the bag between bikes. If the grab-handle comes apart, I may be able to talk with a welder that I know and make up something custom for it. Aluminum, even!

Saddlebags just don't seem as handy to me.

 

I belong to a couple of forums where a couple master machinists have started their own businesses making reproduction racks/grab rails for some models that are very, very hard to find. These typically sell for 170-190 + shipping but are absolutely first class construction and quality. Their clients are a very tough crowd. Figure on that as a baseline to guestimate what a rack would be. I'm sure that if you are really interested, I could find one of them willing to make up a couple. They of course would need a full set of measurements.

PM if interested and I'll put you in contact, just don't waste their time....cause then they'll be pi**ed at me for hooking you up....fair?

jeff

 

Ventura still list them and have a bit of stuff for "older bikes, I bought one for my 1983 750 Katana off them
http://www.dold.co.nz/products/Ventura/ ... amaha.aspx
Whether they'd ship offshore or not is another thing

 

They have a US website - http://www.ventura-mca.com/.

Nice stuff, checking out the seat bags as an alternative to saddles or the whole rack system, myself.

 

I've used the seat bags, I like them more than using a pack rack when traveling solo although it depends on how much gear you cart as the bike packs can carry a lot more

Although the pack racks do have a bit you can put in when not using the bag which converts it to a handle or a sport rack for a day bag

I have the Bathurst pack which isn't listed there which gives 63 litre capacity compared to a seat bag at 22 litres

On the Ducati I use saddle bags as the shape of the bodywork doesn't really work with anything else

 

I found the OEM Yamaha part number for the Sisy bar - for the XJ 750 and XJ1100 is ABA-15R41-00-00 - and I may have found a source - for one or two of them, maybe ....... at http://www.newenglandcyclecenter.net/