| Author | Message | ||
     Jmk015 |
I'm the new owner of a 2006 Ulysses with only 6,500 miles on it. The previous owner already installed the EBR 'race only' ECM and muffler, tall windshield, and lowered the bike with XT forks and rear shock. Here it is loaded up and ready to go home:  I've since installed the stock shorter windshield, T-Rex sliders, and Bike Master heated grips. Getting luggage was my next task, but I knew I wanted top loading panniers, which limited my options. I decided to go with Pelican 1430 cases, since I have some Pelicans on my DR650 that have held up well to a lot of miles and crashes. I read several reports that the 1430's don't work well with the OEM or Happy Trails racks, since the hinged lid design requires the boxes to be spaced farther away from he bike, so I decided to make my own rack. Here's a really short 'how to' for those of you who want to use top loading Pelican cases and/or save some money by making your own rack: I bought two 4' lengths of 1/2'' steel round rod and a 4' length of 1 x 1/8'' steel flat stock at home Depot for ~$20. I cut, bent, and welded up a rack that attached to the passenger foot peg bracket in the stock location and to the underside of the subframe where the handles bolt on. You'll notice that the boxes tilt out at the top, and this is for two reasons: 1) The lid needs clearance to open 2) I didn't want the whole box to be spaced out so angling the bottom in makes them less likely to catch on things. The whole rack weighs ~3 lbs. I'm mostly riding this bike on pavement and on nice dirt fire roads, so I don't expect to be dropping it a lot, that's what my dual sport bikes are for. I think the rack is sturdy enough to hold up to some low speed tip overs though. If you wanted it to be even beefier, you could always uses bigger round rod. (I used round rod instead of tubing because you can easily bend it in a vice and not have to worry about kinking like you do with hollow tube.)  I painted the rack to match the color of the Buell's frame and bolted it on.    I used 1/2'' conduit clamps for the bottom mounts and used 1/4'' thumb screws for the top. I bent the conduit clamps so that they slide over the bottom rail of the rack and the thumb screw goes into a threaded plate that I welded to the rack. The Pelican cases pop on and off in about 30 seconds each. The whole rack can be taken off of the bike with only 4 bolts, and takes about 2 mins.  (I know my welds look gross, I'm not a very good welder. I was using flux core wire and no shielding gas, plus it was cold outside so I was rushing. They're plenty strong though.) The whole setup is 1/2'' narrower than the stock handlebars with hand guards. I don't like it when the boxes are the widest part of the bike and you always have to be worrying about hitting them on stuff. I have ~$35 in the rack and mounting hardware and the whole project took me ~5 hours, not counting waiting for the paint to dry. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Excellent setup, and thank you for documenting it and sharing. That will be a great option for people, and I like the "angled in" rigging. Three points of attachment seem right on the edge for long term fatigue problems, but those glass filled plastic cases are crazy strong, and your steel is nice and beefy, so I bet so long as you have a large plate inside the case, it will hold up pretty well. Nice setup! Thanks again for sharing! | ||
| Reepicheep |
That's an unusual slider setup protecting the exhaust header also. I never saw one like that before. | ||
| Hunger |
Reepicheep, I have a similar set. Wanted T-rexes but they were not in stock so I got GSG sliders. They look a bit different but serve the same purpose, in theory: http://streetfightersinc.com/images/GSG-Buell-XB12 -Sliders.jpg | ||
| Reepicheep |
Is that a blue KZ-400 lurking in the background? | ||
| Jmk015 |
The blue bike is a 1979 Yamaha XS650, which is sort of similar to the twin cylinder KZ's. I also have a 1977 KZ-750 twin, which you can't see in the photos. I'm mostly into vintage bikes, but have started going on longer bike trips and wanted to add some modern reliability to the stable. I got a Husky TE449, DR650, and the Ulysses for my long distance or far from home adventures. I still really prefer the vintage machines though. (Message edited by jmk015 on November 30, 2016) | ||
| Reepicheep |
Cool! I took a 78 KZ-400 in a bucket that had been only sorta on fire and restored it, and I used a bunch of KZ-750 and KZ-1000 parts. And a lot of the Yamaha UJM parts from the same period aren't just similar, they bolt right on. I bought an ignition setup for a Yamaha because it was cheap, installed it, and found it even worked as a fork lock, and also unlocked the (locking) gas cap. The more I ride the 78 KZ-400, the more I like my Uly's though. Motorcycles have come a LONG way.  | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Nice job. Any relation to the author, Dean Koontz? |
