Pointy owners - check your (Givi) rack!

Morning all,

Bit naffed off, came out this morning to find on my commute home last night the LH side support bracket for my Givi rack disappeared. I initially thought some scrote had tried to nick the box but on closer inspection if appears the small bolt that screws to the underside of the grab rail snapped, allowing the bracket to swing free and it must have worked itself out. I know it was there earlier this week as i did some work on the bike!

So, check your bolts! i wonder if it had worked a little loose and the extra movement caused the bolt to shear. When i think about it, it's a pi** poor design, relying on that little bolt to keep things in place.

Chances of being able to buy the single bracket from Givi are slim i think, but i emailed them anyway. Can see myself having to buy a brand new rack unless i can fabricate a new bracket . Not the easiest one to do due to it curling over on instelf at the top. Going to follow my tracks from last night but unlikely i'll find it, not fast but busy roads i go on.

[Nobbylad]

I check the bolts on my SW-Motech rack every month or so (along with most of the other bolts on the bike).

I've found that, with the daily commute, it's not uncommon for some bolts to work their way loose. Lockthread is an option but a PITA if you swap stuff around regularly.

Originally Posted by quik_d

on closer inspection it appears the small bolt that screws to the underside of the grab rail snapped, allowing the bracket to swing free and it must have worked itself out.

When i think about it, it's a pi** poor design, relying on that little bolt to keep things in place.

Chances of being able to buy the single bracket from Givi are slim i think, but i emailed them anyway.

Good luck with sourcing the missing piece from Givi - our understanding here in Nor Am is that Givi has discontinued this rack for the SV...

I suffered this breakage a few months ago too, and I agree with you that it's a poor design. Luckily for me, the crap original threaded shank snapped off midway and I was able to grab the stub with visegrips and extract it.

Step 2, as it was obvious the poor little original 6mm shank wasn't capable of enduring the loads it was bearing, I bought a couple higher strength 10.9 grade bolts and installed them. They lasted a couple months before one snapped off, unfortunately flush with the underside of the grabrail. And attempts to drill it out were unsuccessful...

Luckily a friend had an unused grabrail, same colour, so I replaced my buggered one for his, for minor financial compensation.

Which led to Step 3, "upping the ante". It was obvious 6mm wasn't beefy enough, so I had another friend, a machinist, drill out the hole and retap it for 8mm (standard pitch). And I bought a couple 35mm 8mm socket head bolts, which were the correct length to just clear the bodywork on the tail when installed - in my area, I found it impossible to find fully threaded hex cap bolts longer than 30mm, and in order to clamp the bracket in place you need a nut and washer fitted on each side of the Givi bracket flange, which requires threading all the way to the underside of the head. Because the head of the socket bolt is longer than a hex cap, all I needed was two washers under the head to space the bracket correctly, with a washer and nut on the upper side to clamp the works together. Btw, the underside of the grabrail required 'countersinking' around the hole too, to let the nut turn.

While I was at it, I slipped a covering cut from a mtn bike inner tube over the 'arch' part of the bracket, as this rubs on the top of the grabrail and mars the finish - the original Givi rubber 'spacer' hadn't lasted long before disappearing - another piece of design not quite up to life in the real world!

Here's a photo of the finished fitting.




Fingers crossed THIS is strong enough...