Aluminum Tail Racks for BMW G650X Country / X Challenge / X Moto

O.K., I have a finished racks finally available! As I said, they are 1/8" 5052 aluminum alloy, slots for bungee hooks, and large holes in the supports that will accommodate ratchet strap hooks. After weighing the finish option between powder coated, anodized, and a simple brushed finish I am sticking with the brushed. First, it helps keep cost down, plus is gives a bit of anti slip to the cargo plate, and it looks nice. 1/8" may seem a bit thin, but once all the parts are welded together these are strong! The total weight of the rack (excluding spacers and bolts) is 1 pound 10 ounces. Price on these is $100.oo, plus shipping (about $11 to Cali, less the closer you are to Ohio). My goal was to provide a more functional and more cost effective alternative to the TT rack, and have it look cool on the bike.
These will work with Hepco Becker pannier racks, or with your stock grab handles! Plus all the hardware you need is alread there.

Now I just hope there is enough interest in these to get a couple out on bikes so I can get feedback for future products. Here are some pics, sorry my bike is still in the shop so no on bike pics yet.

This was the first one we welded, so we were a little too hot and made a bubble, you can see the up turned tail and down turned sides, sorry the George is for scale, not included:




The not-so-soft underbelly:




Closeup of the ratchet strap hook anchor point, there are two forward and two rearward of the top plate, sized to fit the hooks on most ratchet straps:


Right now I have 6 available, and could punch out more, but I wanted to start with a small number so I don't get stuck with a bunch (after all, these are for the G-X bikes).

You want one right???

Oh, and my apologize for posting it in all the threads about these bikes, I may have gotten a little over excited about my project

Now that I have achieved the dream of my own thread in Vendors, I just need to get a pic on the front page and my existence will be complete

Hi Matthew ... Do you have photos of it mounted? I'm interested but also want to mount Hepco/Becker side racks and one of the side tanks out there. Maybe I just missed it. Thanks ... Dave

Dave, thank's for asking, because I totally forgot! These were designed to work with the Hepco & Becker pannier racks. I do not have pics of the production units on the bike yet as mine is still in the shop, but here are pics of the original rough prototype on my bike with the H&B racks.







Marketing department:


Evil Director of Product Development:


Can't believe I forgot about that!

Good looking rack Matt. Let's include them on the Cycle Solutions web site. Another "Made in the USA" product that works!

Jim Dennis
www.cyclesolutionsllc.com

Muddy,

Thanks for offering these, I hope you get the orders...

I was wondering if I can use my passenger handles outside the rack, I'm assuming since you can use the mounts for your side bags I can but I wanted to make sure before I made up my mind.

Thanks,
Paul

I saw you ask the question over in your thread, so I just answered it there! Here's my reply:

Any chance of adapting these for the XR650L crowd?

They are shweet racks BTW.

Will there be "modular" options i.e. fuel canister brackets and other useful thingies?

I was thinking about doing the XR650L after the R1200GS. I think you will find you can secure a Scepter 1.5 gallon can to this quite well. I say Scepter because I have found they are more trail friendly than other cans. Better O-ring gaskets, they aren't always seeping fuel.

I look forward to the progress.



These are cool

Finally have my bike home and got to mount the finished rack. I did have it on with the stock handles, and totally forgot to take a pic of it. It will mount with the handles, but you need to use the original spacers, and since I designed it to work with the bigger spacers provided with the Hepco & Becker pannier racks, you need to flex the supports in to get the bolts started. For whatever reason I did get a pic of just the rack with no handles, looks good that way as well.













Feels super solid on the bike, once all the bolts are tight it's nice and rigid. So..., who's first?

howdy Muddy,

looks great... I'd really like to come up with a way to put it on and pull it off super quick/easy... I'll work on that, but I figured I'd just mention that up front in case you had some ideas about how to do that since you have probably had that area apart and back together a lot of times by now...

Drop me a PM with specifics about how to order.

Paul/Somber

Takes about ten minutes if you have the side case racks, less with just the handles.

Bump, lowered the price on these, need them to move.

Hey Matt … Just wanted to let you know the XCountry got done today and the XChallenge is set for tomorrow. The rack fit perfectly!!! I’didn’t have to pre set the rack just put it on with the Hepco Becker rack system and WA-LA! Its all good.

As you stated the rack stiffened up considerably once it was assembled.

First impressions: The installation was a snap. Everything fit “better” than advertised. I personally like the lightness in construction. It appears to be plenty solid enough to carry whatever I’m going to place on it. Lots of bungy holes and slots as well as lips if you want to attach a spiderweb. I’m taking a Dremel to the corners, just to soften them. I’ll have more once we’ve put it to use.

Thanks again for all your help. I’m going to get plenty of use out of these and I think they are a good value.

Best … Dave

Yeah, a little slightly smarter engineering can negate the need to add a bunch of weight trying to make something stronger. Glad you like them. If there is a second production run of these I will take your advice and round those corners off. Of course, we are gonna want to see pics of how it looks on the Challenge!

Right now I have 2 completed ones left, and 2 that need welded. All of a sudden they are gaining some fans! Looks like the next bike these will be available for will be the Honda XR650L, and then I have a scooter guy that wants something for his Yamaha Zuma.

As soon as I get my camera back I'll take some snaps. The XChallenge mounted up this morning "easy peasey"! I'm now looking into luggage options including Sallydogs custom made panniers, the new Explorer from Hepco/Becker and Caribou cases from Roger. I'm just waiting for some other inmates to finish their products so I can contribute to their efforts.

Matt ... I know you benifit finacially "in the end result" but I just wanted to say again that I appreciate your and others efforts to make our bikes better.

Best ... Dave

I highly recommend Rodger's Caribou set up. That's basically what I have, I just used a smaller size Pelican case and added his hardware kit to them. The Pelicans have taken a lot of abuse, and his latch kit to adapt them to Hepco Becker racks is just wonderful, and well worth the price.

Oh, and wait till you get a look at the top secret auxiliary fuel tank for the X-Country we are working on.

Interested in hearing more about the fuel tank. Hopefully at least 7 liters?