Installed and wired in a Rivco Rack on the bike today!

[Chaharly]

Hey guys. Ever since I got me a nice woman who wants to go on the big camping trips with me I’ve been thinking about storing everything. It’s never been an issue when it’s just me, but now she takes up a whole seat! We pretty much do minimalist camping, but I always bring an assortment of tools with me. We took a short, three day trip to the black hills and mounted the tent on the trunk rack but I HATE having that much weight up there. 
 

I’ve never been interested in pulling a trailer, as I want to focus on enjoying the curves and not being concerned with extra wheels, titling, and not really being able to enjoy the bike for what it is… a bike.

 

 So I’ve been kicking around the idea of having a rack fabbed for me that was about the width of the bike and maybe 18” deep. I knew I’d have to do some wiring as it’ll easily cover the turn signals.  In my research, I found the Rivco quick-attach to be the most appealing but they’re so damn small.

 

 Step by step I started putting things together on the bike, starting with the Markland trailer hitch. I’ve had one for awhile but I hate how it mounts behind the exhaust bolts on the MK-II’s but I decided to bite the bullet and install it. It’s really not too bad if you take the passenger floorboard off, but still a PITA.  My right muffler is also super close to the saddlebag, almost like the bike has been dropped on the mount or something. Anyway, I got that installed and found a discontinued 30”x18” Rivco rack on eBay with integrated lights and license plate holder for $170 bucks and bit the bullet.

 

i still needed to order the billet aluminum bracket so i ordered that and decided to buy a wiring isolator from an 1800 Goldwing that came pre wired to just plug into the bike for about half price NOS.

 

 Well i got everything mounted and wired up today and id say im pretty happy with the result! I took the ball hitch off the Markland hitch and drilled another hole closer to the bike to reduce leverage. Need to either paint everything black or flake the old crappy paint job that the guy I got this from off and get chrome bolts and washers.

 

 We’re gonna put a cooler and go for a 360 mile ride with about 35-40lbs in it and see how it rides! Any way I just wanted to show off and upload some pics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[N3FOL]

Look good .  Let us know how it rides loaded. Be safe. 

[PastorCurt]

Looks good, now that you’re riding two- up, it will change your balance tremendously. More weight high and behind the rear axle. Be safe and enjoy!!

[Chaharly]

Well we put on about 412 miles today, her and I and a cooler that weighed just under 30lbs with ice and drinks in it. The bike handled great! It has a net style set of straps on it that kind of allowed the cooler to bounce some but I pretty much forgot it was there.

 

 It was a little bit bouncier in the rear with it on but nothing to be concerned with at all. I don’t think we even got close to bottoming out on these rough Nebraska roads!

[RDawson]

Be mindful of sloshing water in a cooler. I threw 3 gallons of gas in a 5 gallon can on mine and you could really feel it in the curves.