Side Racks

So my bike is getting a little top heavy with the 2 gallon rotopak, rear truck & rescue bag all on top of the rear rack. So I am thinking on getting some side racks to move the fuel and then get one of those cargo rotopak to hold the rescue kit on the other side. First question before I make the purchase as it looks like all the side racks that have the center bar to mount the rotopak mount are kinda spendy do the side racks get in the way when riding? Wondering as do a lot of single track trails with switch backs. Second question which racks have most been happy with?

2012 WR250R

NROA wrote:

So my bike is getting a little top heavy with the 2 gallon rotopak, rear truck & rescue bag all on top of the rear rack. So I am thinking on getting some side racks to move the fuel and then get one of those cargo rotopak to hold the rescue kit on the other side. First question before I make the purchase as it looks like all the side racks that have the center bar to mount the rotopak mount are kinda spendy do the side racks get in the way when riding? Wondering as do a lot of single track trails with switch backs. Second question which racks have most been happy with?

2012 WR250R

Do you already have a large aftermarket fuel tank? IMS 3.1 or 4.7 gallon?

Thanks for your response and I seen the larger tanks but am not interested in the small gain for large cost at this point(imho). Right now just trying to see what others think about riding with the side racks installed on while riding single track trails. ie - do they get in your way when you are having to put your foot down to get through a tough obstacle.

You are a real stud to ride 240 miles of single track in a day!

Well with 75 views and no replies to my questions its looking like these side rack for the WR's are not all that popular. Thanks to the ones who have viewed my post anyway.

Unpopular doesn't mean it's not a worth while upgrade for you. I've seen a bunch of side racks on here. Those guys might not post that much tho. Do some research to find posts about them and if their posts about them don't answer your questions ask on their thread, they most likely won't answer if their posts are from years ago... I saw at least one guy that had side racks with a fuel tank. I think it was called a camel tank, it feed into his stock gas tank so no messin around with stop n fills. Look through images to find bikes with the rack to make your own opinion. But there's a lot of info if you use the search function properly. There's also that thing other people do, make multiple topics about the same thing, and is likely to get you a response, just not a productive one...

He uses a modded tusk side rack, and probably an expensive camel tank jobbie-

https://wr250rforum.forumotion.com/t12836-auxiliary-gas-tank

I haven't had side racks on the WRR, but I had some on a KTM640 and yes they ran over my legs. I hated them for anything except street.

NROA wrote:

Well with 75 views and no replies to my questions its looking like these side rack for the WR's are not all that popular. Thanks to the ones who have viewed my post anyway.

Not sure what side racks you are referring too with a center bar.

These are probably the cheapest ones I have seen:

https://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/p/1033/42910/Tusk-Pannier-Racks?v=10553

Your in a bit of an unusual situation with what you want to do. My experience has been it is better to carry the fuel up front in a larger tank than to split it front and back - the bike likes to swap ends in lose terrain when you start splitting the weight that way. I suspect most just go with a larger fuel tank (assuming you are running stock now) so not too much experience with running a rotopax on a side rack. However I do know of a person with a SuperSherpa who did that with a 1 gallon rotopax for a bit (not much in the way of aftermarket tanks for that bike) and it seem to work out ok. They used a Cyclerack rear rack and their bag support which came in close to $300.

https://cycleracks.com/ProductDetail/tabid/87/ProductID/27/Default.aspx

https://cycleracks.com/ProductDetail/tabid/87/ProductID/46/Default.aspx



I have ran both the 4.7 and 3.1 gallon IMS tanks. I ended up sticking with the 3.1 tank and selling my 4.7 because typically I don't need all that extra range and I felt more comfortable with the 3.1 when riding tight trails. Usually after about 100 miles or so I am looking for a nice break and a gas station seems to fill that bill pretty well - hence plenty of range with the 3.1 for me.

I have a set of Happy Trails Panniers for my KTM 990, I've been pretty happy with them. I've had some pretty good crashes and they're still holding up.

Thanks for the feed back Jerry, I did not move forward with the purchase of side rack as of yet. Just have not been able to come up with enough spare monies to do it. I did modify my current mounting set up with some stuff I had laying around, works really good and even held up to a recent spill I took(better then my ribs did)!
Mod

My pleasure, Sir.

NROA wrote:

I did not move forward with the purchase of side rack as of yet. Just have not been able to come up with enough spare monies to do it. I did modify my current mounting set up with some stuff I had laying around, works really good and even held up to a recent spill I took(better then my ribs did)!
Mod

Sounds like you got this worked out. If you decide to keep investigating DirtRacks are reasonably priced and come ready for Rotopax (photos on their website). I'm using them with a Camel Tank, which installs inside the left rack, leaving both racks available for luggage:

Those racks look like the ticket!

You can't beat the price, $99!!!

Where did you find dirtracks for $99.00??? mfg. website is now $119.00

The painted ones are on sale for $129, unpainted are $99.

Looks like they're both on sale, regularly $149.