I really like a clean look on the rear fender and was bothered by the chrome hardware that remains on the bike for mounting the two-up detachable tour pakrack. The chrome tubes areattached with three bolts on each side and easily removed, except that they mount interior to the bracket for the solo/passenger backrest hardware.

So, instead of mounting the two-up hardware interior to the solo/backrest hardware, I moved the tubes to the outside of the solo/backrest bracket sothey could be removed quickly. Theupper portion of each tube had to be modified by grinding off a portion of its forward edge to provide a snug fit with the solo/backrest bracket, but that was easily done with abench grinder.

The tour pak is seldom on the bike and since the change I have about 2,000 miles on the bike with the tour pak mounted using the modified installation and brackets with no visible problems. Because the mounting hardware is mounted on the exterior of the solo/backrest bracket, the side to side distance between the left and right rear mounting points is greater, so when the tour pak is installed it is necessary to exert slight pressure to widen the rack for it to slip on to those rear mounting points.

As infrequently as I use the tour pak, the 10 minutes or so it takes to install the 3 bolts on each side of the bike to re-install the mounting hardware is well worthnot having the hardware on the bike for the 99% of the rides I make without the box.

And, to my eye at least, not having the hardware on the rear of the bike cleans it up nicely.

Here are pics of the chrome brackets after grinding some material off so they would fit outside the black bracket:



and,



And here is a pic of the black bracket without the two-up chrome brackets installed:



The tape measure is included to give an idea of how much material must be removed before the brackets can be mounted exterior of the black bracket shown above. The black bracket is not flat, of course, and because it bends away from the fender forward of the two top bolts, some material had to be removed from the chrome brackets.

The black bracket is used for thepassenger/backrest and solo detachable tour pak rackmounting hardware; the large chrome allen head bolt forward of and below the two hex head bolts in the picture secures the back mounting point of the backrest and the solo detachable rack--just so you know what you are looking at.

HTH.

 

I'm trying to follow your explaination and I think I have it. It sure would help me to have a picture or two. Any way you could help me out and post a few. Like they say . . . a thousand words.

 

I know of someone that took chrome endcaps and glued a magnet in the bottom of each one and he plunks them on top of the docking points somehow.

 

sif: I saw your post on your installation and I will take some pics of the black bracket without the chrome two-up bracket; and, the chrome brackets as modified and post them later today.

By the way, thanks for posting the pics. Although my installation has been done, I am sure others will find your post and pics very helpful.