Top Box Question - No, honestly!
 

As I'm a bit fed up with having to use my soft luggage all the time and the decidely lack of waterproof qualities of it, I was considering one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOP-CASE-BOX-f...QQcmdZViewItem

Yes, I know they're ugly as sin, throw the handling out, etc. however, I am interested in getting one and a spare rear seat to fit it to.

My question is this: is there any way I could attach a top box (ideally this one) to a spare rear seat, but in such a way that the rear seat is still useable. I don't mean mounting it behind the rear seat on the subframe- I still want it mounted on the seat. Essentially, I want the best of both worlds; to be able to remove the pillion seat and put my "unsullied" pillion seat/seat cowl back on. I also want to be able to, at times, have a top box that my gf can fill with unnecessary clothes/shoes when we go on trips 2-up. :lol:

Ta for any advance.

You could use the pillion pad as the mounting point for a pair of arms to support the box in the usual position.
I'd be a bit nervous of the strength of the lugs holding the pillion pad down and you'd probably have to do some major work to the seat to make it comfortable again (was it ever comfortable? I've not been pillion)

Edit: or get an alu-rack, it does very nearly the same thing. It does mount on the subframe, but not in the same way as the mono-rack arms.

Do you reckon that'd be a problem mounting the mounting bracket on top of the seat (completely butchering the seat if neccesary; effectively using it just as a quick release clip on mounting), or only if I used arms that would lengthen the top box's potential pivot (having followed other bikes with top boxes, it's rather unnerving how much some bounce around).

I would think the leverage exerted on the lugs would be the biggest issue. Mounting on top of the seat would only leave the lateral and vertical forces. Lateral there isn't alot you can do about, and unless you massively overload it high up, shouldn't be a huge problem. Vertical isn't really a problem unless you put in enough weight to crush the plasic of the seat.
You could always just create a whole new pillion pad out of steel and use that. :wink: