I've found the seat bolts on my XR650R to be somewhat hard to put in and remove with the RACK-IT on the bike. My solution was to drill the threads of the nut that's welded to the inside of the frame (required cobalt bit) and replace the bolts with stainless Recessed Push-Button Quick-Release Pins from McMaster-Carr. This is irreversible and time will tell if it was a mistake, but the shaft diameter fits closely and the rack and seat are pretty solid. The pins are Part No. 92385A058, 5/16 x 2.5 inches, which is 1/4" too long but the next size down is 2". Spot welding a spacer to the inside nut should eliminate what little movement remains. This shows the pin shoved all the way in. The pins have two balls near the shaft end that project out, but recess into the lumen when the button is pushed. Activate the button and turn 'em a bit and they slip out. The sheepskin is the dual-sport model from www.alaskaleather.com. Steve ps. Sorry about the duplicate post. Something went wrong and it appeared that the upload hadn't worked the first time.
Wow. This is wierd. Excellent work, BTW. I did the same thing on my KTM RXC a year ago. I even got mine from McMaster-Carr. Creepy, eh? Somebody famous once said great minds think alike.....or was it necessity is the mother of invention? Something like that. The pins I got are slightly different, and the heads are aluminum and flat. They make nice bungie cord tie down spots. Maybe I'll post a pic tomorrow if I can motivate myself. Anyway, after a year and alotta miles, the fix is working fine. I don't think you'll have any issues. Even if you decide you want to go back to the way it was, you can always use rivnuts or helicoil the old threads.
Howdy, and nice job! I also ride an XR650R, with the same rack... Not to offend, but why do you need the quick release? Seriously, am I missing something in regards to maint.? Please let me know what led you to do this. Cheers, Dan
I never did get the alignment between the rack and the seat bolts just right and the seat bolts were going in and out with too much friction, or grinding of the threads. I found myself having to loosen the rear rack bolts all the time to relieve the tension to take the seat on and off. The pins slide right in and I don't have to loosen anything. If your seat bolts go in and out easily with the rack on then you're in good shape. Steve
Great idea. I just installed the ProMoto rack this past week and can see that this would be a great solution. It took me a few minutes to get those screws in place and I can see that this could get old real fast. Thanks for the tip.
yabutt, why do you need to take the seat off? Aren't you just introducing a new chance for failure? I guess I'm with tirebiter. Really nice looking mod, though, if I understood the reason for it.
Hopefully for no reason when on a ride. Some routine maintenance, like changing the jets which I do since I go back & forth between IL and the Rockies, requires removing the oversize tank on my bike, and I'll be removing it some this winter to clean up the wiring and other mods. Like I said though, time will tell if it was a mistake - I'm certainly not making any conclusions right away. Thanks everyone for your reactions. Hope it works for ya if you try it. Steve
and they work really well(look on the lower right hand side) they make taking the fairings on a bike like a 640ADV far easier,they are actually really strong but also resilient..as you can see my old bike is being Trash a few times and the mounts I made years ago still work just fine.
Thanks for getting back with your reason.. believe me, I fully understand the importance of frequent seat removal, having recently installed an Edelbrock- musta had the seat off 20 times before I got it right! I read the instructions ( first time in eons ) provided with the rack & ground the areas they specified for a correct fit & all fell into place, no prob... Could be all our aluminum sub frames are slightly different? Just wish the rack was more bungee friendly.....
