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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> I made my own rack!
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Message started by prechermike on 07/17/14 at 14:29:21

Title: I made my own rack!
Post by prechermike on 07/17/14 at 14:29:21

I took my seat off and replaced it with one off of a V-Star, I think, much bigger and nicer. I have no screamer seat and even took off the back pegs. Having someone ride with me might be nice on a rare occasion, but 99% of the time it is just me. However, I still wanted/needed a way to haul a little stuff around. Picking up something from town, whatever.

There was a post on here before about welding, do you do it, and so forth. I have a good friend who is a good welder, we talked and talked about making me a rack for my bike, but when he was not busy I was and so forth. He finally told me, "If you have grinder, you can be a welder."

So I guess I is a welder now! :D I had the basic idea in mind, had the metal laying around that I had scrounged from here and there. Not sure where I acquired the expanded metal, he said it looked like it came from a boiler. The frame and legs are off of an old windmill momma had that bit the dust. The spacer under the bolt in the middle, which you really can't see, it's under the bolt in the top view, is a 30-06 case with the bolt ran through it. (You can see the bolt if you look through the grate to the left of the bolt!) Except for a few grinding wheels and some sweat, I don't have much in it at all.

I know there is a weld that has broken, when I get a chance I'll take it off and fix that. The bolts on the side are holding links of chain that I can attach my bungee net to, not really happy with them, thinking more of some D-ring kind of things, but just haven't been able to find exactly what I want. Who would have thought a D-ring would be that had to find?! The bolts will match up with the saddle bags I have, so I can bolt the bags right to the rack with no trouble. I know I'll have to move the turn signals to be able to do that, but one step at the time.

My wife complained a little it was too "utilitarian" looking, but I said it was for me to use, not for people to look at. She agreed and that was that. Overall I am very happy with it.

http://https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t1.0-9/10565218_908258902523188_7214654695137361822_n.jpg

http://https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/14896_908259025856509_5751559743005749910_n.jpg

http://https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10468374_908258929189852_5879549372745197800_n.jpg?oh=f03e8e955127699b17c45a1d763f3d50&oe=5445B14A&__gda__=1413732384_a0855a026a1e9e0136fa8242af959fe3

http://https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10525950_908258969189848_2653092959600552862_n.jpg

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by Tocsik on 07/17/14 at 14:54:20

Really diggin' it. Looks perfect on your bike. See if you can attach another pic from further away with the whole bike.
My favorite aspect is you get the solo seat and all the fender ugly is hidden by your custom rack.

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by Drestakil on 07/18/14 at 04:54:40

Looks good! I'm like Tocsik, I'd like to see a pic of the whole bike.

Was the seat hard to fit?

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by Dave on 07/18/14 at 06:11:15

Welding opens up a whole new realm of possibilities! ;)

For the tie downs you might consider cutting the chains links you have in half, drilling some holes in the sides of the rack frame that match the spacing of the half-links, and then pushing the links through the holes and welding them in place on the backside where the links come through the holes. They would then just look like some loops extending out of the sides.

Or........ if you wanted to use the existing bolt holes you have, you could take a steel bar the size of the bolts and bend the ends so they would pass through the holes and weld them on the inside. That would make 2 bars on each side.....with a small space between them in the middle.

Or you could just use a flat bar on each side that had holes that matched the existing holes in the rack frame. You could use bolts that had spacers that would space the flat bars out 1/4 inch from the existing frame. The flat bars could be aluminum or stainless.....to you could polish them up and make them shiny.

Dave

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by NickGann on 07/18/14 at 07:46:18

Very jealous! I am taking the winter off and studying welding under a friend so I can have some fun like this too.

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by WD on 07/18/14 at 08:04:28

Not bad. Replace your side bolts with eye bolts set vertically.

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by prechermike on 07/18/14 at 08:17:09

Here are a couple of pictures of the whole thing, neither are very good, but they were the best I could do today.

http://https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10516743_908655729150172_780129644548871588_n.jpg

http://https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10455702_908657789149966_6541084648608640158_n.jpg

All the D-rings I have found have been too big for my taste. I have seen some online, but the shipping to get them here was more than the rings. Just can't quite go that route.

Dave, I have thought about welding the links on, but not the other things you mentioned. I like those ideas though.

WD. I thought about eye bolts, but I tapped the holes metric, to keep the bike the same. Finding metric eye bolts in Washington, NC is about like finding, well, you can imagine.

I like the ideas though, when I finally decide what to do, I'll fix the crack. In the meantime I'll try to get a better picture with something besides my back steps.

Drestakil, the seat has been on long enough I can't remember all the details about mounting it, but it wasn't hard. Honestly, I haven't had the seat off since I put it on. Seems like I bent a piece of metal to make a bracket to mount to the stock mounting points on the bike and fastened it to the stock mounting points in the seat. As best I can remember this one mounted in similar fashion to a solo seat on my old '87, just this one was much larger.

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by verslagen1 on 07/18/14 at 08:39:28

Nice job. [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

I'd love a piece of that "expanded metal" which I believe is just perforated.

I'd bend it in a big U shape to match the fender and sandwich it with the side rails.

Cut to shape, pound to match.

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by Tocsik on 07/18/14 at 09:59:44

A little off topic but what fork bag is that you have on there? And, does it lock?

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by jman on 07/18/14 at 10:41:11

I like the concept.

The execution could be cleaner, but then I also learned all of my maintenance and fabrication skills from my dad, who was a precision welder before he retired.

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by Demin on 07/18/14 at 11:08:36

I usually build them out of round bar.That way you can just hook your bungees to it.But however,if it works...ya did it right. ;)

http://p1.bikepics.com/2013/08/24/bikepics-2590750-800.jpg

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by BalingWire on 07/18/14 at 11:14:20

Nice. Your welding is better than mine. I'm coming over. :)

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by prechermike on 07/18/14 at 12:45:39

Tocsik, I have no idea about the fork bag, I picked it up at a yard sale and before I left the guy just gave it to me. It didn't have a strap to attach it to the forks, so I went to the Goodwill and bought a child's belt. And BOOM! it had a strap! :D

Demin, I like the round stock, but my bungees just slide back and forth on that, I have some round rails on my truck and they end up being more for decoration that practicality. :-?

And Bailingwire, I pity your welding, but come one over and we'll dob something together. Just make sure we have plenty of grinding wheels. ;D

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by Demin on 07/19/14 at 06:59:35

That's true.I looked again and saw you had the net style.

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by Fishbulb on 07/24/14 at 03:38:40

Very cool! I was thinking about looking for a spare back seat to cut apart and make into a rack, this is a much better take on it.

<saves all pics...> :)

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by prechermike on 07/24/14 at 06:23:14

OK, I took the wacky chain links off, they were just weird. And didn't do what I wanted. After some more looking I bought two bags of S hooks, bent one end snug around the bolt,and closed the other end to make a ring and put them on instead. They look much better and work very well. Not quite the D rings I was looking for, but close enough.

Title: Re: I made my own rack!
Post by Steve H on 07/24/14 at 14:38:48

D-ring bolts can be had at tractor supply. Or, at least they could a couple years ago when I looked.

By the way, I really like the rack.