Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Making the Hyosung Touring-Ready

For my GT250R Hyosung's maiden camping weekend ride, I decided to ride it to the 2011 Hiawatha BMW Rally in nearby SE Minnesota.  The magnetic tankbag was new and my already-owned MotoFiz bag needed to be supplemented with some soft saddlebags.  My old BagMan side bags were boxy, roomy and even though quite old, were perfectly adeaquate with low pipes.  The sportbike was a different matter; the pipe on the Hyo seemingly extra high.

So I found some bags that I thought would serve me well.  They were loaded the evening before so that I'd be ready to take off upon getting home from work that Friday afternoon.  The ride would be a short one, roughly 75 miles and in early June, there was no danger of any night riding.

Stopping for gas when 3/4 of the way there, I smelled something really bad once I was up next to the pump. I didn't even need to get off the bike to know there was trouble.  Sure enough, the bag on the right side had settled onto the exhaust pipe.  It took more time than it should have for me to focus on the fact that not only had the bag made a mess on the pipe (the smallest issue to me) but the hole in the bag meant that whatever was inside would have a hole as well...........and it did; my Back Country 1 tent was ruined.

I cinched the bag up high, turned around and headed home, spent the rest of the evening unloading, lightening the load in another combination of duffel bags and then the next morning started out again with my revised load.

There were no more camping weekends in 2011 but I was determined to make them possible again in 2012.  To that end, I designed and fabricated a luggage rack out of black acetal (Delrin) that replaced the passenger seat, one completely lockable and able to be removed just as the rear seat was.  My analogy of what I gain with the new rack is that it "lifts and separates" the support for the bags.  There was simply too much droop with my narrow bike/seat combination.  In additon, I machineda couple of simple posts that keep the rear of the bags from pivoting in toward the centerline of the bike; keeping the left side out and away from the wheel, the right side avoiding contact with the muffler.

This.......


And these.....


Will prevent this (hole now patched).......


And this.......


Once the bike is loaded for the trip to the rally in a week and a half, I'll follow up with a photo of the loaded bike for travel.

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